PHILADELPHIA – Sometimes it comes down to who’s tough enough, who’s crazy enough.
When Todd Pratt looks around the Phillies’ clubhouse these days, he sees the 2000 Mets. You remember that team, the one that won the NL pennant. These Phillies remind the ex-Met of his old friends.
These Phillies know how to have fun. Sometimes it is the character within the character that makes a team a winner.
“This teams reminds me a lot of the 1999, 2000 Mets,” says Pratt, the backup catcher, who got the key hit in Sunday’s 6-4 win over the Padres at gorgeous Citizens Bank Park, making the first-place Phillies 23-12 since their 1-6 start. “This is a crazy team. When the media is out of the clubhouse, it’s crazy in here. These guys bust chops, they cut up on each other, and play hard.”
Over the last few years, the Mets have lost a lot of toughness. They are trying to get some of that back this year with the addition of players like Mike Cameron. Beginning tonight, when they open a two-game series at Shea against the Phils, they have the chance to prove they are contenders, not the ridiculous pretenders they were in 2002 and 2003 when they finished a combined 61 games out of first place.
“I coached Cameron [in Seattle],” says Phils manager Larry Bowa. “I love him. He’s a great kid and if the ball has any kind of hang time, it’s an out. The Mets are playing good. I like them. They’ve really improved their defense and that improves your pitching. If you have mediocre pitching it goes to good, if you have good pitching it goes to excellent. They’ve been great up the middle.”
It’s time for the Mets to put up against good teams, as the Phils have done lately, despite suffering key injuries. The Phillies are 11-4 since closer Billy Wagner (groin) and second baseman Placido Polanco (left quadriceps) last played on May 7.
See, Jose Reyes isn’t the only one who pulls muscles.
The Phils are 4-1 since Jim Thome (left thumb, right index finger) last played on Tuesday. Thome will return tonight. Wagner will not be back for a while.
“You need your closer and you need your 50-homer guy,” says Bowa, who has never been into making excuses. “That’s just the way it is. You can tread water for a while, but eventually it’s going to catch up with you.”
It hasn’t caught up to the Phillies, and Pratt knows why: bench depth.
“It shows why we were picked to win the East,” the 37-year-old Pratt explained. “One through 25, we’re solid. And it’s showing right now with some of our big stars out of the lineup . . . I think a lot of guys on our bench, including me, think they can start somewhere. But I think we’d rather be on this team than starting somewhere for a team below .500.”
“This is a special bench,” Bowa says.
“It’s a lot like those Mets teams from 1999, 2000,” Pratt adds. “Everybody came through.”
Everybody was tough enough.