Game 107 Open Thread: Phillies at Mets

What I really want is for the Phillies to have a quick game. I don't care if they win or lose, I just want them to do it briskly.

Is that just because I need to pack for my trip to Houston tomorrow (I'm headed down south for SABR 44)? No. Well, yes. It is partly because of that. But also because almost every game in the past month has been a super-long slog of terribleness. (For more on this, check out lorecore's excellent fanpost.) It's four plus hours of crappy at-bats and missed chances like every night! I mean, come on. Once it hits 10pm we're all looking at our watches and wondering "Don't the Phillies have wives and kids and lives to go home to? BECAUSE IT SEEMS LIKE NO THEY DON'T SINCE THEY'RE TAKING FOREVER."

Chase Utley's back in the lineup, which is great. Ryan Howard's still in the lineup and hitting fourth, which at this point I don't even care. It's almost a little comforting that after all that grumbling and grousing and rumor mongering, the song remains the same and Howard's exactly where he's always been. Well, not so much comforting as expected. Sadly, sadly expected. Tonight's saving grace is Cole Hamels. My everything. I love him so. Hamels doesn't have great numbers against the Mets, but maybe tonight's the night he changes that. Of course, I say that every time Hamels faces the Mets and it never happens. Maybe tonight's the night *that* changes!

Give 'em hell, Cole. And discuss the game in the comments below.