Friday, September 5, 2008

Showdown in the Big Apple

At least for two days, it remains baseball season.

It’s up to the Phillies if that will still be the case on Monday.

The Phils are in the Big Apple to start a three-game series against the Mets starting tonight. They have Brett Myers, who has been lights out since his stint in the minors to get his act together, on the mound. They will need a huge effort out of Myers.

The rest of the weekend could be a question mark. That’s because tomorrow’s game might be sacrificed as tropical storm Hanna drenches the region. If that’s the case, it will be very interesting to see how the game is made up. Saturday’s game is set as the weekly Fox afternoon game on national TV. Sunday the teams are booked as the ESPN Sunday night game, also for a national TV audience.

I suppose they could play an afternoon-night split double-header on Sunday if Saturday gets washed out.

Jamie Moyer is supposed to pitch Saturday, with the team “ace” Cole Hamels on tap Sunday. Would the Phils simply bump back Moyer if Saturday is postponed, in the process giving Hamels the extra day off he likes if the game is not rescheduled for Sunday?

That would mean Hamels would not have faced the Mets this season.

Bottom line is this: Phils need to take no less than two of three in this series. Otherwise, they face the prospect of falling father behind. Of course, they were in even more dire straits last year and we all know how that worked out. I don’t think the Mets, even with their nitroglycerine bullpen, are going to be that accommodating two years in a row.

It starts tonight. The Phils need a win from Myers and then build on it from there.

If they lose tonight, they will be playing for their lives in Game 2, whenever it’s played.

A lot of years the baseball season would officially end at 1 o’clock Sunday, when the Eagles kick off their season at the Linc vs. the Rams.

The Phils have pushed the Eagles off the Back Page for much of the summer. They have packed Citizens Bank Park, setting a team record for sellouts.

Now their backs are against the wall.

Let’s see how they react.

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