Needless to say, it would have been quite an accomplishment for the Phillies to enter Shea Stadium this weekend and sweep the Mets. As it was, the visitors took two of three, and as a Phillies fan you honestly can’t be too upset about that. In a worst-case scenario, the Mets would have swept the series, and Philly would be six games out with 19 to play. Instead, they are only two games back. I’ll gladly take that.

The Mets had a number of emotional factors on their side: the final year at Shea, rememberances of last year’s epic implosion, and a desire to stick it to the team who capitalized on that implosion. There was simply no way in their minds that they were going to get swept at home AND surrender their lead in the NL East at the same time.

Cole Hamels took the mound for the final (regular season) game that the Fightin’s would ever play at the enemy’s no-frills ballpark in Flushing. (Like their pinstriped cross-town rivals, the Mets too have a shiny new stadium awaiting them in 2009.) Hamels had not kept his reluctance to start a secret. But the powers that be, wary of Kyle Kendrick’s recent struggles on the road, decided that Hamels was the best man to square off against New York ace Johan Santana.

Unfortunately, their instincts proved incorrect, and Hamels surrendered five runs before yielding the mound to Clay Condrey and the cleanup crew, who did a pretty good job from the sixth inning forward, giving up just one more run. Seanez struck out Carlos Delgado, who owned this game from the start and single-handedly prevented the sweep. Although you can argue the Mets fans who chanted “MVP!” for Delgado were doing so out of homerism (and these were the same people booing him earlier in the season… what was that about front-running, J-Roll?), the first basemen has certainly earned himself consideration for that award.

Meanwhile, Ryan Howard smashed his 40th home run off of the otherwise-excellent Santana last night. He is now the only Phillie to hit 40 or more home runs in three consecutive seasons. Unfortunately, Rollins, Utley and Burrell went a combined 1-for-12 as the Phillies were held to three runs on seven hits. Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t Burrell supposed to be some kind of Met-killer or something? What happened?

Anyway, that’s that. The Phillies finish the 2008 regular season 7-11 versus their rivals from Queens. No games between them remain. Here what awaits our guys over their final 19 games:

3 at home against the Marlins

4 at home against the (suddenly vulnerable) Brewers; possible wild-card implications here!

3 on the road against Atlanta and 3 at Florida

3 at home against Atlanta

Finally, 3 at home against Washington to wrap up the season. There’s bad blood between these two teams, and Washington would love nothing more than to spoil what could be a crucial series to decide the division.

Remember, last year the Phillies beat Washington in their final game at home to clinch the NL East, and Tom Glavine and the Mets lost to the visiting Marlins that same day. This year, the Phillies end their season at home against the Nationals, and the Mets host the Marlins to end theirs. History has a tendency to repeat itself; let’s hope it does.

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