Who Is The Bigger Villian, Chase Utley or Pedro Feliciano?

Aye, a strong case could be made for both me lads.

Chase Cameron Utley, on the one hand, notorious Mets Killah, hits a homerun in the 11th inning to send the Mets off on their first extra-inning loss of the season.


Woooo-Haaaa! Only SEVEN GAMES WORSE than the Mets now!

On the other hand, Pedro Feliciano surrenders his first homerun in 20 innings this season at the most inopportune moment and embarasses the ENTIRE bullpen by letting the notoriously crap Phillies bullpen outperform their own - you do the maths - Phillies pen, 4 innings of work, no runs and two hits allowed. Mets bullpen, 4 innings of work, 2 runs and 5 hits allowed.

Was this Utley's revenge for the night Feliciano helped end Utley's 35 game hitting streak last August?

Utley, 3 for 4 with 3 RBIs on the day, virtually single-handedly ruining the night at Shea.

Feliciano, ZERO outs obtained whilst surrendering the two runs that send the Mets down the drain to defeat.


A Duck's World Recreation of Last Night's 11th Inning With Utley of course on the left and Feliciano the tiny little yellow belly on the right...

But this is all wrong. Utley is no "true" Met Killah. He's only hit .310 against Met pitching over the last three seasons. True, he has 7 homers and 19 RBIs against the Mets over that span but it's nothing. He's really a Marlins Killah, if you'd like to know. Over the same period against Marlin pitching he's hitting .366 with 12 homers and 41 RBIs.

So it must have been the revenge factor.

If you ask me, Ryan Howard is a bigger thorn in the side. 8 homers and 21 RBIs against Met pitching last season alone and last night, despite a very slow start to his season, Howard had 3 hits (none of them homers, thankfully) and raised his batting average all the way up to .231 for the season. Beware of this man starting to warm up having started perhaps even slower than our own beloved Carlos Delgado. Both big men with big problems at the plate.


O horsehide sphere, why hast thou failed me again?

For Glavine, yet another case of too little being not enough or too much being too few or simply good but not good enough; 7 innings, 8 hits, 2 runs. For most, good enough. For Glavine, another goose egg in the victory column. Another day vanquished that much further from victory number 296.

Will he console himself with his 2-for-2 day at the plate which raised his batting average this season to .292? Will he be pulling a late-career Rick Ankiel Deal if he ever reaches 300 victories? Finish his career playing left field in place of the always-injured Moises Alou, a full-time job if ever there was one?

Did it matter that we had Carlos Beltran back or that the rest of the outfield was filled in by the sickly plate duo of Carlos Gomez (batting .200) and Ben Johnson batting a very stealth .125 this season?

The answer is no. The trio of outfielders combined to go an astounding 0 for 13 last night although Gomez throwing out another notorious Met Killah (15 homers over the last three seasons against the Mets), Pat Burrell, at third base in the 6th to short out another potential outburst against Glavine was almost worth the momentary giddiness that ensued.

Shall we point a finger at Jose Reyes? Of course not. Sure, he was picked off second base allegedly trying to steal third in the 7th inning but this was after Ruben Gotay had embarassed himself by striking out pinch hitting for Glavine who'd already had two hits that night. And yes, with men on first and second and only one out and Carlos Beltran at the plate, could Reyes have been a little more patient, a little closer to the bag, a little less the chance-taker and game-breaker? Nah. You live on the edge, sometimes you fall off the edge. Can't second guess a man who disturbs opposing pitchers with such dexterity.


Kinkiest moment of the night ended in a run for the Mets in the 2nd...

There isn't really much to blame here. Beltran is playing hurt, two-thirds of the outfield is missing. Glavine pitched well, Feliciano was stoned by the law of averages catching up to him, Lo Duca and Wright both had a pair of hits, Damon Easley got on base three times. Ok, Delgado is still hitting below his weight at .222 but we've seen how quickly he can change the fortunes of the Mets...Maybe the blame rests with Shea Stadium itself, cursing the Mets for those plans of leaving. Maybe because the Mets are a miserable 17-14 at home. But hey, it can't mean too much. The Braves are only 16-13 and home and let's not even get started on the Phillies, barely standing at .500 in their newish stadium.

Here's the word of the day: You lose this one but take the next two and all is forgotten. The Braves lost last night as well so no harm done. Sure, the Phillies are "only" 7 games behind the pace now but hey, throw the silly Phillies a bone, they've had a rough go of it this season to date whilst the Mets have been sunning themselves with success.

How upsetting can all this be in light of Pedro pitching off a mound and feeling "encouraged"?

"It feels really high when you first go to the mound," he said. "It's tougher than you think."

Wouldn't it be poetic justice if he ended up being ready to pitch before the steroid harlot?

But one night is enough. The Phillies have won their one game. They aren't the Diamondbacks. The Diamondbacks swept the Phillies in Philly, right before they took two out of three from us at Shea.

The way we can look at it Adam Eaton is pitching for the Phillies Wednesday night, a chance for everyone to fatten up their batting averages (are you listening, Carlos Delgado?)

But beware, Cole Hamels lurks in the shadows of Thursday and although it might be a nice pitching duel between two young and budding prospect pitchers with John Maine facing him, let's hope the Mets' bullpen and the Phillies bullpen stop this Freaky Friday business and go back to their regular scheduled programming.