Dickey too tricky for Phillies

“Lost” may be over, but I feel like we’re still in some sort of alternate reality:

• A Met starting pitcher (R.A. Dickey) was injured early, stayed in the game even though his injury was getting worse, and still shut out the Phillies over six innings.
• A Met reliever (Raul Valdes) put the first two batters on, then struck out the heart of the Phillies order, three of the best hitters in baseball (Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth).
• A bitter ex-Met (Nelson Figueroa) returned to Citi Field for the first time in an enemy uniform, and instead of showing the Mets they made a mistake, gave up three earned runs, including RBI hits from Raul Valdes and Luis Castillo.
• After planning to get together with a friend visiting from out of town, his sister came up with tickets to last night’s game at the last minute and was nice enough to give them to us. They were in the first row of field level in left field. It’s been a while since I’ve sat near fans who brought their gloves to the game. Thanks again, Jen!
• The numerous Philly fans in attendance, quite vocal at the start of the game, quieted down as the game progressed, and the rout was on.
• Dickey and Valdes combined to shut out the two-time defending NL champs, 8-0.

The hitters also defied expectations, but I’m hoping this is a return to an earlier, more pleasant reality:

• Jose Reyes had three hits and two stolen bases.
• Jeff Francoeur had two hits.
• David Wright did not strike out.

I did not realize until I got home that Dickey’s elbow was X-rayed during the game and it eventually forced him to leave. I’m glad that Dickey was able to convince the coaches to let him tough it out for six innings. But I don’t want to be hypocritical after criticizing John Maine for the same attitude.

In last week’s Maine incident, the question was whether or not to trust the player, which the Mets clearly didn’t. But the real issue is whether to trust the coaches and the medical staff, which was often not the case last year. Assuming Dickey doesn’t turn out to be more seriously injured, both the coaches and medical staff came through last night.

While the Mets now have three wins in four games against last year’s World Series teams, they are still only at .500 and tied for last place. So let’s not start printing playoff tickets just yet. But it’s still been a great week so far.