Fourteen innings of baseball yielded just seven hits for the home team. Playing with 22 players (Carlos Ruiz, Ross Gload and Roy Oswalt were unavailable), the Phillies needed Cole Hamels to pinch-hit in the 14th. He grounded out to second.
The Mets won this one through perseverance in a game that lasted 4 hours, 44 minutes. Until Ronny Paulino's go-ahead double in the 14th, New York was 0 for 14 with runners in scoring position.
This game went to extra innings only because of an eighth-inning rally by the Phillies. The rally began with another solid plate appearance for Mayberry. The pinch-hitter worked a six-pitch walk against righthander Jason Isringhausen and then advanced to second on a bunt by Shane Victorino.
Placido Polanco, the only consistent bat in the lineup, popped out to shortstop. Jimmy Rollins walked to create a favorable matchup for the Mets: lefthanded specialist Tim Byrdak vs. Ryan Howard. In 13 previous meetings, Howard had reached base twice: once on a walk and once with a single.
On the second pitch he saw, he drove one of Byrdak's Frisbee sliders the opposite way for a game-tying single. But that was all the Phillies could get. With the bases loaded, Raul Ibanez made an out in his 34th straight at-bat, grounding out weakly to second.
That run came immediately after a disheartening failure fueled by another Ibanez out. Mets starter Chris Young practically handed the Phillies a run in the seventh. The 6-foot-10 righthander had retired 10 in a row before Howard drew a six-pitch walk, laying off a slider for ball four. He plunked Ben Francisco on the elbow to put the go-ahead run on first.
Ibanez had made decent contact in his first two at-bats only to perpetuate the hitless streak. At-bat No. 31 was a well-hit fly ball caught deep in the right-center gap. No. 32 was another fly out to center.
It's his longest drought ever, and when a 38-year-old is striking out at a rate nearly double that of his career, there are serious questions raised.
A strikeout is how at-bat No. 33 ended for Ibanez. With two outs, Pete Orr worked a walk only to allow Brian Schneider to turn a 2-0 count into a check-swing strikeout. Replays showed he clearly went around. Charlie Manuel went to argue anyway and was tossed by third-base umpire Lance Barksdale before he came within 15 yards of the umpire.
The frustration had mounted from seven innings of no offense against Young while failing to support a solid performance by Cliff Lee.
Down by one run, Manuel chose to let Lee bat to lead off the sixth inning. Lee had thrown 101 pitches, but that wasn't the concern. The Phillies bats had done nothing to generate offense and with the top of the order due up, Manuel could have opted for a pinch-hitter in the hopes of putting a runner on base.
It hardly mattered. After Lee struck out, Victorino flied out weakly to left and Polanco skied one to center.
Lee was not his best but still limited the Mets to one run in seven innings. He needed 18 pitches to record his first out and 34 pitches to complete the first inning.
The lone run against Lee scored with two outs in the fifth. David Wright singled and Carlos Beltran doubled to the right-center gap to score him from first.
They would not score again until nine innings later, but against a dormant Phillies offense, that was just fine.
Contact staff writer Matt Gelb at mgelb@phillynews.com. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/magelb
