No More Mr Niceguy Met, 13-4

There is a certain inevitability, when a team is running the table like the Phillies have been for the last week and a half, that what goes up, eventually comes down and last night, on the heels of their shocking bottom of the 9th victory against the Mets, the Phillies were brought crashing back to earth by a 13-4 margin, ending their mystical 9 game winning streak with authority.


Three, four, chachacha. Paul Lo Duca and Carlos Beltran combined for four hits and five RBIs. (Rusty Kennedy/AP)

Glavine again showed that he has now fully regained his Hall of Fame form, allowing only 4 hits in 7 innings work, two of which were homeruns. He was pretty himself at the plate with two hits in two official at bats to raise his season average to .500.


Glavine going into the HOF as a pitcher or a hitter? Such ponderings as he jogs around the bases...

Not that he was alone at the plate. The Mets accumulated 17 hits in all, equalling their season high as seven Mets had two hits. Four of them, Glavine included, had at least two RBIs. Paul Lo Duca had three. Jose Reyes had a homer. Together, with the sting of Tuesday night's loss still in their eyes, they buried losing pitcher Cory Lidle (3-4) and his immediate successor, Aaron Fultz, and avoided their first own three-game losing streak in the process.

Phillies, Shmillies.

In the interim, Glavine earned his 280th career victory, 4,000th career inning, 195th sacrifice bunt and 23rd consecutive start of at least six innings. He became the 38th pitcher to reach 4,000 career innings on the mound.

The Mets have homered in 14 straight games.


Willie congratulates Glavine for keeping him from having to make any hard, stupid decisions about the bullpen.

I wonder if Philly phans remember this.

Tonight, the rubber match.

Steve Trachsel, the incredibly shrinking talent (and 5.79 ERA with a 1-2 record at Citizen Park) will be on to face Gavin Floyd, he of the oddly juxtoposed 3-2 record in spite of his rather porcine 6.16 ERA. And hey, that's an 8.50 ERA at home, kids. However, before we laugh too hard, he's 2-0 in his last two starts. Possibly a high scoring affair. And who knows, maybe Willie will finally let Billy Wagner out of the bullpen to do what he's paid for instead of micromanaging himself into another loss.