PHILADELPHIA — The total crowd of 45,751 went wild as they all gathered in place 20 minutes before the first pitch. Phillies fans earned his reputation as the team's 10th man this October. They were showing off. So there it was.
Zack Wheeler was great. He pitched an impressive 111 pitches, giving up one run in seven innings, and seemed to be imagining Brodie Van Wagenen's car window every time he hit a 98 mph heater. The Mets couldn't touch him. So, there was that too.
And for a long time Saturday afternoon, Kodai Chiga's third pitch, the one that Kyle Schwarber smashed 425 feet over the Toyota sign in the right field seats, appeared to be standing up. After that, there were some officiating calls that the Mets didn't like.
So there it was.
Yet, somehow, the Mets didn't seem to care about any of that. I peeked into their dugout and there I found the same loose bunch of guys who seemed to be enjoying every inch of their Atlanta-to-Milwaukee-to-Atlanta-to-Milwaukee-to-Philadelphia road trip over the past 12 days.
It turned out that they were in an ambush.
Because suddenly that's what they do. That's who they are. When Wheeler finished the game in the top of the eighth inning, you could almost hear the Mets singing in the dugout. Then they came out and planted five spots on the Phillies, surprising them and nearly silencing Citizens Bank Park.
When they scored the last run after an inning, to add to their 6-2 victory in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, the locals were furious with restlessness and booed the home team with the same fervor. Sent. They were booing the Mets a few hours earlier.
The Mets wanted a breakup here, and they at least guaranteed themselves that. When you return to CBP on Sunday afternoon, you should bring greed in your heart. All the pressure will be on the Phillies. Maybe we decided the Mets were best playing with their backs against the wall, but maybe playing free and easy wouldn't be so bad either.
This was the first postseason game of note between these old neighbors and recent rivals.
For years, decades in fact, it seemed like the Phillies and Mets were on the verge of accomplishing the impossible. That is, despite being less than two hours from each other, they have never had a meaningful collision. They shared the same 10-team league from 1962 to 1968, the same six-team league from 1969 to 1993, and the same five-team league from 1994.
Elsewhere, New York and Philadelphia became blood rivals, a closeness and passion that inevitably exploded onto the field, court, and ice. One afternoon in 1960, Chuck Bednarik nearly decapitated Frank Gifford at Yankee Stadium, standing over Gifford's prone body and shaking his fist. Since then, the Giants and Eagles have been like warring mob families.
The Broad Street Breeze Flyers of the mid-'70s crushed the aging GAG-type Rangers and forged eternal rivalries with the likes of Bobby Clark and Dave Schultz. The 76ers held off the upstart Knicks in the 1967 playoffs and dominated them in 1983 as part of Moses Malone's pursuit of a 4-4-4. And of course, Julius Erving went into the Hall of Fame as a Sixer because the Nets couldn't afford him and didn't choose to shuttle him to the Knicks.
Mets and Phillies?
In most cases, it's benign apathy. When the Phillies were good, the Mets were often bad. Conversely, when the Mets were good, the Phillies were mostly bad. Prior to 2007, the overall rivalry was best described as: Both teams finished 1-2 in the standings only twice. In 2006, the Mets finished ahead by more than a dozen games. In 1986, I was 21 and a half years old.
But then 2007 happened. Then 2008 happened. Then, in 2009, every Mets fan in existence's worst nightmare came true. The World Series between the Yankees and the Phillies lasted six games and eight days of relentless torture.
But it took a total of 63 seasons, six different stadiums, and 1,081 games for the Mets and Phillies to finally meet in the postseason. We finally figured it out late Saturday afternoon, when Wheeler threw the first pitch of the National League District Series to Francisco Lindor.
The streets adjacent to Citizens Bank Park had been buzzing for the past five hours. The parking lot was full. The buzz was palpable. Five months ago, the Knicks and 76ers played an incredible six-game playoff series that brought all the energy and resentment of old New York/Philadelphia to a boil, and Joel Embiid did what was thought to be impossible. I managed to do it.
He shoved Chase Utley and Bednarik aside with an elbow and declared himself the most maligned Philadelphia athlete of the moment, but much of that was due to their excellence and even more to their actions. This is due to Are there any Philly players on the current roster ready to take on that challenge?
Finally, you'll have a chance to find out. And the Mets took the lead.
