Charlie's Angels

Game 134 - Mets

Mets 6, Phillies 3
Record: 74-60

Yep. Shaping up nicely for a showdown in September. Like we speculated months ago, neither team has the horses to pull away, neither is clearly overmatched and will fall back (a la the Marlins). Could be a good one. Stay tuned.

According the ESPN number-crunchers, there is currently a 57.6% chance the Mets make the playoffs, while the Phils are stuck down at 47.2. Mind you, the Mets have only a 2.8 chance of taking the wild card slot. I have no idea what formulae are being utilized to conjure these numbers, but the geek army (which includes many former enlistees in the KISS Army) really has a stronghold in baseball these days.

The boys in the SNY booth hammered Admiral Stockdale for his decision to leave Rudy Seanez in the ballgame for an extra few batters. ("Big Willie Style," we call that; our former skipper was notorious for the Maybe Just One More philosophy of managing gassed or wild pitchers.) Charlie Manuel did try to give Seanez a pep talk and get him fired up to face Carlos Delgado, who'd already homered once. Unfortunately, it didn't register, and Delgado went yard to tie the game. MLC has acquired a copy of the transcript of Manuel's words of wisdom to Rudy Seanez:

"Stop your messin' around...
Better think of your future...
Time you straightened right out...
Creatin' problems in town...
Rudy, a message to you...
Rudy, a message to you..."

Charlie's special advice wasn't heeded, and Gary, Keith & Ron peppered Uncle Charlie for the quite a while. In truth, Seanez made a good pitch, Delgado went out and got it, it would've been a double in actual major league ballparks, and as it turned out, Brad Lidge was fairly mediocre last night, anyway. Daniel-son Murphy broke an 0-for-16 slump with a clutch double to break the tie, and Schneider proved very handy by hitting a bloop single to score two more.


And there was much rejoicing. Yay.

Last night was the Phillies' night to enjoy bullpen failings, what-if thoughts, and general groans about losing a key game to the dreaded rival. The Mets, meanwhile, got a taste of the Phightins' experience from Tuesday night. Comeback win, steady pen, some high-fivin' white guys, and first place reclaimed. It will be interesting to see how many bobs are left on the teeter-totter. I'd say at least a few more.

In the meantime, all that's left to say is Go Cubs Go.


Okay, okay... Pedro Feliciano, you didn't fuck it up. Good job.