EMA - Wow. First Place Phils! Just, Wow.

For those of you who know me, I'm old. Well, I feel old and yes, I'll be the first to admit that I fell asleep. I think it was right before Hamels came up to bat and I assumed the Phils would win the game, so I felt comfortable with my eyes shutting for a minute. Next thing I know, it's 5:15 AM and I'm racing down to my office to check the score.

Indeed, 8-7 good guys. What a game.

The Phillies won despite a 7-0 deficit after four innings. The Phillies won despite Pat Burrell going 0-7 with fours Ks and 10 men left on base out of the three hole. In fact, the Fightins' hitters left 32 men on base and struck out 16 times in the game (granted Brett Myers and Cole Hamels added to both of those numbers).

But they won.

The Phillies won despite facing Pedro Martinez and countering for 2.1 with slop-heaving Clay Condrey after pulling a woefully ineffective Jamie Moyer at the end of just three innings. Condrey did enough to keep the Mets by-and-large at bay and the offense lit up in the fourth inning to make it close.

The rest of the bullpen took over, not giving up a run in 7.2 innings and surrendering just two hits to the Mets as the Phils offense found a way to crawl back into it. And crawl they did.

Jimmy Rollins went 5-7 with 3RBI including a clutch hit in the eighth to plate third baseman(!!!!) Carlos Ruiz. Charlie Manuel opted to leave Ruiz at third to save his last bench player Eric Bruntlett in the event that the pitchers spot came up in he ninth. With Brad Lidge on the bump, the chance that a ground ball would go to third was slim, and Manuel's roll of the dice payed off as Bruntlett did come up in the ninth, delivering his biggest hit as a Phillie off of Nationals castaway Luis Ayala. Billy Wagner not available for comment after the game.

The Phils had a chance to win it in 11 when Chris Coste didn't advance to third on a pitch that Brian Schneider couldn't handle. Rollins hit a fly ball that would have scored Coste from third to end it then. (Note: Rollins would have ended the game 5-5 for the second straight night).

But something was supposed to go right for the Phillies last night. After a hapless middle of the lineup did no damage in the 12th, Sugar Shane Victorino led off the 13th with his seventh triple of the season off of local boy Scott Schoeneweis. The Mets intentionally loaded the bases to get to the pitchers' spot and Brett Myers couldn't get it done. But they forgot about Chris Coste. He went 4-4 in the game after coming in to pinch hit, including a shot to centerfield that sealed the victory for the Phils and gave them back first place. Where they belong.

Wow. Just, wow.

------------------------------------

Now some links: I would have done links to start this, but, well, there weren't many of them. I first went to Philly.com to see what the MSM had to say about the big win.

Well if you go now, you'll see stories from Todd Zolecki, David Murphy and probably a host of others. At 5:25 am, they had an AP story on the site. I knew I should have screen captured that. I was about to rail on the beat writers for copping out and letting the AP do their work, but maybe they were still writing. Or maybe the webmaster at Philly.com is allowed to sleep. Anyway, the big boys have stories up now. Someone email me to let me know why they weren't up earlier, please.

• Rich Hofmann adds to the joy with a story about the atmosphere at CBP.

It didn't matter who won. This was more about the experience than it was about the ending.

I see your point, Rich, but it most certainly did matter who won. The Phils are now a half game up instead of 1.5 games behind...and demoralized going up against Johan Santana. Good story. Bad line.

• Kulp had a post on this here site and we'll be posting a fan report later in the morning.

• Beerleaguer had a post, that wasn't long, but his commenters take it the rest of the way. More about that later in the week.

• Scott Lauber from Delaware Online has his take here, and gets a great quote from J-Roll to help fuel the fire of this rivalry.

“The other team gives you some inspiration, let’s put it that way. (J)ust watch ’em,” Rollins said. “If you were a player and you’re looking over in that other dugout, you’ll feel a certain type of way. Rewind the game. Just watch the game.”

• Michael McGarry from the Press of AC has his recap for you shore dwellers. They were so excited they used an extra large font to tell their story.

• From the Mets side, this says it all, per Adam Rubin at the Daily News: The Mets collapsed again.

