The Nine Spot Answer

Tonight in Philadelphia, before a nationwide audience on the World Wide Lemur, the Mets jumped all over ancient Phillies starting pitcher Jamie Moyer in the rubber game of their three game set. By the time that the Phils got to the plate, they were down 3-0, with ace pitcher Johan Santana on the mound, and first place in the division for the taking.

And then the defending National League champions answered with two home runs of their own.

The Mets eventually pushed across two more in the fourth on a Rod Barajas foul pole home run, with Santana having retired seven in a row, and the train was on the tracks again...

Except that this time the Phils answered with nine straight men reaching base with two outs in the fourth, plating nine in the innings, chasing Santana, and staking Moyer to career win #261, the Phils to a series win, and retaking first place in the division. Seven out of nine starters hit and drove in a run, including Moyer. Ye gads, when this offense is rolling, it's just an avalanche.

After the nine spot, Moyer and Chad Durbin put down 13 Mets in a row, and if you want to say the road team quit and couldn't wait to get this game over... well, I would not argue with you. At all. And someone needs to tell Jerry Manuel that a .216 batting average without power is not a #3 hitter, even if it is named Jose Reyes.

The home team next gets the Cardinals at home, while the Mets move on to Cincy. Making matters worse for the Queens men is that they have only played 8 games on the road to 16 at home (the Phils' ratio is 8 at home to 15 on the road), which means that they really should be ahead in the division right now... especially when you consider that the Phillies are missing Jimmy Rollins, J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton. Assuming the starting pitching comes back healthy, this is really the time that the rest of the division should be ahead, and they aren't.

Oh, and there's also this. Offense usually goes up in the warm months. The Phils have now scored 136 runs in their first 24 games, or 5.67 a game, with 21 in the last 2 games, after a weak road trip. This could easily be a 1,000 run offense this year, especially if Rollins comes back strong. Nice time to be a Phillies fan.