PHILLIES NEWS

The Phils opened their series with the Mets tonight it everything but as planned. Kyle Kendrick got the start but was rocked allowing 4 runs on 5 hits, 3 of them home runs in just 5 innings. The Phils meanwhile continued to struggle at the plate, as Met's rookie John Niese held them to just 1 run on 4 hits with 7 ks over 7 innings. 3 of those 4 hits came in the 2nd inning and could have easily have caused a lot of damage to Niese, if not for some spectacular Met's defense with Jeff Franceour and Jason Bay each robbing the Phils of extra base hits. They never really made any inroads on Niese after that and their effort level dropped the rest of the way as they wallowed in their continued frustration. Still, only down 4-1 heading into the 7th inning the Phils still had a chance to stage comeback but then Danys Baez ,who was trying to get through a second inning, just lost it and a hit batsmen, wild pitch, walk of the pitcher, and 3 Met hits later it was 8-1 NY. From there Phils watched NY tack on another run before the finishing off the embarrassing 9-1 loss.

Rod Barajas, yes that Rod Barajas the ex Phil who did nothing while he was here except single handedly ruin Brett Myers' career, once again killed his old team going 3 for 4, with 2 homers and 3 RBIs. I just wonder how he keeps doing it against the Phils, I mean the rest of the season he isn't even Mendoza, but suddenly against the Phils he turns into Babe Ruth. Brad Lidge got a chance to pitch in the 9th but only briefly and it was mixed bax for him. With a lucky swing Barajas homered off him to start the inning. Then he looked good in getting Frank Catalanotto to fly out, but finished his outing by allowing Angel Pagan to slap a single. So all in all considering all the time he's missed it was not an awful first outing for Lidge. He like most closers struggles in non save situations and obviously it is going to take him a few outings to catch up with everyone else so I wouldn't count him out just yet. If nothing else J.C Romero, who came for Lidge, did look pretty good again in finishing off the 9th inning, but he's still not quite ready for his old work load just yet. A few more outings should do the trick.

The bad luck with injuries continued for the Phils earlier today as Ryan Madson went on the DL with a broken toe after kicking a chair following his last outing. So you guessed it, Antonio Bastardo is back with the big club, at least until Monday when Joe Blanton is scheduled to come off the DL. As for the Phils with the loss they drop to 12-10 overall which puts them in the 3rd place in the NL East behind NY and the Washingon Nationals. Obviously things won't stay like that for the rest of the seaon but the Phils are going to have to pick it up again at some point