• The guys at MetsBlog seem surprisingly upbeat about the terrible, terrible loss.

Despite the result, this was, without a doubt, the most entertaining baseball game of the season, and one of the best games I have seen in years.

• In other news.....ah hell, who cares about other news. Hillary Clinton can wait. What a game!

Comments

[TH]

I knew something special was going to happen when Rollins and Howard both went yard in the 5th. I couldn't stay up to watch it (work sucks), but I gave a full fist pump when I heard Kathy Romano give the word that they won on the P&S Show this morning.

Then I come into work, and on my ESPN feed, the headline says, "Mets fall out of 1st with 13th inning loss to Phillies." My blood started to boil. Fuck BSPN. It's not all about fuckign New York and Boston, shitheads. The headline should read "Phils reclaim first with 13th inning win vs. Mets." I hate the "WorldWide Leader."

[river327]

I am going tonight, and hope to God Johan doesn't throw some kind of gem. After last night, I just want to see the bats keep pounding away.

[dr kill]

It is OK to be a front-running fan again, people.

[digweed]

Reading the 122 comments of pure bitter on metsblog was a great way to start the morning. Thanks :)

[ill]

The Phillies have won almost every series openner against the Mets this season, and most have been in a dramatic fashion. Vic had a walkoff single in July, we ruined the final home openner at Shea, and almsot every other win has been against their pen this season. Last night just falls right into place.

Credit goes to Manuel, Bruntlett, Steve Smith, hustle on the basepaths, and the pen.

Just gotta keep the momentum going into tonight, which has been our downfall against the Mets this season.

[tcw]

How about all of the "bandbox" and "this ballpark" talk from the Mets? As if the ballpark had nothing to do with their 7 runs? Were they not playing in the same park for the last nine innings of the game? Pathetic losers...

[Zack]

Hopefully Kendrick can go tonight...not sure why they didn't have Seanez just stand up there and take pitches...but whatever.
What a comeback win.

[Argive]

Ah, my heart just weeps for the Mets, with their classless players, boorish fans, and idiotic management.

[Kulp]

@ Zack, I think the decision to use Myers was twofold.

First, I think he was more believable, because he is a starting pitcher and also because of his personality. He pulled a great acting job up there, and even though he is an awful hitter, he was much more likely to actually get a hit than Seanez. The second thing is, I got the impression from the broadcast they didn't want Seanez throwing a lot of pitches. If the game goes 15, they definitely need Kendrick anyway, so might as well go all out and not take the risk of overthrowing all of our relievers. We'll certainly need those guys tonight.

[benjamin]

Can someone go to metsblog and tell those retards both teams play in the same bandbox, we'll take there 7runwad back if that's how they feel, the phillies are a better road team than playing at home, explain that I'd the stadium is a one aided advantage, ad maybe they should be calling pedro out for not stepping up and taking blame for blowing instead of blaming the stadium. What a bunch of sad excuses for fans. Makes me sick. Losers.

[benjamin]

sorry for my iPhone illiteracy. Stupid sensitive keyboard.

[ha]

typical phillies fans....they win one of the most exciting games of the year and all they want to talk about is what the mets did or said.......typical......frontrunners:

"How about all of the "bandbox" and "this ballpark" talk from the Mets? As if the ballpark had nothing to do with their 7 runs? Were they not playing in the same park for the last nine innings of the game? Pathetic losers..."

"Ah, my heart just weeps for the Mets, with their classless players, boorish fans, and idiotic management."

"Reading the 122 comments of pure bitter on metsblog was a great way to start the morning. Thanks :)"

losers

[will]

the hilarious contradictory mets fans amuse me. After reading their 2nd grade blog, I see that they always have something retarded to say. I had to let out a chuckle to learn that half the mets fans call their effort 'pathetic,' and 'the same old mets,' (great support fans) and the other half try to wiggle their way out of a devistating loss by somehow trying to convince themsevles the mets are worlds better than the phillies. Dont get me wrong, as a die-hard phils fan i have to admit that the only reason this rivalry is interesting is because the mets are a dynamic, talented team. However, they are still trying to give themselves the illusion that they're better and the mets are just going through some type of evil spell..oooooooooo. best of all, their biggest contention is that the mets have 'overcome adversity before.' Haha, if that isnt the biggest laugh of all. We're talking about the biggest choke artists around. I mean, its not even close, and thats not my opinion, they have it on tape.

