mets

Mets, Phillies Ready for Some Slow-Pitch

Get out to Citi Field tonight, kids. It is possible it will be the last baseball game in our lifetimes in which not a single pitch before the sixth inning goes over 82 miles per hour. You know how the old batting cages at Coney Island had the “90 mph” and “80 mph” and “70 mph” on down machines? Tonight is going to be firmly in the 80 mph category. It’s going to look like a Long Island Ducks game.

Tonight’s starters, you see, are octogenarian Jamie Moyer for the Phillies and knuckleballer R.A. Dickey for the Mets. One of the million wonderful things about baseball is that two humans like these could be pitching at the highest level of the sport, and figuring out a way to make it work. One of them is older than most managers; the other is a burned-out former phenom who taught himself a knuckleball just to keep his career alive. It’s funny that this could happen. It’s kind of great.

The Mets are going to miss Roy Halladay in this series, and could conceivably make some noise again in the NL East if they could pull off a sweep. Baseball Prospectus’s PECOTA Playoff Odds Report currently has the Mets with a 3.14 percent chance of making the playoffs. We bet that number goes up a bit with a sweep. It’s probably a little early to be counting on a sweep, but after the Yankees series win, there are good vibes out there; now’s the time to ride them.

Mets, Phillies Ready for Some Slow-Pitch