Posted on Sat, Sep. 6, 2008
NEW YORK - The Phillies won an important ball game against the New York Mets at Shea Stadium last night. Now, it's time to see what they can do with it, time to see how they build on it.
The Phils have been here before, of course.
They have played five previous series against the rival Mets this season and won the opener four times. Their record in the remainder of those four series is 0-8.
For all the talk of how they would deal with the Phillies in the year after their ugly collapse, the Mets have shown tremendous resilience against the Phils this season.
On the flip side, the Phils have squandered every chance they've had to win a series against the Mets. A year after they were the most opportunistic team in the league - cashing in on the Mets' late fold and finishing 13-4 to win the National League East - the Phils haven't been able to put a winning stretch together against the Mets.
That had better change today, tomorrow - or whenever Tropical Storm Hanna allows the teams to play again. The Phils have just two more games remaining against the Mets, two more chances to cut into their lead without looking for help from another team.
Last night's 3-0 win cut the Mets' lead in the division to two games with 21 to play.
The Phils cannot afford a letup. They can still leave New York as many as four games down. Or they can sweep the series and even things up. The stakes are as high as a Pat Burrell pop-out.
"We've got two more days here," manager Charlie Manuel said after the win. "This was a great game, definitely one we had to have. Now we need the next one."
Getting the next one against the Mets this season has been difficult. Witness the eight losses that have come in series that began with a Phillies win.
"If we don't reverse that, we'll be in trouble," Manuel said.
Last night's win featured the kind of performances that teams with postseason hopes need in playoff races.
The Phils followed Mike Schmidt's advice and manufactured a run small-ball style in the first inning. (Schmidt checked in from Jupiter - not the planet, the town in Florida - with a pregame e-mail that was meant to encourage the Phils. He told them they were better than the Mets and said the Mets remembered last year. This, of course, will be unnecessary bulletin-board material for the Mets as the New York tabloids scream about it this morning.)
Six innings after their small-ball run in the first, the Phils got a big, crowd-silencing, two-run homer from Greg Dobbs in the seventh. It was the kind of stand-and-deliver moment teams need when they are reaching for October.
Those three runs were enough with the pitching the Phils received.
Brett Myers mixed fastballs with a brilliant, hard-dropping curveball en route to eight shutout innings and 10 strikeouts. Brad Lidge finished it off with his 34th save. OK, so Lidge struggled with his command, throwing 26 pitches, and he allowed the potential tying run to come to bat. But for closers, handshakes - as in how many times he receives them after games - are an important stat. Lidge got a bunch of them last night, even if the tightrope he walked was a little unnerving heading into the most crucial stretch of the season.
"It's the biggest series of the year for us," Mets manager Jerry Manuel said before the game.
You've got to love Jerry Manuel. In an era when so many coaches and managers are reluctant to speak from the heart, he does. He was the bench coach when the Mets blew a seven-game lead with 17 to play last season. He knows the baseball world is curious to see how the Mets do this September.
Manuel counts himself among the curious.
"Sure, I am," he said. "We've got some things we've got to confront, deal with and put behind us. It will always be there until we play like we can. We didn't play well [last September]. Nobody really beat us. We beat ourselves. We didn't execute in a lot of phases. If we can continue to play to the level we have, we'll do well. I'm not saying we're going to win every game, but we'll do well down the stretch."
The Mets entered this series on a roll. Before last night, they had won 17 of their last 22.
The Phils will turn to Jamie Moyer as they look to build on last night's series-opening win. They have been in this position before and each time failed to pin the Mets. The pattern must change now, or else, as Charlie Manuel said, the Phils will be in trouble.
Contact staff writer Jim Salisbury at 215-854-4983 or jsalisbury@phillynews.com.
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