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NEW YORK - Mike Schmidt wrote in an e-mail last week that the New York Mets know the Phillies are better than them.
Jimmy Rollins agreed.
But the final 19 games of the 2008 season ultimately will prove who is better, regardless of what anybody else thinks. Right now, the first-place Mets hold a two-game lead over the Phillies in the National League East after they split a doubleheader at Shea Stadium last night. The Phillies won the day game, 6-2, and the Mets won the nightcap, 6-3.
"It is a successful series, but it did get away," Rollins said. "Unfortunately, we don't play them anymore going down the stretch. The [deficit] is always a lot when you're not playing them. But we're sitting on the door to two ways in [to the playoffs]: one team that we just played, and the other team that's ahead of us in the wild card we're playing [this weekend]. We have quite an opportunity, definitely."
The Phillies are four games behind the Milwaukee Brewers in the NL wild-card race with a four-game series against them beginning Thursday at Citizens Bank Park. The Phils took two of three from the Mets but could not help but think they let an excellent opportunity slip away.
Brett Myers impressively beat the Mets on Friday in the series opener, 3-0. Jamie Moyer pitched beautifully yesterday afternoon in Game 1. He threw seven shutout innings and Greg Dobbs hit a three-run home run as the Phillies moved within a game of first place in the National League East standings.
If they had beaten the Mets in Game 2, they would have pulled even.
But after the Phillies took a 1-0 lead in the first, Cole Hamels had his worst start since Aug. 1 in St. Louis, when he allowed five runs in six innings. The Mets scored three runs in the bottom of the inning to take a 3-1 lead. Then after Ryan Howard hit a solo homer in the third to make it 3-2, Hamels allowed a solo homer to Carlos Delgado to make it 4-2.
Delgado crushed another home run to right field in the fifth to make it 5-2.
Howard became the first player in Phillies history to have three straight 40-homer seasons and the third to have three-straight 120-RBI seasons.
Hamels lasted five innings. He allowed nine hits, five runs (four earned), one intentional walk and two home runs. He struck out six. The Phils needed better.
They left Shea Stadium for the final time in a bit better shape than when they arrived, but they know it could have been even better. And because it wasn't, their work will be a little harder down the stretch.
"It's very doable," catcher Chris Coste said.
at 215-854-4874 or tzolecki@phillynews.com.
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