» Santana, Mets Bullpen Shutout Phillies 1-0

Santana, Mets Bullpen Shutout Phillies 1-0

Phillies starter Chan Ho Park has apparently held on to his spot in the rotation by virtue of his finest peformance since May 5, 2006. Park held the Mets to 1 hit through six innings in an old-fashioned pitchers duel with ace lefthander Johan Santana. But the Mets capitalized on a fielding error in the seventh inning to scratch out a run with the pitcher of record still Santana, and the bullpen made it stand up in a Mets 1-0 shutout of the Phillies on Wednesday.

Park was dominant through six innings holding the Mets to 1 hit while walking 2, striking out 5 and making a lot of Met hitters look foolish.

MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki writes of Park’s performance:

Chan Ho Park might have saved his job in the Phillies’ rotation Wednesday night at Citi Field.

He also might have proved to himself that aggressiveness and confidence go a long way.

“He pitched a heck of a game,” Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of Park. “He was aggressive. He threw strikes. When he got behind, he came back and went right at the hitters. He had a good tempo and rhythm going. Santana was definitely just as good. He did a tremendous job.”

He [Park] sure looked like a different pitcher Wednesday.

“That’s what I’m supposed to do, right?” he said.

Park had a no-hitter going with two outs in the fifth inning when Daniel Murphy hit a double into left-center field.

But as well as Park pitched, Manuel pinch-hit for him in the seventh with a runner on second and two outs. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/players/7166 Eric Bruntlett struck out swinging. Manuel said with Santana pitching so well, he felt he needed to go for the victory.

As great a performance as Park put on, Santana bettered him going seven innings allowing 2 Phillies hits while walking 3 and striking out 10 on 101 pitches through seven innings. Santana struck out the side in the second and fourth innings, although the 3rd strike on leftfielder Raul Ibanez in the fourth, which would have retired the side, eluded catcher Omir Santos allowing Ibanez to reach 1st base safely. Santana dominated the meat of the Phillies batting order fanning 1st baseman Ryan Howard and
rightfielder Jayson Werth 3 times each and got Ibanez on strikes twice. When the Phillies did connect off of Santana, other than shortstop Jimmy Rollins’ third inning single and Ibanez’s lead-off seventh inning ground rule double, 6 outs were on the ground while 6 were by fly ball.

Park’s ratio was nearly as good getting 5 groundouts and 7 fly outs. He threw 91 pitches through six innings. In the fifth innning, after hitting 1st baseman Carlos Delgado, Park got 3rd baseman David Wright to ground into an around-the-horn double play before Murphy finally reached him for a double — the first Mets hit of the game.

The Phillies made 2 errors in the sixth inning with 2 out; a fielding error by Park enabling shortstop Jose Reyes to reach 1st base safely. The Reyes stole 2nd base and took 3rd on catcher Carlos Ruiz’s errant throw. Fortunately the 2 errors were inconsequential as Park got centerfielder Carlos Beltran to fly out to end the inning. However, the Phils were not so lucky in the seventh.

Manager Charlie Manuel sent lefthanded reliever Scott Eyre in to pitch the seventh inning. Eyre issued a lead-off walk to Delgado before getting Wright and Murphy to fly out. When righthanded hitting pinch hitter Fernando Tatis stepped up, Manuel went to Chad Durbin to close out the inning. It was not to be.

Tatis singled to 3rd base with Pedro Feliz making an off-balance play and resultant errant throw which rolled into rightfield. AP Baseball writer Mike Fitzpatrick describes the play in the Yahoo sports recap:

Delgado chugged home from first base on a bad hip when Feliz threw away pinch-hitter Fernando Tatis’ infield single to third with two outs in the seventh. Right fielder Jayson Werth retrieved the ball but double-clutched before a late throw to the plate, and Delgado scored with a feet-first slide.

After that, relievers Pedro Feliciano and Francisco Rodriguez closed down the Phils in the eighth and ninth inning. Rodriguez recorded his 8th save of the season.

The Phils had 2 opportunities to reach Santana and put runs on the board. The lefthander isssued a 1 out walk to hi opponent Park in the third. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins followed with a single to centerfield putting runners at 1st and 2nd base. But Santana got both centerfielder Shane Victorino and 2nd baseman Chase Utley to ground out to end the inning.

In the seventh inning, after Ibznez opened with a ground rule double to right centerfield, Feliz popped out and Santana got catcher Ruiz to ground out. Manuel opted to pinch hit Eric Bruntlett for Park and Bruntlett struck out swinging to end the inning.

Eyre was charged with his 1st loss of the season as Delgado, the hit batsman, crossed with the only run of the game on Feliz’s error. Santana recorded his 4th win and lowered his ERA to an unworldly .91 for the season.

For all of the results of Wednesday’s games, click here.

The Phils hope to salvage a in to conclude the short 2 game series against the New York Mets on Thursday before heading home to entertain Atlanta in a 3 game weekend series to conclude this week’s weird scheduling.

On Thursday, veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer faces Mets’ Mike Pelfrey who struggled in winning last Friday’s game by a 7-4 score. Pelfrey pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs on 7 hits while walking 4 and striking out none.

For all of Thursday’s games, click here.