Mets-Phillies: The Second Best New York Rivalry Starts Tonight

Who says there aren’t any big series in May? Perhaps if you live in any other city in the world other than New York you may think that’s true. Not here, not now, not ever.

I begrudgingly admit that the greatest rivalry in all sports is the New York Yankees vs. the Boston Red Sox. Nothing else comes close. There are those rivalries that are older, even some that have played more games against each other, but none of them have captured the passion nationwide as those rivals have.

For me, a devoted Met fan for life, I like nothing better than to see the Sox maul the Yanks at every opportunity.

For the past three years or so a new heated rivalry has arisen on the New York sports scene. Just around 90 miles south on the New Jersey Turnpike you get off exit three and in a little less than 10 minutes you are in the parking lot at Citizens Bank Park, home of the yeah, yeah, yeah, we all know, so why repeat it, the Philadelphia Phillies.

This website has certainly heated up the rivalry, as fans on both sides have argued back and forth all winter and spring long who will wind up on top of the NL East in 2009. Did someone say the Marlins? Heaven forbid. That’s not good Hollywood, been there, seen that.

Tonight in the city of  brotherly love, yeah right, both teams off to a non spectacular start square off against each other in the first of 18 games this season.

Let the fun begin.

First up, the visiting New York Mets: What a mess. 9-12. Lackadaisical is the best way I can describe my team. The team first attitude which seemed so apparent in spring training seems to have disappeared, missing in action, or plain just hasn’t shown up. The boo birds are out in force and the blame is everywhere. Jerry did this, he didn’t do that. David can’t hit, cant throw, can’t stop striking out.

I could go on forever but in the sense of brevity, this team needs to find their identity fast or they might find themselves 10 games behind by the end of May.

Tonight, they put the ball in the hand of Mike Pelfrey against Chin Ho Park. On paper the matchup favors the Mets, and they need to get on the board early and often because two things are very apparent. One, the Mets don’t score late and two, the Phillies always score late.

Game One—a tossup. High scoring for sure; the last team to score wins. Bet the over.

Saturday pits definitely the two most extremes of each team. For the Phillies it’s the 46-year-old youngster Jamie Moyer, who has the best assortment of smoke and mirrors in baseball today. This guy taught David Copperfield his magic. I watch this guy in awe. Everybody should be hitting the crap out of the ball. Funny thing, nobody is.

Again, we had better get to him early. If not, and Ollie is being Ollie, this game will be over by the fourth inning.

Game Two—definite edge Phillies.

On to Sunday. John Maine vs. Joe Blanton. Off his last performance, Maine certainly looks like he has perhaps turned the corner from his surgery and rehabilitation, showing some of the stuff that made him a 15 game winner just a year and half ago. On the other side, we see Joe Blanton, whose herky jerky motion would make any batter beware in the box.

Game Three—slight edge again to the Mets.

Let’s take a look at the home team for just a moment. Remember they are, yeah, yeah, yeah, enough already. Listen Christian, Cody, Scmidtters, Bryn, Brian, Shay, and the rest of you guys, I already said you have the team to beat, but you haven’t scared anybody yet either.

11-9 isn’t all that bad but Cole is hurt, Myers is our Ollie, and Jimmy can’t hit his weight. The rotation is far from right so you have to be at least a little concerned.

However, as long as Chase is unconscious out there and Ryan is smacking the ball and Ibanez is the player I wanted in New York, these games are going to be a war, worthy of a rivalry to rival the rest.

Good luck, I think we’re both going to need it.

This article can also be found on The Mets Police, Dom D’s Mets Fan Blog, and Take the 7 Train.

 

 

The Mets Need Big Pelf to Stand Tall

BY MICHAEL GANCI
EDITOR

Today, the Mets will start a series of epic proportions against their biggest rival, the Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets will be going into the bandbox of a stadium and there will be no smiles unless the Mets come out on top. In order to do so, they are going to need big performances from their big-time players, including Jose Reyes and David Wright, both of whom are in big slumps at the moment.

Wright needs to go with the pitch and take the bat straight to the baseball. If he continues to have a loop in his swing, he will remain as the league leader in strikeouts, but we all know he is capable of better. For Reyes, he needs to be patient, but also know when to swing the bat. When he takes the first strike, he needs to be ready to wallop, because he could get a meaty pitch, and in the small ball park in Philly, that could be one even Reyes could send for a home run.

Another guy that they are going to need is Mike Pelfrey, who is coming off of a strong outing his last time out. Although Pelfrey’s ERA is uncomfortably high at 6.32, his record is 2-0, and he will be looking to keep the Phillies in the ballpark tonight. With Pelfrey being a groundball pitcher, he would seem like the perfect candidate to succeed, but he is going to be facing a potent lineup that is not easy to find an automatic out in.

Another guy who will be pivotal in this game is Pedro Feliciano. With the likes of Raul Ibanez, Jimmy Rollins, and Ryan Howard likely to be in the lineup for Philadelphia, Felciano could be brought in for a crucial late-inning matchup. He has fared well against the Phillies in the past, and the Mets are going to need him to continue that trend.

This series is as big as they come for an early in the year matchup. The Mets are going to need all the cards on the table, and maybe they will finally start playing with some heart.

Preview Game 21: The Mets Come To Philly

This weekend the Phillies host the New York Mets in what will likely be the most talked about series of the year in the NL East. The Mets entered the 2009 season having made roster moves to takedown the Phillies after allowing the division title to slip through their own hands two years in a row to the eventual World Series champions.

