“I obviously made some bad choices and it didn’t work out.” – Jerry Manuel

The manager took the blame for what should have been an easy Mets victory. In round one of the battle for first place, the Mets bullpen melted down in the ninth inning, coughing up six runs, leading to an 8-6 Phillies win. The loss drops the Mets into a second-place tie with Florida. Duaner Sanchez, Joe Smith, Pedro Feliciano and Aaron Heilman (with help from a Jose Reyes fielding miscue) combined to hand the game to Philadelphia on a silver platter.

After giving up three straight two-out singles and a run in the first, Johan Santana breezed through his last seven innings. His final line was eight innings pitched, two runs, eight hits, four K’s and zero walks (and one home run to Shane “The Great Gazoo” Victorino). He threw 105 pitches. Which begs the question, why didn’t he pitch the ninth inning? After the game, Manuel said if Ryan Howard would have led off the ninth, Santana would have stayed in the game. But with Billy Wagner not available (hurry back, Billy―all is forgiven) and Santana having little trouble with the Phillies lineup, he’s got to go out there for the ninth. That’s what an ace is supposed to do. That’s why you traded for him. Of course, on the other hand, is it really too much to ask Major League pitchers to get three outs without giving up three runs, even if they’re not accustomed to pitching the last inning of a game? It’s just another in a long line of well-pitched games by Santana that the Mets end up losing.

The offense scored six runs on 10 hits, knocking around Joe Blanton (six innings pitched, five runs, eight hits, two K’s, three walks) like he was Adam Eaton. In Blanton’s previous two starts against the Mets he hadn’t given up a run. Carlos Delgado hit a two-run homer (the 450^th of his career). Ramon Castro also clubbed a two-run dinger. He even added a rare infield single, and now has two hits in five of his last six games. David Wright doubled in a run in the third, with Endy Chavez getting thrown out at home also trying to score on the play. Chavez was gunned down at the plate again in the seventh inning. It’s time to send third-base coach Luis Aguayo back to the minors for some more seasoning.

The offense let the Phillies off the hook, and the bullpen gave the game away. But the Mets have had so many disasters the last two years that this shouldn’t faze them one bit. John Maine takes on Brett Myers tonight, and to paraphrase Lou Brown, let’s see how they respond.