The Rivalry: The Games

In Part I, we focused on the roots of the rivalry, and the bantering between each of the two teams.

The first time they met was April 27, 1962. The Philadelphia Phillies beat the New York Mets 11-9. All time, the Phillies are 426-373 against their rivals.

When the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets play each other, whether it was at The Vet, Citizen's Bank Park, Shea Stadium, or soon to be Citi Field, both of these teams show up to play. In this edition, we'll focus on the best games between both of the teams. Game in which the Phillies won, and games in which the Mets won.

Mets Victories:

April 8, 1975: Steve Carlton vs. Tom Seaver. A true pitchers duel, Joe Torre drove in the winning run in the bottom of the 9th off Carlton.

May 23, 2006: Mets win 9-8 in 16 innings. The Phillies took an early 2-0 lead in the first inning. However, the Mets kept chipping away slowly. The Phillies put up a 4 spot with the help of a David Bell home run. In the 8th inning, Jose Reyes tied the game at 8. Ryan Madson pitched 7 innings out of the bullpen in relief, and Carlos Beltran finally ended the game on a walk off home run.

April 9, 2007: The Phillies had a 5-4 headed into 8th inning. The 7th run 8th was highlighted by Jimmy Rollins' error and a wild pitch by Geoff Geary.

April 10, 2008: The Mets had a 3-0 lead going into the 7th inning. Feliz and Howard each hit solo home runs in the 7th and 8th inning respectively. The Phillies tied the game on a ground out. In the bottom of the 12th, Jose Reyes doubled with 2 outs. Angel Pagan singled up the middle, and Reyes beat out a close play at the plate, and the Mets won, 4-3.

April 18, 2008: On paper, this was quite the pitchers duel. Johan Santana vs. Cole Hamels. Johan struck out 10 Phillies over 7 innings. Both pitchers got into trouble in the late innings. Johan ended up allowing 3 runs, and Hamels allowed 5 runs, 4 earned. Greg Dobbs put the Phillies within reach with a 3 run home run, but the Mets were able to hold on, winning the game 6-4.

July 5, 2008: Tied at 4 in the 8th, Brian Schneider's 2 run double gave the Mets a 6-4 lead. The Mets went onto win 9-4.

July 6, 2008: Down 2-0 in the 9th, Jayson Werth hit a 2 run home run off Billy Wagner to tie the game. In the 12th, Fernando Tatis hit a 2 run home run giving the Mets a 4-2 lead, which the Mets would hold on to.

July 23, 2008: Tied at 2 in the 6th inning, Jose Reyes hit a 3 run home run to give the Mets a lead. Mets won 6-3.

July 24, 2008: Tied at 1 in the 8th, Carlos Delgado hit a 2 run double giving the Mets the lead. Mets won 3-1.

August 27, 2008: Carlos Delgado's 2 home runs helped the Mets earn the victory. The Phillies had a 3-2 lead into the 8th, but the Mets put up a 4 spot, winning the game 6-3. Murphy drove in the go ahead run.

Phillies Victories:

June 21, 1964: Jim Bunning throws a perfect game against the Mets on Fathers Day.

April 9, 2006: Tied at 4 in the 9th inning with the bases loaded and 2 outs, Bobby Abreu hit a little dribbler to the pitchers mound. Aaron Heilman threw the ball wide of first base, committing the error. David Delucci scored, and the Phillies won, 5-4.

May 11, 2006: This game will not be remembered so much for the Phillies 2-0 victory, but it will be forever remembered as Aaron Rowand's "great, great perhaps game saving catch!"

June 5, 2007: Tied at 2 in the 11th, Chase Utley hit a go ahead home run off Pedro Feliciano to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead. The Phillies would win 4-2.

June 6, 2007: Down 2-0 in the 7th inning, Jimmy Rollins hit a 3 run homer to give the Phillies a lead, and help capture a 4-2 victory.

June 7, 2007: Down 3-2 in the 9th inning, Pat Burrell home run off Billy Wagner, tying the game at 3. In the 10th, Chase Utley hit an RBI double. Rowand and Burrell followed with RBI of their own, and the Phillies won 6-3, sweeping the Mets at Shea Stadium.

August 28, 2007: Down 2-0 in the 8th inning, Rollins put the Phillies on the board with a solo home run. Rowand hit a little dribbler that barely stayed fair, which tied the game. In the 9th inning, Ryan Howard hit a walk off home run off Guillermo Mota.

