It was another weird 1st inning in Flushing this afternoon. With two on, Ryan Howard hit a humongous opposite field homer, what TV play-by-play man Tom McCarthy calls an "oppo boppo". So with a 3-0 lead, Cliff Lee took the mound going for his fifth win as a Phillie and right off Chase Utley made an unimaginable couple of errors that gave lead-off man Angel Pagan four bases and a run. The Mets then added another run on a sacrifice fly.
In his second at bat, Ryan Howard again homered, this time a two-run shot to the upper deck in right, to put the Phillies up 5-2. For the fourth season in a row, Howard has 30+ home runs and 100+ RBI, the only Phillie to do that since Hall of Famer Chuck Klein did the same from 1929 to 1932. Not a bad start to a career, Ryan!
Meanwhile, the amazing Mr. Lee went seven innings, giving up just those two unearned runs and getting his fifth straight win as a Phillie. His ERA in that period is 0.68, with a WHIP of 0.75. He has walked five and struck out 39. Just think about that. Thanks to a sensational defensive play by Utley, Chan Ho Park pitched a scoreless 8th and Lidge followed with a clean 9th. The Phillies tacked on a run in the top of the 9th on an RBI double by Raul Ibanez in the 6-2 win.
It was a ragged series, but the Phillies did what they had to in taking three of four from an inferior team. On now to Pittsburgh and its lovely park before a weekend series at home with Atlanta.