So, in all of our gloating about last nights win, there are still 30 games to go and im sure it will be interesting, but nothing and i mean nothing about the mets is scary anymore. They have three good hitters, all gutless. No mvp's in that dugout, only fancy dances and snappy little hand shakes that only motivates the other team to smack their childish faces up and down the block.

[MPR529]

@ha: nice work! your jab reminded me of a retarded 3rd grader (a legit retarded, not just an annoying prick) trying to get a word into a conversation and falling flat on your face.

retard.

**I apologize if I have offended any retards by comparing them to met fans**

[Stock]

Coste!,Coste!,Coste!,Coste!......Coste,Coste
Coste!,Coste!,Coste!, Coste!.....Coste,Coste

F that stupid Jose chant. F all you choke artists loving Mets fans.

[Chase Mutley]

Someone NEEDS to post the video of Brett Myer's AB online. I missed it and it's been killing me all day that I haven't seen it.

[kgar]

Chris 'The Main Event' Coste does it again. I've been saying this since his first year, all he does is hit the ball. ie, he broke Casey Blake's Glove the other night. Chris Coste is the man, period, end of story.

[benjamin]

@MPR529 - my favorite part of ha's post is that he never disagrees with any of the quoted statements. I guess he's ok with having a clubhouse that holds inanimate objects responsible for their failures. Maybe he also needs to be reminded that it was the clubhouse that began blaming CBP, and the met fans merely failed to hold the players accountable.

Yes, ha, we loved winning last night, and listening to your fanbase tear itself to pieces after one game provides a little bit of schadenfreude for us all.

[benjamin]

and if ha thinks we phillies fans didn't talk at all about the game, our players, etc, maybe be chose to ignore them all and looked only for the cited items he picked on.

[Liam]

So just looking ahead to the way way end of the schedule the phils end with 3 games at home against the braves and then the last 3 at home against the Nats.

The Mets have 4 at home against the cubs and then 3 at home against the marlins (who have been known to love to play spoiler).

Thats a huge end of the s eason advantage to the phillies, who could hopefully put it away by then, but could very easily seal it up then.

[Argive]

@ha: How are we not supposed to gloat when our main division rival blows a 7-run lead and doesn't score again for nine innings? This is, after all, a pennant race and a rivalry. I suggest you deal with it.

[benjamin]

Maybe 'ha' wants us to do what they do at Metsblog, and talk about how much we wish our pitchers had enough balls to bean rollins in the face. That's china-like sportsmanship there. Or maybe we should all be voting on which player we hate the most. Real productive blog topics.

[Argive]

@benjamin: I think the Mets fans and players could all take a lesson in sportsmanship from Chris Coste, who did not do any stupid dances after scoring the walkoff RBI last night. Of course, this is because he is a gentleman, unlike some players who shall remain nameless.

[benjamin]

Concur Argive. They get all bent out of shape about Victorino clapping his hands together when getting a no out triple in the bottom of the 13th, as though he called time-out, and moonwalked around the base.

At the game last night, the met fans were real quiet until the built up a 6-0 lead, while my brother in law and I talked about how we just need to focus on getting a run, and start from there. The mets fans got reaaaaaally quiet once it was 7-5. So when they say they need pitchers with balls to bean the NL MVP, and start bench-clearing brawls, maybe they should grow their own to at least talk trash without a 6 run lead.

I guess these are all signs that the Phillies are in their heads, and when you start asking them, and they start denying it, you know you've got a nice foundation of second-guessing.

[David]

Is it just me, or does Shane Victorino always get in scoring position/score when he's needed to? He's always the guy stepping on home plate for the win. I personally believe the dude's more clutch than Utley and even hustles as much as Chase. He doesn't get the credit he deserves though and is probably one of the most underrated player in baseball along with Werth.

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