August 29, 2007: The Phillies won 3-2, but the Mets came oh so close to coming back to tie the game. With runners at the corner, 1 out, and Brett Myers on the mound, Shawn Greenn hit a soft ground ball to Rollins. Rollins made the flip to Tadahito Iguchi, but Marlon Anderson was called for runners interference, ruling it a double play. Game over.

August 30, 2007: Perhaps this was the game that defined this rivalry. The Phillies took a 5-0 lead off Orlando Hernandez, however the Mets fought back, tying the game in the 5th inning. In the bottom of the 5th, Carlos Ruiz blooped an RBI single. Victorino followed with a bloop of his own. Rollins squeezed a single past the infield and the Phillies had an 8-5 lead. However, a 5 run 8th inning of Antonio Alfonseca gave the Mets a 10-8 lead. The Mets brought in Billy Wagner in the 8th inning, and Pat Burrell drove a solo home run off inching a run closer. In the bottom of the 9th, Jayson Werth reached on a single. He stole second and third base off Wagner. Iguchi singled, driving in Werth, tying the game. Rollins was intentionally walked to set up a lefty on lefty match up. Wagner vs. Utley. Utley smoked a line drive down the right field line. Iguchi scored from second, and the Phillies won 11-10, sweeping the Mets in a 4 game series.

September 14, 2007: Tied at 2 in the 10th, Greg Dobbs hit a sac fly to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead.

September 15, 2007: Losing 3-1 in the 8th inning, the Phillies rallied to win 5-3 with the help of a Rowand home run and a misjudged ball by Beltran off the bat of Jimmy Rollins.

September 16, 2007: Greg Dobb's grand slam is the difference maker as the Phillies won 10-6.

April 8, 2008: Utley got hit by a pitch 3, well 4 times. In the 7th inning, 2-0 Mets, one out and the bases loaded, Howard hit a ground ball to Delgado. Delgado threw the ball to second, however it hit the runner, Utley. Safe all around, and two runs scored to tie the game. Werth drove in the go ahead run, and the Phillies won 5-3, their 9th straight victory over the Mets.

April 20, 2008: The Phillies had a 4-0 lead, but the Mets rallied in the 6th inning, putting up a 4 spot. Ryan Church's RBI single tied the game. In the 7th, Pedro Feliz hit the go ahead home run, giving the Phillies a 5-4 lead. In the top of the 9th with 2 outs and runners on first and second, Beltran shot a ball up the middle, but Eric Bruntlett, who was filling in for Jimmy Rollins, made a spectacular diving stop, throwing out Beltran, ending the game.

July 4, 2008: There were fireworks off the bat of Shane Victorino in the 9th inning. Johan Santana dominated most of the game for the New York Mets. Santana was done after 8 innings, leaving the Mets bullpen in charge. Like almost every game for the Mets, the bullpen didn't hold. Shane Victorino hit a walk off single as the Phillies won 3-2

July 22, 2008: Johan Santana shut down the Phillies for 8 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs. The Mets had a comfortable 5-2 lead heading into the 9th inning... or so they thought. The Mets bullpen struck again. The Phillies put up a 6 spot on the scoreboard in the 9th. With the bases loaded and no outs, Carlos Ruiz hit a chopper up the middle that Jose Reyes fielded. Instead of flipping to the second baseman for the double play, Reyes decided to take it himself. However, he missed the bag as Shane Victorino slided in safely, a run scored, and no outs were recorded. So Taguchi, who hadn't had a pinch hit all year up to that point, smoked a double over the head of the right fielder to tie the game. Jimmy Rollins doubled to drive in the go ahead run, and Ryan Howard also drove in a run. Charlie Manuel had been ejected earlier in the game arguing balls and strikes after a Carlos Delgado check swing. The Phillies won 8-6.

August 26, 2008: The Phillies were down 7-0 against the New York Mets. Jamie Moyer struggled, allowing 6 earned runs. However, the Phillies started to come back slowly off Pedro Martinez, who lasted just 5 innings. Rollins and Howard each homered to put the Phillies closer. Down 7-6 With 2 outs in the 9th inning, Jayson Werth singled to get things started. Eric Bruntlett doubled to the gap in right center field as Werth scored, tying the game. In the 13th inning with bases loaded and one out, Chris Coste smoked the ball to straight away center field. Victorino scored the winning run in the Phillies 8-7 come back win.

The Mets and Phillies next meet on May 1, 2009 at Citizen's Bank Park. There will be more great games between the two teams as the rivalry intensifies.

"It's good for our division and it's good for baseball. It's good for
Philadelphia and it's good for New York." -Charlie
Manuel