Late Arrival

I have, all week this week, been late in getting home and putting on the game. It may be less a matter of getting home late and more a matter of me getting home and wanting to fall asleep than me actually getting home late, but at least on Wednesday, my excuse was that I was legitimately home late. Although the way things have been going lately, it doesn't matter what time I get home or what time I start watching the game, the Mets win it anyway.

By time I'd turned the game on, the Mets were already ahead 3-0, having jumped on another in what seems to be an endless line of Rookie Philly Pitchers, Jerad Eickhoff, in the 1st inning. Mets were getting hits and flying around bases and scoring runs once again. The beneficiary of this particular windfall was Bartolo Colon, who, after a pair of games where the Mets bullpen was called upon early and often, needed to give a good effort and he did. Colon continued his good start/bad start pattern with a fine outing, throwing 7 shutout innings at a Phillies team that looked ill equipped to take on Colon.

The Mets stretched their lead to 4-0 against Eickhoff in the 6th when Juan Uribe singled home a run, and in the 8th inning, Michael Cuddyer belted a 2-run Home Run to extend the lead to 6-0. Cuddyer, who's now found himself in mostly a platoon role, has taken to this quite nicely and after spending the first 4 months of the season looking rather Jason Bay-like, he's actually started to get his act together. Although let's face it, for the first 4 months of the season, most of the Mets team was looking rather Jason Bay-like. I'm sure nobody misses the days when John Mayberry Jr or Darrell Ceciliani were hitting 4th and 5th in this lineup.

Then the Mets bullpen got involved and nearly threw the whole thing down the toilet. Of course it was Eric O'Flaherty who started this. O'Flaherty, who's just not proving himself capable of making a meaningful contribution right now, got the right handers out and gave up ringing hits to all the left handers, which would be fine if he wasn't supposed to be a lefty specialist. Carlos Torres followed, faced one batter, gave up a 2-run double that turned a 6-1 game into a 6-3 game, and then was removed, because when Carlos Torres gives up a ringing double to the first guy he faces, you know he doesn't have it and needs to be removed immediately. Tyler Clippard then had to be summoned to rescue the Mets from this mess, and even he gave up an RBI hit before getting the out he needed to finish the inning.

With a 6-0 lead now a 6-4 squeaker and visions of 2007 horror shows flashing through our minds, the Mets took their at bats in the 9th inning with a particular purpose, which was to stomp on the Phillies throats before they got any hot ideas about continuing their comeback. They accomplished their mission by scoring 3 runs off a trio of terrible Philly relievers. By doing so, the Mets avoided having to use Jeurys Familia, got Clippard a Save and reeled off their 6th win in a row and thanks to Washington losing opened up a 6 1/2 game lead in the division.