Phillies Sweep Mets, Again, on Dobbs’ Pinch Slam
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Third year Phillies infielder Greg Dobbs got easily the biggest hit of his young major league career in the 6th inning with his pinch hit grand slam against Mets reliever Jorge Sosa. Dobbs’ clout to rightfield powered the Phillies to a 10-6 win and a 3 game sweep of the Mets.
With the win, the Phils pulled to within 3 1/2 games of the NL East leading Mets. They also remained 1 1/2 games behind the San Diego Padres, who beat San Francisco, in the NL wild card race and took a 1/2 game lead over the 3rd place Dodgers who were pounded by Arizona.
The sweep was the third meted out to the Mets by the Phillies this season. Further, it was Philadelphia’s 8th straight win over New York. In late August, the Phils completed a 4 game sweep of the Mets and drew to within 2 games of the NL East leaders but then got pounded by the Florida Marlins and Atlanta Braves and split with the Colorado Rockies and fell to 7 games back. Back in beginning of June, the Phils also swept the Mets in three games. The Phillies easily won the season series winning 12 of the 18 games between the teams.
The Phillies started fast against Mets starter lefthander Oliver Perez scoring 2 runs in the 2nd inning and 1 each in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings as Adam Eaton held the Mets hitless over the first 2 innings and committed 4 of their 6 fielding errors in the first 4 innings. Mets pitchers also issued a season high 11 walks.
The Mets, however, got to Eaton scoring 1 run in the 3rd, 1 in the 4th and and chasing him on centerfielder Carlos Beltran’s 2 out 3 run homer to right centerfield in 5th inning to tie the score as it appeared that Eaton, the $24 million bust, would cough up another game.
With the score knotted at 5-5 and facing Guillermo Mota who replaced Perez, AP sports writer Jay Cohen describes the scene in the Phillies 6th inning and other game highlights for Yahoo sports;
Mets reliever Guillermo Mota (2-2) failed to retire any of the three batters he faced. Pat Burrell walked, Ryan Howard reached on second baseman Luis Castillo’s error and Aaron Rowand walked before Mota was replaced by Jorge Sosa.
Sosa walked Jayson Werth to force in a run before Dobbs hit a 1-2 pitch into the first deck in right for his first career grand slam and third pinch-hit homer. It also was the Phillies’ second pinch-hit slam of the season.
“That was good managing right there,” Manuel said, laughing. “Dobbs has been good for us all year long.”
Dobbs also hurt the Mets on Friday night, lifting the Phillies to a 3-2 win with a pinch-hit sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. He leads the majors with 18 RBIs as a pinch hitter this year.
“You can feel it,” Dobbs said. “We’re so close and if this series is any indication of how we’re going to finish, we’re going to lay it all out on the line.”
Geoff Geary (3-2) pitched two innings in relief of Adam Eaton to earn the win for Philadelphia, which has won six straight at Shea Stadium.
“Our bullpen has done a great job this series, so hopefully we can keep that up,” said closer Brett Myers, who tossed a scoreless inning in each game against the Mets.
David Wright hit a solo homer in the seventh to become the third player in franchise history to reach 30 homers and 30 stolen bases in a season. New York hitting coach Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry also accomplished the feat with the Mets.
Geary gave up a run in the 7th inning on Wright’s solo shot, but the Phillies bullpen has been sterling during this entire series.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on this and all of Sunday’s games, click here.
There’s great news for the Phillies as they travel to St. Louis for 3 games followed by 4 games in Washington as the season is down to crunch time.
Although Kyle Kendrick is scheduled to start against the Cardinals’ Anthony Reyes in Monday’s opener, the Yahoo Phillies’ homepage gives an indication that Kendrick may be pushed back and that ace lefthander Cole Hamels may make his return from the DL to pitch in either the opener or in Tuesday’s game 2.
For the scores, boxscores and recaps on all of Monday’s games, click here.
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