Mets 7
Phillies 2
PHILADELPHIA – Carlos Delgado had no home runs in August and only two hits in his last 10 games before the Mets played the finale of their four-game series with the Phillies yesterday.
But Delgado insisted yesterday that August hadn’t frustrated him, and in the Mets’ 7-2 win over the Phillies, his power finally resurfaced.
Delgado slammed two solo homers, ripped an RBI triple and added a sacrifice fly, driving in four runs with his strongest game since July 30.
“I think I’ve been working on a lot of things,” Delgado said after the Mets captured their only victory of the series at Citizens Bank Park. “Been trying to get my hands going, trying to eliminate a little body movement, and I got some good pitches to hit. But hopefully it’s the beginning of good things.”
The best thing – or at least the most impressive homer – came in the third inning when Delgado crushed a 444-foot blast off the red brick batter’s eye in center field. It was on a pitch right after he had hammered a long foul to right field.
“There’s been farther [homers at Citizens], but not with that much authority,” said Billy Wagner, who pitched 2004 and 2005 in Philly, the first two seasons of the Phils’ stadium.
Delgado entered the game with two hits in his last 30 at-bats, and before his second-inning single on Wednesday, had been in an 0-for-20 rut.
In the first inning yesterday against Scott Mathieson, the first baseman hit a sac fly to center, putting the Mets up 1-0. He hit a solo homer in the third, his first since July 30.
Carlos Beltran (four hits for the third time this season) led off the fifth with a homer to right-center, and Delgado followed with a homer to right. In the seventh with Beltran on first, Delgado legged out his first triple of the season when he pulled a hit to right. David Dellucci kicked the ball away, allowing Beltran to score and Delgado to go to third.
“A triple is hard. You have to run too much,” Delgado said. “I leave it up to Jose [Reyes].”
John Maine again hurled a strong game, permitting only two runs on eight hits in six innings. The rookie righty has a 1.62 ERA in his last five starts, with the Mets earning victories in all of them.
Maine didn’t walk anybody yesterday, after issuing one free pass in his previous outing against Washington.
After the Mets – shut out on both Monday and Wednesday – scored in the first inning on Delgado’s sac fly, they drove in two more runs in the second. Mike DiFelice recorded his first Mets hit (he had been 0-for-8) with an RBI single, and Reyes (two hits, one walk, one steal) added an RBI single.
With the Mets up 7-2 in the seventh, the Phillies loaded the bases off Maine and Chad Bradford, but with two outs, Pedro Feliciano struck out Chase Utley looking.
