Philllies 8 – Mets 4
PHILADELPHIA – After more than a month, Aaron Heilman finally cracked.
Entering last night, Heilman had not allowed a run since May 15, firing 13 straight scoreless innings out of the bullpen. It prompted manager Willie Randolph to announce on Tuesday that Heilman’s role was going to be a bit altered.
“Instead of using him a little earlier, I might use him a little later,” Randolph said Tuesday.
But when Heilman was summoned into a tie game in the seventh inning last night after Royce Ring issued a one-out walk to Jim Thome, he allowed five of the six batters he faced to reach base, thanks to three hits, a walk and a hit-by-pitch. The Phillies would score six runs in the inning, en route to an 8-4 Met defeat. Ring took the loss, and Dae-Sung Koo didn’t help by relieving Heilman and giving up Kenny Lofton’s bases-loaded three-run triple. But it was Heilman – charged with five runs in one-third of an inning – who really blew the game.
The bullpen also spoiled a fine effort by Victor Zambrano. On the same day Scott Kazmir beat the Yankees, Zambrano allowed just two runs over six innings. Over Zambrano’s last seven starts, he’s posted a 2.80 ERA, but he has only one win in that span, primarily because the Mets (34-37) have scored only 14 runs in those games.
After breaking out of their slump with five runs on Sunday and eight more on Tuesday, the Met lineup was so-so last night, managing four runs on five hits. Cliff Floyd drilled a solo homer, Mike Piazza hit a two-run shot and Brian Daubach pinch-hit a sac fly.
The game was tied 2-2 in the seventh, when Ring took over for Zambrano. The lefty struck out Bobby Abreu but walked Thome. Enter Heilman, who had stranded all 12 runners he’d inherited this year.
But Heilman began by hitting Pat Burrell on the left shoulder, and with men on first and second, Chase Utley broke the tie by knocking an opposite-field single to left, making it 3-2. Heilman then struck out David Bell for the second out, but Mike Lieberthal’s RBI single to left made it 4-2, and Jason Michaels reached on an infield single to third.
With the bases loaded, Heilman tossed a wild pitch, allowing Utley to score for a 5-2 lead. He then walked Jimmy Rollins to reload the bases, whereupon Koo entered and unloaded them with Lofton’s three-run triple. It was 8-2 before the inning was over.
After working out a bases-loaded no-out situation in the first inning, Zambrano was victimized by a David Wright gaffe in the second.
With Utley on third and one out, Lieberthal hit a liner to third. The ball clearly hit the ground a second before Wright gloved it, but he apparently thought he caught it. So instead of throwing home to get Utley, Wright simply stepped on third to complete what he thought was a double play. But it was correctly ruled that Wright didn’t catch the ball, and when Utley scored, the Phils took a 1-0 lead.
Facing 23-year-old rookie righty Robinson Tejeda, who was making just his third major league start, the Mets managed just one baserunner (a Carlos Beltran hit-by-pitch) in the first 3 2/3 innings before Floyd tied it at 1-1 with a homer to left. Thome made it 2-1 in the fifth with a solo shot before Daubach’s pinch-hit sac fly in the seventh retied it at 2-2.
