New York Mets (73-59 Road: 32-34) at Philadelphia Phillies (72-59 Home: 38-28) 7:05pm
Pedro Martinez (4-3 4.97) vs. Jamie Moyer (11-7 3.54)
What to watch: The Mets go into Philly holding a tenuous lead in the NL East. This is only a two game series before an off day Thursday and then going to Florida. It’s still only August but it’s always a big series when these teams play now.
Visit The Mets Report Live Game Chat during the game to chat with other Mets fans.
I’m not a big Stephen A. Smith fan but I thought that I’d link to this article that he wrote for ESPN The Mag. The subject is the relationship between Mets manager Jerry Manuel and Philadelphia Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. Apparently, they’ve known each other for more than 20 years which isn’t a big surprise as the baseball circle is pretty small.
It sounds like the two have a lot of respect for each other and a good relationship:
“Charlie and I have known each other for more than 20 years. And every time he sees me, he says, ‘Jerry, you know the only thing good about you is your last name.’
I thinks it’s probably obvious that I can’t stand the Phillies but it seems like Charlie Manuel does a good job of maximizing the talent that he’s given. That’s all you can ask of a manager. He does a much better job of setting rules and expectations with his players than Willie Randolph did while he was with the Mets. That’s evidenced by his benching twice this season of reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins. Randolph was criticized for having two sets of rules: one for veterans and the other for younger players. Jerry Manuel’s seems to have done a good job of evening the playing field for the team and setting expectations.
It’s an interesting read as much as Stephen A. Smith could be.
The Mets chances to take a playoff spot this season actually improved at the trade deadline despite not making any deals according to Sporting News writer Gerry Fraley. He makes some great points about the competition that the Mets will face over the next two months.
The Mets have 14 more games against Atlanta and Pittsburgh, teams that surrendered and became big-time sellers at the deadline.
The Mets also have 12 more games against Washington and San Diego, a pair of last-place clubs. That adds up to 26 games against dead-in-the-water clubs.
Although the Mets schedule is favorable, they need to take advantage of that by winning the series’ that they’re supposed to. That starts with Houston this weekend and then San Diego coming to town on Tuesday.
The Phillies and Marlins failure to make any splashes, such as Manny Ramirez, certainly is a huge positive for the Mets. I’ve read that the Marlins were planning to flip Ramirez to the Yankees if they landed him anyway. So he may not have had an impact in the National League East as was rumored prior to the trade deadline.
Flickr photo courtesy of ewan and donabel
There are some trade rumors blowing around that the Mets and Phillies are two of the most serious teams about trading for Manny Ramirez. Of course, some other teams are in the mix like the Dodgers as well. It’s hard to get a gauge on how much stock to put in these crazy rumors before the non-waiver trading deadline tomorrow at 4:00pm EDT.
In a perfect world, I would say that the Mets shouldn’t trade for Manny. And I say that for all of the reasons that you already know. He’s eccentric (an understatement), and he’s a one dimensional player. Not to mention the fact that this season he’s been more petulant than usual in Boston.
But the Mets cannot let the Philadelphia Phillies obtain Manny in a trade. They need to do their due diligence to find out how serious the Phillies are about Manny. If the Phillies are serious, the Mets need to go to the mat to get Manny from the Red Sox. I mean that they need to trade Fernando Martinez, Jon Niese, Carlos Beltran (has a no trade clause), or whatever it takes to keep Manny away from the Phillies.
The Phillies will still have questions about their pitching, even if they do trade for Manny. A trade with the Red Sox won’t solve that problem. But the Phillies offense would be an unstoppable force. I don’t even want to think about the numbers that Manny could put up playing 81 games at Citizens Bank Park.
Trading for Manny to block the Phillies from getting him is a reality that Omar Minaya and the Mets front office will have to evaluate over the next day or so. Hopefully, it won’t come to that.
Fox Sports Rob Dibble and Kevin Kennedy talk about the Mets and Phillies pitching this season. They discuss the need for Mets pitchers to go deeper into games, which I agree with. I think that’s something that Jerry Manuel needs to do differently. He needs to trust that the starters can go to 110 or 120 pitches.
The Fox guys also talk about the Phillies acquisition of Joe Blanton.
The Mets claimed first place in the NL East with a 3-1 win over the Phillies today. The story of the game was Oliver Perez. Perez went 7.2 innings giving up only six hits and one intentional walk. He struck out 12 in the game including three apiece for Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.
Carlos Delgado came through in the clutch with a huge two-run double in the bottom of the eighth that broke the tie and led the Mets to victory.
Jimmy Rollins was scratched right before the game started and Eric Bruntlett took his place at shortstop for the Phillies. Rollins didn’t appear to be injured, and even pinch hit in the ninth inning. There was no word on why Rollins didn’t start.
Philadelphia Phillies (54-47 Road: 27-24) at New York Mets (54-47 Home: 29-19) 12:10pm
Jamie Moyer (9-6 3.90) vs. Oliver Perez (6-6 4.36)
What to watch: The Mets and Phillies play the rubber game of the series on camp day today. So for everyone stuck at work, make sure you get to a TV at lunch or put your MLB.com subscription on when the boss isn’t looking. Moyer has had a great year for the Phils for a 45 year old, or any age for that matter. He hasn’t lost a game since June 29th. Perez has “found himself” under new pitching coach Dan Warthen and he hasn’t lost either since June 24th.
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