{"id":589,"date":"2008-09-07T15:07:04","date_gmt":"2008-09-07T14:07:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=589"},"modified":"2009-09-26T12:11:29","modified_gmt":"2009-09-26T11:11:29","slug":"sunday-night-baseball-on-five-phillies-versus-the-mets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=589","title":{"rendered":"Sunday Night Baseball on Five – Phillies versus the Mets"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Five<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game on Five includes the Phillies for the third time in four weeks, but that’s certainly not a complaint.\u00c2\u00a0 They are firmly in the race for the NL East and it’s the Mets who they are fighting for a place in the play-offs, so this should be a great contest.\u00c2\u00a0 Five’s coverage begins at 00.50 with first pitch set for fifteen minutes later.<\/p>\n

The series so far<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the third of a three-game series, although at time of writing only the first game has been played.\u00c2\u00a0 Brett Myers dominated the Mets’ batting lineup on Friday night, striking out ten while throwing eight shutout frames.\u00c2\u00a0 His counterpart Mike Pelfrey had a good outing as well, but the three runs he conceded (including a two-run homer by Greg Dobbs) were all the Phillies needed to win the game 3-0.\u00c2\u00a0 Yesterday’s scheduled game was postponed due to rain, courtesy of Tropical Storm Hanna, so Jamie Moyer and Pedro Martinez will have to wait until 19.15 (BST) today before they finally take to the mound.\u00c2\u00a0 Should the Phillies prevail, a victory in the second game of this double-header would\u00c2\u00a0bring them\u00c2\u00a0level with the Mets\u00c2\u00a0at the top of the NL East.<\/p>\n

Starting pitchers<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pitching match-ups don’t get much better than this: Cole Hamels against Johan Santana.\u00c2\u00a0 Both are famed for having excellent change-ups and don’t be surprised if there are a lot of batters being made to look silly tonight.<\/p>\n

Cole Hamels<\/strong>(12-8, 3.01 ERA) – Hamels pitched on Five three weeks ago<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0against the Padres.\u00c2\u00a0 He put in a typical ‘Ace’ performance,\u00c2\u00a0giving up just one run over\u00c2\u00a0eight innings to lead the Phils to a 2-1 victory despite not having his best stuff.\u00c2\u00a0 Hamels\u00c2\u00a0has a\u00c2\u00a02-0 record in\u00c2\u00a0his three starts since that point, pitching seven innings each time out while conceding three runs combined over the three games.\u00c2\u00a0 He shutout the Nationals over seven and a third innings on Tuesday to lower his season ERA to 3.01.\u00c2\u00a0 At just twenty-four years old, Hamels is only at the beginning of what could be an excellent pitching career.<\/p>\n

Johan Santana<\/strong>(12-7, 2.71 ERA) – Having joined the Mets over the off-season to\u00c2\u00a0great fanfare\u00c2\u00a0before signing a lucrative six year\/$137.5m contract, it seems like anything other than a twenty plus win season and an ERA under\u00c2\u00a02.50 would have amounted to a disappointing season for Santana.\u00c2\u00a0 Consequently his first year in a Mets uniform has gone under the radar somewhat, but don’t let the sky-high expectations cloud your judgement.\u00c2\u00a0 Consider this: Santana went through a six game stretch<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0between 6 June and 4 July when he was saddled with an 0-4 record and the Mets lost all six of his starts.\u00c2\u00a0 Even during this period, Santana had an ERA of 2.48 and limited opponents to a .232\/.291\/.305 batting line.\u00c2\u00a0 The Mets’ bullpen hasn’t been kind to him and he could quite easily be sat here today with five or six more wins.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Things to look out for:<\/strong><\/p>\n