While both teams typically feature a couple of the best left handed pitchers in the game (Johann Santana for the Mets and Cole Hamels for the Phillies), neither team will trot out their aces this weekend.

Look for some good offense as a result from both teams.

The Phillies will open the weekend set with Chan Ho Park looking for his first win of the season. Park won a SP job in spring training but has yet to impress in the regular season. Park’s ERA is currently, 7.16 and could really use a good outing to show why he won the job.

Park had a solid outing against the Marlins in his last start, but ran into trouble in one inning, allowing them to score all of their runs in one frame.  The Phillies rebounded to win the game though.

The Mets will counter with Mike Pelfrey who is also looking for a good outing. His 6.32 ERA makes it a little more surprising that he enters tonight’s game with a 2-0 record.

Carlos Beltran is the biggest offensive threat for the Mets it seems, hitting .388 with 31 hits and 14 RBI and 13 walks. Interesting to note though that David Wright has struck out 27 times in 2009, seven more times than Ryan Howard.

The Phillies seem to have the slight upper hand entering this series so you should expect a series win this weekend. Don’t forget that the Phillies will play a pair of road games in New York next week so this next week will be fun to watch (hopefully).

Jimmy Rollins needs to get his swing in gear, and he predicts he will hit .400 in the month of May. He loves playing against the Mets so maybe tonight will be the spark he has been waiting for.

Phillies Record: 11-9
Mets Record: 9-12

NL East Standings (Team, record, games behind):

1. Marlins 14-8, –
2. PHILLIES 11-9, 2
3. Braves 10-11, 3.5
4. Mets 9-12, 4.5
5. Nationals 5-16, 8.5

NL East Power Rankings

1. Braves
2. PHILLIES
3. Marlins
4. Mets
5. Nationals

Pitching probables: Park (0-0, 7.16 ERA) vs. Pelfrey (2-0, 6.32 ERA)

TV: Comcast Sportsnet

First pitch: 7:05 pm

Season Series: First meeting

Game open thread will be posted at 6:30pm. Not likely to get a game recap up though due to the weekend schedule (which is normal around here). Look for just open threads on Saturday and Sunday as well!

 

This was originally posted on Macho Row.

Mets-Phillies: A Battle of Goliaths in Philadelphia

Carlos Delgado (and Beltran), Jose Reyes, and David Wright vs. Ryan Howard, Chase Utely, Jimmy Rollins, and Raul Ibanez. “Murderers Row” vs. “Murderers Row” in what looks to be a series of high-scoring games of sluggers—particularly against pitchers that allow many runs anyway.

Where’s David?

He (specifically Johan Santana) isn’t scheduled to start this weekend. And he’s probably the one player on either team that could change the dynamics of the struggle. Some other time.

For now, you go with what you have. Mike Pelfrey vs. Chan Ho Park, Oliver Perez vs. Jamie Moyer, and John Maine vs. Joe Blanton. Not exactly the material for pitchers’ duels, but reasonably evenly matched all the same. 

All of the Mets pitchers are in their 20s, and only one of the Phillies. The Mets should have the advantage, but they don’t. Jamie Moyer, a mature “finesse” pitcher, has the best ERA of the above-mentioned bunch.

So the sluggers will probably have the run of Citizens Bank Park this weekend. It looks like the series will be won by the heavy hitters (Goliaths), not the hurlers (Davids). Lots of action, little traction.

Even though he was big and strong, “Goliath” wasn’t the best thing to be. The original Goliath did not win his last battle. One of these Goliaths won’t win the series.

New York Mets Fans, Let’s Hope We Can Slide Past the Phillies

The Phillies are a great team. Last year they won the NL East and went and went on to win the World Series. So the Mets are going to go in to Philadelphia to face the World Series champs, who, for now, look like the better team. The questions is: Can the Mets slide past the Phillies in this series?

I think they can, the Mets looked good against the Phillies last season going 12-7 against them. The first Mets Phillies series last year was at Shea, the Mets lost the first game and won the next two.

If the Mets can do that again I will be really happy, I hope we can win two out of three. I am not going to lie, I don’t think they can sweep the Phillies (that may be a good thing since all my productions are always wrong).

The Mets will send out Big-Pelf to pitch the first game, I think the Mets can win this one since the Phillies are sending Chan Ho Park to the mound and he sucks. He has a ERA of 7.16

In the second game (by the way, if anyone is interested, it will be televised by Fox Sports) the Phillies will send Jamie Moyer to pitch as the Mets send Perez. I think this game depends on Perez. Will the good one come out, or the bad one, I think the Mets will get to Moyer early and often. Perez has looked good against the Phillies in the last few seasons.

Joe Blanton will pitch game three of the series, and lets hope the Mets can get to him. Like all Phillies starters his ERA is in the sky, but he is at .500 with a record of 2-2. The Mets will send John Maine to the mound, and he has been looking bad. It will be a hard game for the Mets.

The Mets bats will need to wake-up in Philadelphia, its a hitters park and it is the chance for David Wright and Jose Reyes to get things started.

It will be a very hard series for the Mets, I hope they can take advantage in the East and win at least two. But the Phillies will be looking to do the same and not much can stand in between the Phillies and what they want.

Good luck Mets

 

Mike Kent also writes on a Wiki of the New York Mets called the Met Wiki. All and any help would be very much appreciated. If there are any questions you can write on my wall.

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