Game 1: Phillies 5, Mets 4
(Source: fangraphs.com - what's this?)
Pedro Martinez's line from last night's game:
IP H R ER BB SO HR PC-ST GS 7.0 4 3 3 2 10 0 102-69 65For the umpteenth time this season, the Mets' offense laid dormant for much of the game before finally springing to life in the waning innings. Brett Myers -- with an assist home plate umpire Doug Eddings -- thoroughly dominated the Mets through the first seven innings of the ballgame. Conversely, Pedro Martinez -- who also benefited from Eddings' ginormous strike zone -- struggled early on but blanked the Phillies from the third inning until he departed following the seventh.
The Mets, in a 3-0 hole early on, battled back two score two runs in the eighth on an Xavier Nady homerun and, after Duaner Sanchez allowed his first earned run of the season in the bottom of the inning, scored two more on Carlos Delgado's blast off of Phillies closer Tom Gordon. It was Gordon's first blown save of the year, and at that point the Mets were in a very good position to wage a battle of the bullpens.
Things fell apart quickly, though, as Gordon held it together just long enough to get out of the ninth, and a series of unfortunate events led to Aaron Heilman allowing a run in the bottom of the ninth to end the game. The first bit of misfortune was Kaz Matsui being called out on a high strike to end the top of the ninth. Though we didn't see it on TV, Julio Franco was thrown out of the game for arguing with Eddings over the call.
It may be just conspiracy theory on my part, but it certainly seemed that Eddings' strike zone subsequently shrunk a bit when the Phillies came around to bat. Heilman appeared to be squeezed a bit on some of his calls, particularly on the walk to Chase Utley that loaded the bases. Who knows if Eddings was punishing the Mets in some way for Franco's transgression; maybe it's just my over-active imagination. The Mets wound up losing the game when the next batter, Bobby Abreu, knocked a 20-footer in front of the plate that Heilman and Paul Lo Duca seemed to miscommunicate on, and Abreu reached base while Dave Delucci crossed the plate with the winning run.
It's tough to lose a game like that, but sometimes the breaks go your way and other times they don't. This time they didn't, and it cost the Mets a game in the standings.