Phillies/Mets opener as good as it gets

J-Roll got on a roll, but it was not enough in the end.

Home runs, great pitching, comebacks, and drama – they all showed up in the series opener as the Phillies faced the Mets at Citi Field.  

Seven home runs and several exciting moments later, the Mets brought home the 6-5 victory.  

When the two teams collide, it’s expected that there will be some fireworks, and indeed this was not a disappointment.  

Here are some positives and negatives from the first game of the three-game set with the New York Mets:

POSITIVES:

-Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez with back-to-back smacks made it a game in the fourth inning, during a time where Johan Santana looked virtually un-hittable. But for the first time in his illustrious career, Santana allowed back-to-back homers to consecutive left handed hitters. Howard hit the bomb on a breaking pitch that Santana left up; kudos to the Big Guy for taking advantage of a mistake.  Ibanez was behind in the count 0-2 and hit an absolute rope out to right field.  That’s normally a spot where Santana puts a hitter away with a nasty off-speed pitch.  But not on this night – Ibanez took him yard.

-J.A Happ was decent against the Mets, but its apparent he still has a lot to learn.  His four walks were a killer, but I put him in the positive category first because he’s a gamer.  Happ threw 106 pitches in an attempt to keep the bullpen as fresh as possible, and kept the game close, but he could not keep up with the best lefty in baseball, Johan Santana.  

-Jimmy Rollins looks comfortable in the six hole, and I suspect he will stay there for a while.  J-Roll crushed a two-run home run off of Santana in the sixth inning, and also had a couple of singles.  Hopefully, this is the beginning of something new.  The Phils absolutely need a turnaround from the ex-MVP.

-The Playoff-like atmosphere had me on the edge of my seat throughout.  There’s just something different about these Mets games that brings out the best in everyone.  It was a hard fought battle by both teams, and you can expect more in the coming games.  

NEGATIVES:

-The middle relief was not as tight as the Phillies needed, coughing up the lead up over the sixth and seventh innings.  Clay Condrey was brought in with a 4-3 lead, but quickly allowed Johan Santana to double on a slug bunt to the right field corner that scored a run, then gave up an RBI single to Alex Cora.  That got the crowd back into it and pumped up the Mets, as was evident by the celebrations by Santana and Cora.  Chad Durbin allowed a center-field insurance bomb to Ryan Church in the seventh.

-With the absence of Lidge at the back end, everyone moved up an inning and the results were not encouraging.  Durbin and Condrey have been decent this year, but in this pressure situation they were anything but.

-Happ has to take some of the blame, even though he did keep them in a position to win.  After a quick first inning, allowing a home run and back-to-back walks in the second inning set him up for a short evening.  The following inning was even worse, as Happ allowed two runners to touch the plate and threw 33 pitches in the inning.  

Wednesday night: Cole Hamels (4-2) vs. Mike Pelfrey (4-2)