Dickey’s Arm, Mets Bats Beat Phillies

The Mets had a tall order Friday night  in Philadelphia — beat Cliff Lee, who has been so dominant against them (not to mention the rest of the league). But the Mets were up to the task.

They showed it early. Ruben Tejada led off the game with a double, and Daniel Murphy followed with a double of his own to score Tejada. Two outs later Jason Bay picked a good time to hit his first home run of the year, an opposite field shot to make the score 3-0.

Lee settled down after that, allowing just two more hits for the rest of his seven innings. One of them was a long solo homer by Scott Hairston. But the damage was done.

R.A. Dickey (left), meantime, was just better. He also went seven innings, allowing only one run on rookie Freddy Galvis’s first career home run. He did allow nine hits but he also struck out seven.

The Mets added a run in the ninth (as did the Phillies on a Murphy error) for a very solid 5-2 win. It’s always good to beat the Phillies.

*****

The win covered up the boneheaded play of the year, courtesy of Josh Thole. Thole was on first base with one out in the second inning when Dickey laid down a successful sacrifice bunt. As he was running into second Jimmy Rollins held up his hand as if to say, “Don’t slide, no play here.” Thole apparently took it as Rollins saying, “Foul ball, go back.”

So Thole did. He turned and trotted back to first. After Rollins called for the ball Thole figured out what was going on. He raced back to first but the throw beat him for an inning-ending double play.

It could have been a big deal had the Mets not won but they did, so no harm — except for the embarrassment.