Phils 3, Mutts 2

I tuned into this gem right after the Mets took the 2-0 lead, so I saw zero Mets offense. And when I say zero, I mean less than zero.

Durbin comes into the game, relieving the immortal J.A. Happ (who, BTW, blanked us through 4), and gets 7 in a row, with 6 K's. Madsen pitches a scoreless 8th. Lidge gets 'em 1-2-3 in the 9th on a grand total of 5 pitches. 5 effin pitches. With some legendeary efforts like Church popping to the pitching mound and Marlon Anderson rolling a swinging bunt to Howard standing on the bag at first.

So the O was just pitiful.

Then there was the D.

I witnessed the Phillies rally in the 6th. A couple of clutch rbi singles for Howard (through the hole vacated by the shift) and Burrell, but let's be honest--the inning only happened because Chris Aguila (who? who-the-ef is this guy that Manuel started in LF against the Phillies in a crucial game?) decided not to take two steps in to field Werth's lazy liner to left. Nope. Playing it on a hop was effort enough, thank you very much. And not for nothing, but the same scrub should have been able to make the play close on Utley (the tying run) at the plate--he fielded the ball before Utley had even gotten to third. And Utley scored easily.

Well, at least I saw Santana pitch a dominant game. No joke. Aside for a couple of punch singles that ignited a rally, he was retiring everyone and making them look silly. Before that 6th inning rally, he had a 1-2-3 fifth. He came back from that 6th inning rally to retire the next 7. He pitched 8 inning, 2 run ball, in only 95 pitches. That's under 12 pitches an inning, and that's despite throwing well over 20 in the 6th.

Which leads me to the big WTF question of the night. Why not pitch Santana in the 9th? He didn't come to bat in the 8th, wasn't pinch hit for. At 12 pitches per inning, what was Manuel scared Johan's pitch count would get up to 107? Santana had retired 7 in a row when they pulled him, and had been absolutely dominant all game but for one inning. Let your ace do his job, and give him a chance to win the game.

Instead, we come back with Duaner, who pukes it up immediately. And BTW, this ain't Monday Morning QB'ing. I was annoyed the minute I saw Sanchez on the mound, as was everyone else--SNY ran a text message poll if pulling Santana was the right move: 84% said no.

Well, it's a darn good thing we got rid Randolph. Now we get to have our cake and eat it too: the .471 baseball we crave, AND a "gangsta" running the club.