PHINALLY

We beat the Phillies! It only took nine games and one division title, but the Mets for once outscored their surly neighbors 90 miles to the southwest, 8-2. Mike Pelfrey was solid, allowing two runs in five innings, and the bullpen, bolstered by the now-present Pedro Feliciano, held the Phils scoreless. Feliciano had been away attending to a "family emergency", which contributed to Tuesday's late game collapse.

The game was a laugher in more ways than one, owing mostly to the Phillies ineptitude with the glove, and Kyle Kendrick's inability to throw a strike after getting the count to 0-2. Jimmy Rollins was on the bench with a sore ankle, forcing Eric Bruntlett to play short, and that was where most of the hilarity ensued. The Mets scored in the first inning on what was apparently a poorly scored error by Chase Utley on a hard-hit grounder by David Wright (I was standing outside a Coldwater Creek waiting for my wife to spend more money at the time). The Phils tied it up in the second after Jose Reyes botched a sure inning-ending double play grounder, tossing it behind second baseman Damion Easley and off his fingertips. Pelfrey stayed remarkably calm after that play, allowing a Carlos Ruiz single, but getting pitcher Kendrick and the Flyin' Hawaiian Shane Victorino to ground out.

Kendrick walked the bases loaded in the bottom of the second, accounting for three of the six walks by the alliterative young righty, but wriggled out of that jam by getting Carlos Beltran to tap weekly to Utley. In the third, the Mets did regain the lead on a double by Delgado, who looks very Delgado-like again, and singles by Ryan Church and Easley. After Brian Schneider lined out, Pelfrey attempted a bunt and nearly interfered with Ruiz, who nudged Pelfrey out of way, grabbed the ball, and threw wide to third off Pedro Feliz' glove to load the bases. Bruntlett then literally booted a possible double-play grounder by Reyes, scoring Church. Angel Pagan followed with a double just inside the bag at third, to make it 5-1, and then after Chad Durbin relieved the frustrated Kendrick, Wright hit a sharp grounder that Bruntlett completely whiffed trying to backhand for his second error of the inning and the Phillies third. Reyes scored on that play to
make it 6-1, and Durbin then bounced a sinker off the front of the plate to the backstop to score Pagan to make it 7-1.

The Phils mounted a few minor challenges, including loading the bases off Feliciano in the 8th, but could not get closer than five runs the rest of the way. The win makes us 3-4, still a game and a half back of the Marlins, and in third place. The Braves were hammered by the Rockies, and go for four straight losses to Colorado this afternoon.

MLB.TV gave me a non-full screen picture for about the first six innings last night, and then somebody at MLB headquarters flipped a switch and I got the full screen video. I have no idea what they are doing with this product. It seems like nobody really cares that much about customer service, but they are all over the idea that if they can't figure out a way to derive revenue off the commercials, you aren't getting them! I'm assuming somebody stands by each feed and manually cuts it over to the white "MLB.TV" logo screen between innings and during pitching changes. If that's the case, why isn't somebody checking the feed to make sure we're getting full-screen video? I gave the Microsoft Silverlight video player another shot last night, but even at 800 KB it's jumpy and looks terrible. The 1.2 MB feed is a complete mess. I might just go ahead and get Extra Innings, because MLB.TV is not getting any better, and if you call their customer service line, all you get is some dope with a New Yawk accent who basically tells you to go screw yourself. If I didn't travel so much, I never would have bought it in the first place. I might also invest in a Slingbox, which can broadcast your cable signal to any PC over the web.