Phillies Insider: Mets Rivalry Is Better Than Ever

OK, I'll admit it.

While getting hyped up for the Phillies' 2008 campaign, I was one of the many fans who considered the Mets an afterthought.

I thought the Phillies would win the season series rather handily.

To use a lame sports cliche, I thought the Phillies had the upperhand.

But after seeing how the Mets have fought over the last two games, I've come to this conclusion: the division race will go down to the wire.

The Phillies should be in must-win mode tonight. They need to split the four-game series because at least the Mets will not gain any ground in the division.

A victory by the Mets puts them 2 1/2 games out of first place. They began the series 4 1/2 games out.

I thought the Phillies had all the momentum on their side after Shane Victorino's walk-off hit Friday night. The Phillies picked up where they left off last summer: they were beating the Mets in heart-breaking fashion.

To the Mets' credit, they proved they are not going away. Saturday night, they rallied in the eighth inning off our untouchable bullpen. Sunday afternoon/night, after Jayson Werth belted a two-run home run off Billy Wagner with outs and two strikes to tie the game in the ninth inning, Fernando Tatis delivered a back-breaking two-run shot in the 12th inning off Chad Durbin.

When does Chad Durbin ever give up any runs, let alone home runs?

The Phillies had their chances to score in extra innings, but couldn't get the timely hit.

My biggest concern with the Phillies is situational hitting. They aren't driving in runners consistently and it's a problem that Charlies Manuel continues to address.

Manuel said the following in his post-game interview Sunday:

"I am definitely concerned about our hitting," Manuel said. "We got guys that their averages are down, production's down."

Last year at this time, Chase Utley and Aaron Rowand were batting well over .300. This season, not one starter is batting over .294.

I said before that I didn't think this offense was as potent as last year's. Thankfully, the pitching has been good enough that scoring six, seven or eights runs a game isn't a necessity to win...as it was last season.

Monday night, the Phillies face Pedro Martinez. The mindset should be to jump on him early. Don't let the Mets hang around against Adam Eaton, who is a disaster waiting to happen every fifith day.

The Phillies need to win this game...