Rollins All Over The Mets

With 2 men on, a full count, two outs, and down by two in the seventh inning, Jimmy Rollins launched a high fly to deep right-field. Everyone who was watching the game held their breath – everyone but Rollins. He watched it take off, dropped his bat, took a quick skip, and began to round the bases.

Confident as ever, Rollins walked back to the dugout and pointed and smiled to the crowd at Shea Stadium. He had just negated the weight of overbearing boos, and brought in the winning runs to help the Phillies to a 4-2 win over the New York Mets.

In the bottom of the same inning that Rollins hit his glorious home run, relief pitcher Geoff Geary quickly worked his way into having men on second and third without any outs. Geary avoided a bullet through a driving catch from Ryan Howard on a hard-hit grounder by Julio Fraco. The Phillies avoided another bullet from a bonehead base-running by Mets second baseman Ruben Gotay. With the ball hit to the right side, Gotay froze, danced around the base path, and decided to stay put.

After an intentional walk to Jose Reyes, the bases were loaded with only one out. In an eight-pitch battle with Endy Chavez, Geary got him to ground up the middle to Rollins, who stepped on second and threw out Chavez by two steps, effectively ending the Mets’ best chance of winning the game.

Jimmy Rollins, loosen that sock in your mouth a little, because yesterday’s win was all about you. So what that we’re not the team to beat in the NL East – morale wins that count in the standings are more important than anything that happened in spring training.

Image Credit: Flickr user sfink16