Game 2 Mets 7 Phillies 5 Mike Pelfrey tossed 7 strong innings as the Mets sent Jamie Moyer to the showers in the third to finish up a two game sweep of the Phills. Two run homers in the first by Carlos Beltran and David Wright gave the Mets a 4-1 lead after one. Another homer from Jose Reyes in the second and a two run double by Ramon Castro in the third put the Mets up 7-1 and chased Moyer. Pelfrey had given up a run in the first on a double to Howard but limited the damage. This is what good pitchers do, not let innings get away from them. Remember when I told you to keep an eye on Pelfrey’s groundball to flyball ratio? Are you paying attention? When Mike is on, the ratio is 2 (gournders) to 1 (fly) or higher, Mike’s ration was 14-7 in his last game and 16-8 on Thursday against the Phills. There you go. The Phils scored single runs in the 4th and 6th to close the gap. However, in the eighth things started to heat up a bit. Pedro Feliciano was on the hill, he got Shane Victorino to swing and miss to strike out; only too bad for the Mets as our good friend, home plate ump, Angel Hernandez (who has a long, contentious history with the Mets) didn’t think so; he ruled the third strike on Victorino a foul tip, replays clearly showed otherwise. Jerry Manuel discussed it with Hernandez but,of course, to no avail. Victorino then ends up reaching on a slow roller to third. Here is where things get really interesting; Chase Utley grounds to Luis Castillo, who throws to first to get the out and hang up Victorino in a rundown. Throws go back and forth and then Victorino clearly goes out of his way to make contact with Reyes throwing a forearm shiver. It was so blatant that I expected Terry Fraser to give him two minutes for elbowing, sending the Mets on the powerplay. But again, our friends the umps, disagreed. This time it was Bill Welke at first that ruled Reyes interfered. This time Manuel got his money’s worth and was ejected. In the course of the argument the bill of Jerry’s cap hit Welke in the nose. We’ll see if that becomes an issue. As for Victorino, that was a dirty play and the next time he comes to bat, well let’s just say don’t get too comfortable.
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