Game Recap

PHILADELPHIA — For huge baseball fans, watching the Phils vs. Astros was a treat. This was the longest game in Citizens Bank Park since 2004; five hours and twenty minutes worth of baseball showcasing a bullpen battle, which took us through 16 innings. This landed Roy Oswalt in left field, and Raul Ibanez at first base.

A day after the controversial call by Umpire Greg Gibson, the Phillies and Astro's serve up an epic 16 inning thriller.

Irony: the all-time hits leader in Florida Marlins history burns his old team for the game-winning RBI single in the bottom of the ninth in Flushing.

NEW YORK-- It was a chilly and misty night at Citi Field, almost a tease of October, which the Mets hope to somehow get to. That may be a stretch, but if they will play deeper into the season, tonight certainly helps.

The Mets were 0-7 entering this season against Marlins ace Josh Johnson before beating him on opening day. Johnson hasn't been on top of his game of late, and the Mets hit him hard tonight.

In fact, they had a collection of great at-bats and baserunning plays throughout the entire game.

The Yankees have just lost the first game of a three-game set to the Blue Jays, 3-2. Here are my thoughts:

Granderson’s AB

One of the turning points in the game was a questionable strikeout call on Curtis Granderson in the top of the ninth inning. The graph shows it wasn’t that close, it was way out of the strike-zone.

PITTSBURGH-- It must be something about Johan Santana starting a game for the Mets. After scoring 12 runs in the first two games of the series against the Pirates, the Mets seemingly improving offense faded away.

They got off to a decent start against Zach Duke, who has been awful this season and over the past couple of years.

PITTSBURGH: The Mets have finally won a road series against a National League team in 2010. Of course, it's not as legitimate as a complete-game effort, but a win is a win.

The Mets beat the Pirates tonight, 5-1, in a rain-shortened, six-inning affair. Once again, Jon Niese was solid, pitching five innings of one-run ball.

The Mets scored their first run in a weird way in the first inning off Pirates starter James McDonald.

PITTSBURGH—Finally, the Mets found the right team to score plenty of runs against. It took a trip to Pittsburgh for the Mets to feel good about themselves offensively, as they jumped all over Jeff Karstens in 3.1 innings.

Mets manager Jerry Manuel called the Mets offense "pathetic" after last night's loss to the Astros. He changed things up tonight, batting Chris Carter cleanup, and it paid off for the Mets and Carter.

The San Diego Padres are simply too strong for the Cubs.

The Chicago Cubs could not avoid the sweep by the NL West leaders Thursday afternoon.  Once again, their bullpen sank and a careless defensive play in the seventh inning put them down 5-3 in the series finale.

HOUSTON: It's almost unbelievable to imagine how the Mets lost their game tonight to the Houston Astros. They just keep finding original ways to do so.

Pat Misch was on the mound for the Mets making his second Major League start of the season. The Mets were trying to win their first NL road series of the season.

Over the first six innings of the game, it felt as if Misch was going to throw a one-hitter. After all, he had only allowed one hit through six.

New York Yankee fans have been waiting patiently for Curtis Granderson to figure himself out and it was well worth the wait.

Presently, the hardest stretch of the regular season is well underway for teams in contention, making the Yankees timing for heading into crisis-mode a serious concern.