Lost in Translation was last night's theme. The film was airing for the first time, as far as I can figure, on the Encore channel last night, and the Mets were throwing Japanese import Kaz Ishii against the Phils. "Lost In Pronation" was more like it for poor Kaz (look it up).
I missed the first couple of innings fighting with my PC, which has developed a deep aversion to my iPod since Sunday night's power failure. By the time I tuned in, the Phils were up 2-0 on a couple of singles and walks in the first. Ishii walked a couple of more in the second before wriggling out of a jam, but laid up a cookie to Pat Burrell to start off the third, which Burrell took deep for his league-leading fifth homer. David Bell doubled in Jason Michaels later in the inning, and did it again in the fifth to extend the Phillies lead to 5-0.
Randy Wolf, meanwhile, was cruising, giving up singles but not much else. He had a shutout going through eight, with no walks and five K's. About the time Bill Murray whispers into Scarlett Johansson's ear, though, the wheels came off. I guess Bill was telling Scarlett that Wolf was cooked. The Mets led off the ninth with singles by Jose Reyes, Kaz Matsui (Banzai!), and Carlos Beltran, ending the shutout bid and chasing Wolfie in favor of Tim Worrell and his 11.50 ERA. Worrell got Mike Piazza looking on a questionable low inside cutter, but Cliff Floyd hit a 3-0 fastball that will soon be added to the growing registry of space debris. 5-4. Uh-oh. A disheartening Phillies El-Pholdo was not to be, however, as Worrell summoned up a little professionalism and struck out David Wright and induced Doug Mientkiewicz to bounce out to second to pick up the "save".
The win puts the Fightins in a second-place tie with Florida and Atlanta, a game back of Washington, which got run over by the D-Train last night, and a game up on the Mets. I think it's going to be like this all year, except for the Nationals, who I believe are riding the crest of a wave that will collapse about mid-May, when they reel off a five-game losing streak and Bud starts contemplating closing the upper deck at RFK. It's the Mets again tonight, finishing off the two-game series, with Victor Zambrano facing newly activated Vicente Padilla. The Phils will hopefully send Pedro Leery-ano to S/WB and keep Gavin Floyd in the pen.