Oh my goodness. Not exactly what I was screaming when, with two on, no outs, and the runners in motion in the 9th, Eric Bruntlett caught a liner by Jeff Francouer, stepped on second, then tagged Daniel Murphy in the base path. And with that Bruntlett, who had earlier in the inning committed an error and misplayed another ball, became the 15th man in MLB history to turn an unassisted triple play and the first since 1927 to turn a game-ending one.
Oh yes, the Phillies won 9-7 in a game that was filled with bizarre events. The Phillies had two three-run homers in the first, one by Jayson Werth (his 29th) and one by Carlos Ruiz. Then with a 3-0 count on Pedro Martinez, the 9th man to come to bat against Ollie Perez in the inning, Mets' manager Jerry Manuel came out of the dugout and pulled Perez. Wow.
In the bottom of the frame, Shane Victorino 'misplayed' the Citifield ground rules and handed an inside-the-park home run to lead-off hitter Angel Pagan when the ball got lodged under the fence padding. Right then you just knew it was going to be a weird game. Martinez, rocky for his first three innings and effective for his last three, went six, giving up four runs on seven hits. He also had an RBI single.
Martinez left with an 8-4 lead. The Phillies tacked on a run when pinch-hitter Matt Stairs walked, went to 2nd on a wild pitch, to third on a ground-out, then scored on another wild pitch. Bizarre. This is after all Matt Stairs we're talking about.
The Mets meanwhile got another run off Chad Durbin in the 7th, then another off Ryan Madson in the 8th to set up the 9-6 final frame. Eric Bruntlett, who was playing for Chase Utley, had already gone 3 for 3. In the top of the 9th, he hit what was at first ruled a triple, but the umpires, after crowd reaction to replays, overturned the call, initially made by the second base ump. In fact, Jeff Francoeur had made a fantastic catch but the reason for overturning the call was sketchy at best. Charlie Manuel got tossed for his protests.
On in the 9th, Brad Lidge was immediately let down by his defense, first by an error at 1st, then an error by Bruntlett at 2nd, who also misplayed another ball, allowing a run to score. Then Bruntlett, who had gone from hero to goat all in one inning, went again to hero in the most improbable ending of all. I'm still smiling.
Bruntlett later said that he would have been just as happy to have made the plays he botched and have the game end in ho-hum fashion.
