Philadelphia Phillies: Ibanez and Mayberry Win 7-2 at Mets, Earn Fan Approval

Raul Ibanez and John Mayberry want to win.

Against the Mets. Over your affections.

Whatever odds are stacked, wherever criticism falls.

And in last night’s 7-2 win in New York, they were more than game for challenges, however lowly or lofty.

New York’s less competitive, more comical team wasn’t as tall an order. The Mets’ plus-.500 run lasted all of a month, since they were 42-42 on June 3, but they were never within arm’s reach of the Braves or Phillies, now 58-34 and always No. 1 in the National League East.

But the scathing and scorn and skittishness about how Ibanez and Mayberry didn’t just linger. It smothered so much you figure they’d have drowned by now.

“Yeah, I’m aware of that,” Mayberry told the Associated Press, about chatter and rumors and right-handed hitting.

It’s unforgiving to Ibanez because of his wages, Mayberry for his inconsistency. The only thing more repelling to fans in this town than unearned $11 million contracts is unfulfilled promises, frustrations Ibanez and Mayberry were always good for.

Or at least they used to be. Ibanez proved heroic and Herculean and clutch in one 11th-inning sizzler and helped pour it on in a blowout in two games against Atlanta before the break. You’d think 5-for-15 with two home runs and seven RBI in the series would do it.

“I like big, tall, lanky guys,” Manuel said.

Philly fans apparently don’t.

At least not Mayberry, still rapped on like a speed bag for fast and sharp tongues. Even after a .313 July and four RBI the day before the season paused. Even though he’s slugged for .842 on the month.

Detractors slugged back. Hard.

Maybe that’s what made their performance Friday empowering. It may register as a lowly win (and one of 98 and change, at the Phillies’ pace) and have come against humble opposition. But the effort resonates like the confidence and defiance and reassurance you couldn’t find on this roster with a heat-seeking GPS on a metal detector.

You have to warm to Mayberry’s two-RBI single in the second, which scored Ibanez and Carlos Ruiz, and double in the eighth worth three more for insurance.

“It was great to be able to come up with runners on a couple of times and even better to come up with a couple of hits,” Mayberry told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

You can’t help but gush over Ibanez’ solo homer off R.A. Dickey (4-8) in the sixth, to jerk the crowd from the lull of staunch pitching. That and the old guy extending in the field like he’s not a year from 40.

Punctuating two three-run frames like that is something this roster could use more of—almost as much as manufacturing runs from nothing. That’s what you got from Mayberry and Ibanez tonight.

But for all the buoyancy in Mayberry and Ibanez’ second-half debuts—they went 2-for-4 each with 5 RBI from Mayberry, one from Ibanez—the stars just sank.

Tweeners like Vance Worley (5-1) met expectation, and in Worley’s case, a haunting May outing in Citi Field head-on. Save for a nicking in the sixth, when one of the bases he loaded before getting yanked scored, Worley gave you what you wanted from his return to the bigs.

And then some, if you count his RBI ground-out in the second that shuffled in Domonic Brown, on top of Worley’s 5.1 innings of four-strikeout-and-walk dealing.

“I definitely wanted to finish that inning off,” Worley said to the Inquirer, still not stretched out like you’d like.

And for those glistening foreheads from Ryan Madson’s first outing since being reactivated from the DL: He was alright. Like, getting two of his three outs on swings in the seventh, “alright.”

But heat up that Heath Bell trade-talk stove. Between Madson and Antonio Bastardo showing command and Michael Stutes feeding doubts—with bumps like Carlos Beltran’s solo homer and a single and a walk, Stutes had as rocky an eighth inning as his last outing against Atlanta—that possibility is pruning from all the intrigue.

As for Rollins, Howard and Utley, you wish the first of their second halves were forgettable.

Sure, Howard showed patience. Utley hustled. You think Rollins tried.

But they still combined for an unforgivable 1-for-13. That’s just not enough.

Still, it’s only a game. Consider this serendipitous break-pumping.

Except for Mayberry and Ibanez.

I mean, come on. Even if it’s hot air, let’s give them at least a little gas.

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