Good Morning Mets Fans!

"Fasten your seatbelts ladies and gentlemen, the captain has turned off the no smoking sign, and we are preparing for liftoff."

In a ballpark that doesn't yield many homeruns, last night was different. How different? Seven homeruns worth of different, but we'll get to that a bit later.

Let's start with Johan Santana, who is well on his way to 20+ wins and another Cy Young award.

Johan Santana was a bit upset. OK, he was pissed off!

He battled through 7 tough innings and had a 6-4 lead thanks to a Ryan Church bomb that we'll get to later.

Then, in the 8th, he faced Chase Utley and did the unthinkable--he allowed his fourth homerun of the night--a cheapie homerun, but a homerun nonetheless. It was now 6-5 Mets and Jerry Manuel was out at the mound calling for a reliever. To that point Johan had only thrown 91 pitches.

So we're sitting there watching and Johan looks really agitated, he was beet red and mouthing something to his Skipper.

"I'm a man. I'm a man," Manuel remembered his ace telling him. "What he means by that, I don't know."

David Wright agreed with Jerry. "Johan gets that way. He's so competitive," Wright said. "He has little weird stuff he says. I have no idea what he's talking about. 'I'm a man?' I think we realize that. But he gets wound up and speaks in sentence fragments. He says things short and sweet and makes no sense. ... Fine with me. He wins."

"I just told him that, 'I feel good,"' Santana said. "I'm not trying to show anybody up or anything. I just felt that I had enough stuff to battle through it. But he thought different. He's my skipper and I respect everything that he does."

I love this guy--OK, looking back I was pretty surprised at his reaction--really an over-reaction, but what he does on the mound and the things he says afterwards, it just shows he gets caught up in the moment. He is a battler, a warrior, and a leader in so many ways.

He also fields his position at a Gold Glove level and battles at the plate.

He had a key hit last night as well--the key hit in the game. With the Mets down 4-3 and men on first and second, Santana was up there to bunt. He fouled off two pitches and then went butcher boy for a line drive double to right. The fans went absolutely ballistic.

"I don't want to just bunt or foul it off and get myself out," Santana said. "I was able to keep everything going and I really feel proud of it because I haven't been able to do much, you know, hitting, but tonight I think it was the difference in the game."

Luis Castillo popped out to short, and the Mets needed a clutch hit.

With runners still on second and third, the old pro Alex Cora lined a sharp single up the middle for a huge two-out RBI that put the Mets ahead 5-4.

Ryan Church and Alex Cora coming back has really stabilized this team....that two-out RBI, which was the forgotten hit of the game, is just one example of why you need vets--they produce in the clutch.

So lest we totally forget, here's a NY Sports Dog tip of the cap to Mr Cora.

But the drama was far from over--in fact it was really just beginning.

Ryan Church has been terrific since his return. Last night he plated the winning run with an absolute bomb off Chad Durbin in the seventh. The drive landed in the apple basket beyond center field.

"To drop it in their from that distance," Church said, "it ought to be worth three points." Gary Cohen said it would have been worth 50 points in skee-ball.

To watch the video of the "Apple Bomb" click here.

Speaking of Met's homeruns, David Wright's second-inning homer ended his homerless streak at 100 at-bats, one shy of his career high, set in 2006. Carlos Beltran also added a Belly Bomb that was smoked into the stands.

But back to the action....

After Santana left, Bobby Parnell came on and gave up a single to Jayson Werth.

It was serious now--8th inning, Mets up 6-5, man on first, and the heart of the philly lineup coming up: Ryan Howard, Raul Ibanez, Jimmy Rollins--the Phils version of muderer's row.

Sprinting in from the bullpen Feliciano said he "felt 6'7" tall"....he pitched like he was a seven footer.

Feliciano first faced Ryan Howard--Pedro OWNS Ryan Howard and quickly got him to ground into a huge double play and Citi Field went absolutely wild....it was utter pandemonium.

Raul Ibanez--Mr 20 HRs already--was next. Feliciano got him to ground out quickly as well. Feliciano sprinted to the dugout to an enormous, and well-deserved standing ovation. His appreciative teammates pounded his back and congratulated him on his superhuman effort.

His effort: 4 pitches, 3 outs, let's go to the 9th!

"That was obviously a big couple of outs that he got us there," Jerry Manuel said of Feliciano. "He got us out of that inning real good."

Francisco Rodriguez finished for his 16th save in 16 chances and was extra demonstrative after the game. Hula Hoop Victorino was a little pissed off and stayed in the dugout to watch.

"Any game that we win is big for us at this point," Manuel said. "Until we feel as though we are healthy, every game is a huge game for us."

What a game, what a win, what a treat for the fans...I still feel pumped up this morning over the action and thrills from one of the biggest wins of the year.

Tonight it's Big Pelf against Cole Hamels.

Enjoy Your Coffee!

Scoreboard
Final	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	R	H	E
Philadelphia (33-23)	0	0	0	2	0	2	0	1	0	5	10	1
N.Y. Mets (31-25) «	0	1	2	0	0	2	1	0	x	6	10	0

Player of the Game

New York
R. Church	AB	3
	R	2
	H	1
	HR	1
	RBI	1

New York Mets
Hitters	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Luis Castillo, 2B	5	0	0	0	0	1	2	.269
Alex Cora, SS	5	1	2	1	0	1	0	.304
Carlos Beltran, CF	3	1	1	2	1	0	0	.342
Gary Sheffield, LF	3	0	1	0	1	1	3	.261
Jeremy Reed, LF	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.311
David Wright, 3B	4	1	2	1	0	2	0	.348
Fernando Tatis, 1B	2	0	1	0	2	0	0	.277
Ryan Church, RF	3	2	1	1	1	0	3	.278
Omir Santos, C	4	1	1	0	0	0	5	.260
Johan Santana, P	3	0	1	1	0	1	2	.111
Bobby Parnell, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Pedro Feliciano, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a- Daniel Murphy, PH	1	0	0	0	0	1	0	.245
Francisco Rodriguez, P	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Totals	33	6	10	6	5	7
a-struck out for Feliciano in the 8th
Batting
2B - Alex Cora (6, Happ), David Wright (17, Happ), Fernando Tatis (6, Happ), Johan Santana (1, Condrey)
HR - Carlos Beltran (8, Happ), David Wright (4, Happ), Ryan Church (2, Durbin)
RBI - Alex Cora (6), Carlos Beltran 2 (35), David Wright (35), Ryan Church (9), Johan Santana (1)
2-OUT RBI - Alex Cora (3), Ryan Church (8)
Team LOB - 8
Fielding
DP - Santana-Tatis, Castillo-Cora-Tatis

New York Mets
Pitchers	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Johan Santana (W,8-3)	7	8	5	5	1	2	4	2.39
Bobby Parnell	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	1.96
Pedro Feliciano (H,10)	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.25
Francisco Rodriguez (S,16)	1	1	0	0	0	2	0	0.65
Pitches-Strikes - Johan Santana 91-71, Bobby Parnell 4-3, Pedro Feliciano 4-3, Francisco Rodriguez 20-12
Ground Balls-Fly Balls - Johan Santana 4-14, Pedro Feliciano 2-0, Francisco Rodriguez 1-0
Batters Faced - Johan Santana 29, Bobby Parnell 1, Pedro Feliciano 2, Francisco Rodriguez 4