Phils Lose; Tied for First

The Phils fell in Flushing last night by a score of 6 - 3. The loss dropped the Phils back into a first place tie with the Mets in the NL East.

The game marked Brett Myers' first start since a June 27th loss to the Texas Rangers. Myers managed to go 5 shaky innings and was lucky to have only given up 3 runs. He started off on a bad foot, walking the first 4 guys he faced. Myers managed to settle down somewhat, but could not consistently locate his fastball.

The pivotal inning in the game, however, was the 6th inning, when the ball was handed to reliever Ryan Madson. Madson gave up two hits and, after an aborted sacrifice, coughed up a 3-run bomb to Jose Reyes. Reyes then managed to perform about a dozen celebratory handshakes and gestures enroute from home plate to the dugout. I thought Reyes was having some sort of epileptic seizure, but apparently seizures are not a symptom of assholery.

Offensively, the Phils could only manage a couple of a solo homers (Victorino and Jenkins) and an RBI double from Rollins. Can anyone remember the last hit of consequence from Chase Utley?

The series concludes tomorrow at 12:10pm, with Jamie Moyer taking the ball against the Mets' Oliver Perez.

Notes:

- I liked the move to pull Myers after 5 innings. Let him leave without the possibility of taking a loss. He wasn't great, but it could have been worse.

- Please someone tell Chase Utley the second half has begun.

- Ryan Howard was not charged for an error on that ground ball in the first inning that he should have caught to start a double play (which would have prevented a run), but he should have been.

- Ryan Madson. Not good.

- Can't believe I'm about to say this: Chris Wheeler made an excellent point to Tom McCarthy during the broadcast about Carlos Beltran. Beltran, a player who makes $18.6 million dollars a year, laid down a sacrifice bunt with nobody out during the 8th inning last night. That was, as Wheeler said, a dumb baseball play. A hitter of Beltran's calibre (and payscale) should be swinging away in that situation.