Phillies Colon-ized by Mets

42-year old Bartolo Colon may not be in the running for the NL Cy Young Award in 2015. But the innings that he has eaten up for the NL East-leading New York Mets have been invaluable.

On Monday night at Citi Field, Colon was sensational, shutting out the Phillies over 8 innings, pacing the home nine to a 3-1 victory. It was his 2nd strong outing vs the Phils in less than a week, after he shut them out over 7 innings last Wednesday at Citizens Bank Park.

Colon (12-11) allowed just 4 hits, striking out 9 and walking just one batter. He was hitting his spots all night long, firing 73 of his 100 pitches for strikes.

On the Phillies mound, it was once again just one poor inning that did in impressive rookie Jerad Eickhoff. For the first four, the 25-year old matched Colon. But in the bottom of the 5th, the Mets broke through, scoring the three runs that would prove the difference in this one.

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It began with a one-out, solo home run off the bat of Mets’ rookie outfielder Michael Conforto. His 4th career round tripper went out on a line to left center to put New York up 1-0.

Eickhoff struck out the next batter, but then committed the cardinal sin of allowing a hit to Colon. When Curtis Granderson then followed with a 2-run homer, the game had what would prove its difference-making moment.

The Phillies wouldn’t get on the board until Colon was gone in the 9th inning, lifted in favor of closer Jeurys Familia. It looked promising when Cesar Hernandez and Aaron Altherr began the frame with singles, and they were followed by Ryan Howard working a walk to load the bases with nobody out.

Phillies skipper Pete Mackanin then brought Darnell Sweeney in to run for Howard as the tying run. Up stepped Jeff Francoeur, who has played the hero numerous times in this nice season for the veteran outfielder. But this time, Frenchy could only roll into a run-scoring doubleplay.

The Mets gladly exchanged the single run for the two outs, still holding a 3-1 lead. Familia then struck out Andres Blanco swinging to finally put an end to things, and was credited with his 36th Save of the season despite the tremendous struggles to get there.

In what has become a lopsided series between these two divisional rivals over the last two years, the Mets victory was their 10th straight over the Phils, the 12th in the last 13 meetings, and gives New York 24 wins in 29 games between the two stretching back to May of 2014.