A small glimmer of hope begins to stir.

Tuesday night the Mets began what was looked at as a big series with the Phillies at Shea. Both teams were tied for first place in the NL East with 53-46 records. The three games had the following pitching matchups:

• Santana(8-7, 3.05) vs. Blanton(5-12, 5.08)
• Maine(9-7, 4.20) vs. Meyers(3-9, 5.82)
• Perez(6-6, 4.15) vs. Moyer(9-6, 3.76)

These matchups certainly seemed to favor the Mets, though I'm smarter than that and expected little.

The first game featured Philadelphia's newly acquired starting pitcher, Joe Blanton, against our ace, Johan Santana. A big game with first place on the line is exactly the kind of game Johan was brought over from Minnesota to pitch. He pitched pretty well, actually, going 8 innings while giving up 2 runs on 8 hits. Blanton, on the other hand, hasn't really been having the best season. He was floundering with Oakland, and didn't fare much better in this game. The Mets managed 5 runs off of him. It would have been more runs except that there were some very nice defensive plays on the part of the Phillies. They threw two runners out at the plate during the game, and Chase Utley made a great diving catch in the right side gap with the bases loaded and 2 outs.

Taking a 5-2 lead into the ninth, Manuel pulled Santana for bullpen help, which proved their undoing. Since Wagner was out for the night with shoulder spasms, they turned to Duaner Sanchez, who is continuing to make good progress coming back from injuries received in a taxi accident two years ago. Unfortunately, he hadn't progressed enough, because the Phillies loaded the bases with no one out, and it was all downhill from there.
Final Score: 8-6, Phillies

The second game featured another Philadelphia pitcher having a poor season. Brett Meyers was actually demoted last month to the minor leagues because of his control problems. They brought him up this week in hopes that he could bolster a very mediocre starting rotation. He pitched against John Maine who has been having a lot of trouble himself of late. Maine hadn't pitched past the fifth inning in any of his previous three starts. He said he came into the game looking to attack the strike zone more and not walk as many hitters (5 walks in each of his last 2 starts, ouch).

I was not able to watch this game as I was helping a friend move into her new house, but it wound up being a pretty good game. Maine looks like he may be moving past his control issues, pitching 7 good innings, while Jose Reyes broke a tie in the sixth inning with a go-ahead 3-run homer. This was the second night in a row the Mets had a 3-run lead on the Phillies going into the ninth inning, but they had Billy Wagner this time. He pitched a quick ninth inning for the save.
Final Score: 6-3, Mets

The final game in the series was today in the early afternoon, meaning I once again missed it. This would have been an interesting game to see. Oliver Perez and Jamie Moyer are both having exceptional seasons against each other's team. Perez has a 0.35 ERA in 26 innings against the Phillies this season, including today's game. Today he pitched 7 2/3 innings, giving up 1 earned run while striking out 12. Moyer also pitched really well, going 7 innings giving up 1 earned run on 2 hits.

It was the eighth inning in this game the made all the difference. In the top of the inning, Oliver Perez wound up with the bases loaded and 2 outs. Aaron Heilman came in to relieve Perez, and got Jayson Werth to fly out to deep center. In any other ballpark, that would have been serious trouble, but Shea can hold most of the long fly balls that it sees. The bottom of the inning was beautiful. Carlos Delgado, who slumped horribly for the first 3 months of the season, has been on a torrid rampage of National League pitching this month. With two outs and Robinson Cancel on base, J.C. Romero, who left-handed hitters are anemic against this year, walked David Wright to get to Delgado. This also happened two nights previous, and that resulted in a monster 2-run homer by Carlos. On this occasion, Delgado laced an opposite field double into the left field corner to put the Mets up by 2 runs.
Final Score: 3-1, Mets

So, now the Mets have sole possession of first place in the NL East. I've been calling all season for them to not even be in contention at the end of the season, as just watching the team play left me with no real hope. They looked like a team with no fire or passion whatsoever. Since they fired Willie Randolph as manager, the team is now 21-12 under Jerry Manuel. I don't know how much that had to do with it, but the team looks fired up right now. They still have major flaws on the team, especially at the corner outfield slots and second base, but they're looking to give me a little bit of hope for the rest of the summer.

Of course, I've always known my beloved Mets to find ever more horrifying ways of destroying my hope and spirit, so we'll see where this all goes.