Not only was this a 12 inning game but there was a three hour rain delay in the eighth inning with the Mets leading 2-0 and the Phillies with a man on base.
Oliver Perez had his second consecutive excellent start. I have to think that the work that pitching coach Dan Warthen is doing with him is working. Perez has commented publicly that he felt like he was being forced to be a different pitcher under Rick Peterson. Warthen has said that there isn’t any one philosophy that’s right for every pitcher. Each one has to find what works for them. Apparently, Perez has found it. Perez went seven innings giving up no runs. He did give up four hits and two walks but was able to work out of situations with men on base.
Carlos Beltran was one of the offensive stars hitting a solo homer in the third inning to right field. In the ninth inning his RBI single scored Jose Reyes to make it 2-0 after the lengthy rain delay.
Billy Wagner came in for the save in the ninth. Shane Victorino singled and Jayson Werth homered with two strikes and two outs for Wagner’s sixth blown save of the season. After playing nine innings and waiting out the rain for hours, the Mets and Phillies went to extra innings.
The extra inning hero was Fernando Tatis hitting a two run homer with Carlos Delgado on to take a 4-2 lead. Joe Smith shut down the Phillies in the bottom of the 12th for the win. The Mets take the third game of the four game series to go up 2-1 in this critical division rival series.
In the field, Jose Reyes also had two great plays in the field ranging to his left. Marlon Anderson missed an easy fly ball to left that he should have caught. Carlos Delgado couldn’t get the ball out of his glove on a pickoff throw from Perez that caught Werth stealing.
The Mets Report 