Mets sweep a doubleheader from the Phillies

The New York Mets defeated the Philadelphia Phillies twice on Saturday. They beat them 2-1 and 6-3 in a doubleheader. R.A. Dickey pitched great in the first game and the bullpen used two pitchers to close it out. Dillon Gee pitched the second game and picked up the win, he gave up a bunch of hits but was able to now allow many runs. The bullpen pitched very well in the second game using three pitchers. The offense wasn’t great in the second game, they had some help by the Phillies defense to score some runs. In the first game the offense for the Mets only had six hits and no one had more then one.
In the first game Dickey pitched seven innings giving up three hits and one run with a walk and four strikeouts. Miguel Batista pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a walk, he also struck out one and Bobby Parnell faced one batter and retired him to pick up his fourth win of the season. Manny Acosta pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk with a strikeout to pick up his third save of the season. In the night cap Gee pitched six innings giving up nine hits and three runs with two of them being earned. He walked two and struck out two. Gee is now 13-6 on the season, Parnell pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings and struck out one and Daniel Herrera pitched to one batter and retired him. Acosta picked up his fourth save of the season pitching one inning and giving up a hit and a walk.

The offense in the day game got hits from Jose Reyes, Ruben Tejada and David Wright. Wright had an RBI and a walk, Josh Satin had a hit and Nick Evans had a hit. Willie Harris had a walk and Valentino Pascucci had a hit and an RBI. Wright had a double and Pascucci had a homerun. The Mets were 1-7 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. Tejada, Reyes and Wright each had a stolen base. In the night cap Tejada had a hit and an RBI, Justin Turner had a walk and Harris had a hit. Wright had a walk, Evans had a hit and an RBI and Josh Thole had a hit and two RBI. Jason Pridie had two hits, Evans and Pridie each had a double. The Mets were 3-6 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Harris and Pridie each had a stolen base. Turner had an error.

In the first game the Phillies got on the board first in the seventh inning on a Ryan Howard RBI single. In the bottom of the seventh Pascucci hit a solo homerun to tie the game at one. In the eighth Wright had an RBI double and that would complete the scoring in the game. In the night game the Phillies took a 2-0 lead in the second inning. Wilson Valdez had an RBI single and Jimmy Rollins had an RBI single. In the third Ross Gload had an RBI single to extend the lead to 3-0 Phillies. In the bottom of the third Harris reached on a fielding error and two runs scored to cut the lead to 3-2. Evans doubled to tie the score at three and Thole had a two run single to make it 5-3 Mets. In the fourth Tejada had an RBI single and it was 6-3 Mets. The game would end with that score.

The Mets have continued to play hard after Terry Collins really gave it to them about a week ago before their road trip. They have responded by playing well in Atlanta and St. Louis and now carrying it back home against the Phillies. The Phillies of course have nothing to play for but that isn’t the Mets fault. They need to feel good about themselves ending the season and heading into next season.

Fridays News and Notes from Tampa

Joba Chamberlain and Phil Hughes spoke to the media toay and you can hear about 3 minutes from each on the Lohud Yankees Blog. Here is the link http://yankees.lhblogs.com Andy Pettitte followed the lead of the other starting pitchers and stayed off the mound, he will wait a few days before he revs it up. Here is what he had to say "My bodys feeling good, everything feels good coming into the spring. I feel real good about that." Andy also said the workload of the playoffs shouldn't bother him because the Yankees did a good job at the end of the year of resting their pitchers for the playoffs. He also said he is happy they added another reliable arm and that they never had met before but have already played golf together. Joe Girardi said you would love to have 2 lefties in a perfect world but they feel their righties get lefties out well. He specifically mentioned Dave Robertson but did say that 2 lefties gives you so many more options. Yogi Berra was in the clubhouse this morning according to Chad Jennings of the Journal News. Greg Golson and David Winfree both stopped in the clubhouse today, they are both going to be fighting for a job. It will be interesting to see what happens with guys like this, do they serve as trade bait, the last spot on the bench or go to the minors and add depth. Joe Girardi said the thing that has jumped out at him this early in camp was a lot of quality arms. He said some of the pitchers are big and intimidating, that he needs a step stool to talk to them. Here are the pitchers who threw today Joba Chamberlain, Christian Garcia, Phil Hughes and Edwar Ramirez. The second group was Kei Igawa, Mark Melancon, Boone Logan and Mosely. The third group was Zach McAllister, Ivan Nova and Kevin Whelan. The last group was Jeremy Bleich, Hector Noesi, Wilken De La Rosa and Mitchell. There isn't too much going on but I am going to try and post some pictures over the weekend and the starters are going to start throwing bullpens and then on Wednesday the full squad reports so it will get more interesting.

Baseball is Back-Almost

Today marks the last day of the offseason. Who would of thought we would of made it to spring training and Johnny Damon still doesn't have a team although it appears he and the Tigers are getting closer. The New York Yankees will officially open up spring training tommorrow with pitchers and catchers reporting at 10:00AM, manager Joe Girardi will address the media at 12 Noon. It has changed from years past where all the players really have to do is call and say they are in the area, a lot of the players have been trickling in at the minor league complex since last week. Here are the last few notes from pre spring training and then tommorrow it will be full coverage all day everyday of the Yankees and Mets so please check back often for news and opinion. I hope you will all come here and start debates and talk about different aspects of the season. I am always open to suggestions and opinions and it doesn't matter if you agree with me or not. I can be reached through the comments here or email at gmarchesej@aol.com. I thank everyone for all the support and lets have a great season. The New York Mets don't report until Thursday. Chien-Ming Wang officially signed with the Washington Nationals today, he will have a press conference on Friday. Here are the pre-spring training workout notes from today. CC Sabathia talked to the media today and stated he has only thrown 2 bullpen sessions so far and he usually has thrown 5. He stated he isn't too worried about catching up. He will throw one tomorrow when he reports to camp. He also stated he does plan on taking his teammates to Orlando Magic games during spring training, he already has the tickets so whoever is up for it come see him and he is ready to go. He also talked about being hungry for more and recruiting Lebron James to come play for the New York Knicks. Brett Gardner took batting practice and looked good. Everyone is saying how scruffy he is looking, I can't wait to see him. Derek Jeter, Francisco Cervelli, Ramiro Pena and Curtis Granderson also took batting pratctice. Most of the coaching staff was in attendance. Dave Robertson, A.J. Burnett, CC Sabathia and Javier Vazquez did some throwing. It was a rather cool day in Florida with temps in the 40's and 50's still much better then being here in the snow though.