In the past week, I have been discouraged, frustrated, elated and now anticipating. I stated last week that the Phils needed to go 7-3 on this home stand to keep a reasonable hope of making the playoffs. They promptly got run over by San Diego and LA. That was the discouraged and frustrated part. The bounce back win in the last game of the San Diego series felt like too little, too late. With the Mets up, I was pessimistic about our rotation for the series, whose members had no one with a better than 5.00 ERA, except Kyle Lohse who throws in the series finale.

Last night, while having no success against Tom Glavine for seven innings, the club was able to come back versus the Mets bullpen. This is where the elated part begins.

In the eighth, the team got a homer from Jimmy Rollins to cut the lead to 2-1. Then Pat Burrell walked. Pat makes pitchers throw strikes. He did not get a single one from the Mets Pedro Feliciano. Shane Victoino ran for him at first. The Mets went to Aaron Heilman, and he got Ryan Howard to fly out. Victorino then stole second and went to third on a poor throw from the Mets catcher Paul LoDuca. That set the stage for an Aaron Rowand full swinging squiggler/bunt that rolled down the third baseline. The little roller teased the Mets that it would roll foul, then moved away from then line and then back toward it, where it stopped in fair territory. Victorino had already sprinted around the play and scored when the Mets picked it up. The Mets got out of the inning, and the game moved on to the tenth as Brett Myers gave 2 solid innings of relief pitching after Geoff Geary and J.C. Romero had picked up for Eaton. In the bottom of the tenth inning, with Victorino on first and one out, Ryan Howard homered to left field to seal the win. Chase Utley has some sort of soothing effect on Ryan. He seems to relax when Utley is in the lineup. A big game winner to left is proof of his returning stroke.

After winning the first 2 in this series, I am looking forward to seeing if they can get a third. That would give them at least a 5-5 record for this home stand. Most importantly, they will have done the damage against their primary rival, and division leader.

They made the most of the good effort that they received from Adam Eaton. After the game, Eaton said he was happy with the outing. It was not a stellar performance, but an improvement over what he has done recently, and he had to feel like he did not let his team down.

Decisions now wait for the starting rotation. J.D. Durbin had performed well in his role as fill in starter. I am still in the “hope for the best” state of mind with Durbin. That could change with another good outing or two. He gave another strong performance on Monday and the Phightins got the series opener. That win revived some of the luster that they had been building, before playing in Washington and Pittsburgh 2 week ago, and stumbling around the Bank last week. The news is that Cole Hamels is just about ready to return. When he does, that will mean someone in the rotation has to go to the bullpen.

It is a positive note when Ruben Amaro says,” We’re going to try to go with five of the best guys we can go with. We have to try to win as many games as we possibly can.”

“Durbin for us stays in the rotation,” Amaro said. “Kendrick stays in the rotation. Hamels, if he’s healthy, stays in the rotation.” What about Jamie Moyer? He has not been very good recently. He is pitching tonight, and I hope for a bounce back performance from the old pro. He will be a key part of any run that the team makes in September.

Mets Quotes after the Game - from the NY Daily News

“That’s a tough spot for anybody,” said Mota (1-1), who pitched a scoreless ninth, then allowed a leadoff single to Shane Victorino the following inning that brought the reigning NL MVP to the plate. “…I tried to go with my best stuff to get a ground ball and get a double play. The first two pitches, those were good pitches. I left a changeup over the plate and he hit it out.”

 

After the game, Tom Glavine, who threw seven scoreless innings, said: “We still have two more games left, so we can get out of here exactly where we were when we came here. From our standpoint, obviously, we have to try to win the next couple of games - and, worst case, at least one of the next couple of games. If we do that then we’re still very much in the driver’s seat.”

 

“The series certainly hasn’t started out the way we wanted it to,” Glavine said.

Read the entire article: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/baseball/mets/2007/08/29/2007-08-29_pen_dry_as_phils_get_closer.html