Rubber Match Game Chat: Eaton vs. Maine

Share

Tonight's meeting with New York at Shea is just another early April game, right? Maybe. It could set the tone for the rest of this season's rivalry with the hated Mets. A win tonight would be huge for the Phils psyche while a loss would certainly be a little tougher to deal with.

The Phillies need to get their fielding in order. Before the season many considered their infield to be among the best in the league.  Coming into to this evening's game, however, the Phillies lead the league in errors. That's not how you win baseball games. If Chase Utley wants to be the third straight Phillie to bring home some MVP hardware, he's going to have to improve his leather a bit from the first few weeks.

Last year John Maine  was clearly a better pitcher than Adam Eaton but Eaton's numbers are better early in this 2008 campaign (0-1, 9.00 ERA and 0-0, 3.52 ERA, respectively). With Chad Durbin doing well in long-relief last night, he's likely unavailable to mop up any blood that might be spilled on Eaton's account, and Ryan Madson has been sidelined for five games with shoulder soreness, so the Phils may need to rely on scoring in bunches to keep up.

As mentioned, we're going to watch a college hockey game first, but the tube will certainly be flipped over to the Phils afterwards.

Feel free to talk about your hatred for the Mets -- like that annoying mouthpiece Mike Pelfrey wore last night -- in the comments.

Contact Us