Final Score: Phillies 9, Mets 4 — That got out of hand fast

The Mets lost 9-4 to the Phillies on Saturday afternoon, in a game that looked like it might be close the whole way from the start. But after a bit of poor New York pitching the Phillies were out of sight, and the game was more or less decided after five innings.

The bright side is that while he didn't exactly light up the radar gun, Shaun Marcum was serviceable in his Mets debut, managing four innings on 71 pitches, giving up only three runs and leaving the Mets in striking distance after he left the game. His fastball sat around 85 MPH -- not great, but one hopes once he's stretched out a bit, velocity will improve -- and he was relatively effective.

The same can not be said for his replacement. Robert Carson came into the game with a 3-2 score in Philadelphia's favor, and after he was done, the Phillies had scored five times. He wasn't helped by a Ruben Tejada-botched grounder that allowed a run to score, but he also wasn't helped by the leadoff double by Jimmy Rollins or the back-to-back home runs he gave up to Domonic Brown and John Mayberry, so at least for today Tejada's glove isn't the prime culprit.

A John Buck home run in the 9th inning was the most interesting bit of Mets offense, with David Wright and Jordany Valdespin also driving in runs on doubles to left field in the 5th and 2nd innings, respectively.

Game Thread Roll Call

Nice job by MetsFan4Decades; her effort in the game thread embiggens us all.