Mets Back in First

What doesn't kill them will only make them stronger. Devastating loss? Who cares? The Mets turned the tables on the Phillies, scoring four runs with two outs in the eighth inning, winning by a score of 6-3. The Mets are disappointing people everywhere by refusing to collapse. They're now on top of the NL East again by a half game. Carlos Delgado was a monster in this game. He warmed up with an RBI single in the first inning. I was almost hoping the Mets wouldn't score in the first. It might jinx them. In the sixth, Delgado drove one into the right field stands. And with two outs in the eight, he smashed an opposite field homer to tie the game. Is it crazy to think he might be creeping up in the MVP race? He's now hit 30 home runs 11 times in his career After the first baseman knotted the score at three, Carlos Beltran (three hits) singled and stole second. The Phillies then intentionally walked Ryan Church to set up a Brad Lidge-Daniel Murphy matchup. In the biggest at-bat of his short career, the rookie snapped an 0-16 slide with a double off the untouchable reliever to drive in the eventual winning run. Brian Schneider capped things off with a bloop down the left field line, which plated the last two runs. Johan Santana kept the Mets in the game, with six strong innings. He gave up five hits, struck out six and walked three. The only runs he let up came on long balls by Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth. Is Werth the new Pat Burrell? I'm not sure who that makes Burrell, but he's losing his "Met killer" tag. And I guess Howard is the new Dave Kingman - you get a home run or a strikeout, and not much else. Brian Stokes picked up the win, throwing a scoreless seventh inning (and pitched two shutout innings on Tuesday). Pedro Feliciano and Joe smith took care of the eighth, with some help from David Wright, who made another Brooks Robinson play throwing out Shane Victorino. He probably didn't deserve to win the Gold Glove last year, but this season is another story. Luis Ayala was perfect in the ninth, notching the save. Charlie Manuel and the Phillies helped out the Mets enormously in this game. The Phils had runners on first and second with nobody out in the sixth, and Manuel elected not to have Victorino bunt. Instead, the center fielder struck out (why the heck is he batting fifth, anyway?), and Santana set down Werth and Pedro Feliz with ease to wiggle out of the jam. In the seventh, Jimmy Rollins stole second with two outs and Chase Utley at the plate, which cleared the way for the Mets to intentionally walk the second baseman, setting up a righty-righty matchup between Stokes and Burrell. Burrell grounded out weakly to third. Rollins really has no clue when to steal a base and when to stay put. How many times this year have we seen him try to steal third with two outs, and even two strikes on the batter? Not smart. The biggest Manuel blunder was not inserting a warmed-up and ready-to-go Lidge to face Delgado in the eighth. Manuel was willing to use his closer in the eighth, because he eventually did bring him in. Only it was too late by then. The Mets are now 10-5 against Philadelphia. The two teams meet for the final time on September 5th-7th at Shea. I'm sure those last three games will be as much fun as all the others have been.