Blown out? A nine point differential? Yup, it was a blowout, not including a late Knicks run in the final five minutes of the game. The Cavs led 40-21 at the end of the first quarter, 63-40 at the half, 77-58 at the third quarter mark and led by as much as nineteen with six minutes in the game and seats emptying quickly until the Knicks went on one of their too little, too late frenetic paces of steals and three point shots being drained before they ran out of game clock. This game was never in doubt.

What is in doubt, however has been the status for next season and into the future for the Cavs’ still-young superstar, James. As usual when the Cavs come to town, the conversation veers from the game itself to the more important question-and-answer game of “Will He or Won’t He” starring LeBron James. While this magical player continues to dominate every game he plays in, the buzz going around this arena remains about whether the Cleveland superstar, playing with an expiring contract, will opt to leave his Ohio roots and decide to play out the rest of his career under the bright lights of Broadway.

At halftime, Yankees pitcher, C.C. Sabathia, here along with several of his championship teammates to bask in the warm embrace of Knicks fans dying to cheer for a winner, ventured the opinion that James would indeed, take his next act to New York.

“I’ve told him there’s no better place to be a winner than in New York,” said the former Cleveland Indian hurler who got to know James as a high profile athlete in that town. “If I’m a betting man, I would say he will be here in New York next year.”

James scored 19 of his 33 points in the first quarter as this game became a huge snoozefest through three and a half quarters. His performance could only make Knicks fans swoon and sigh in a wishful manner.

James came to play on the night the Garden crowd was feted not only with the presence of baseball champions who play to the north of the arena, somewhere up in the Bronx, but with celebrities from many walks of life. Ah, to be young and rich and an admired athlete in the city that never sleeps.

“I got an opportunity to say congratulations to C.C. (Sabathia), A-Rod (Alex Rodriguez), Robinson Cano, and Joba Chamberlain,” said James after the game. “Obviously, it was an unbelievable season for those guys and they deserved it.”

James smiled at the thought of being a champion in a city like New York and an arena with the history of Madison Square Garden.

“There is a lot of tradition in this building,” he said. “A lot of great players have been through this building that have laid down a lot of statistical things as individuals and as teams. It is a great building. To be a part of that and be able to play the game of basketball at a high level is great.”

You could almost sense the sighing and wishful thinking may be a two-way street, with James imagining himself as a star in the Big Apple.

“It is a humbling experience for myself,” said James. “You grow up in a city like Akron, Ohio. It is a really, really small city. For me, as a kid, you always wish and dream to be on the NBA level. Now that I am here playing for my hometown team and then be able to go on the road to showcase my talent to people who appreciate the way I play the game of basketball at a high level is humbling. I thank the New York fans. It is great that they really respect the way I play the game of basketball.”

“It’s the atmosphere, here,” he continued. “A lot of stars in the building. It’s humbling to know that you have guys like the Yankees come out and J. Z. You see some of the Giants out here and John Legend and Chris Rock. You almost feel like you’re a performer sitting on the stage and they’re watching you perform.”

You can just tell this kid can imagine himself on the biggest stage of all, lighting up the old arena in a way it hasn’t been lit since Patrick Ewing’s heyday, maybe even further back to the Knicks championship teams of 1970 and 1973.

“When I was a kid, I visualized playing for all the NBA teams,” James said. “There’s a lot of great individual NBA players that I would love to play alongside of and try to contend for an NBA championship. At the end of the day, a max contract doesn’t really matter to me. It’s all about winning. When that day comes next summer, I want to put myself  in a position where I want to win. If I feel a team is capable of winning, I’ll make my decision like that.”

That has to make Knicks fans sink a little, hearing that winning is James’ sole objective in determining where he’s going to play next year. Winning hasn’t exactly been part of the Knicks tradition over the past 36 years or so. That 1973 championship was the franchise’s last.

The Cavaliers are in an interesting position as far as LeBron’s future is concerned. Many of their players, including James, Shaquille O’Neal, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, have expiring contracts this year so the feeling is this particular Cavs team won’t have the same look next year, either.

Cavs guard Daniel Gibson had an interesting take on the Cavaliers’ position, given the fact so many of the Cavs’ players have expiring contracts. I asked him if the team’s approach to this season has a little more urgency to it because of the potential of having this team ripped apart after this season.

“I never thought about it until you just asked me,” Gibson said. “We approach it as, right now, he’s still a Cav so we’re not thinking about next year. For us, we need to take care of business right now. Nobody knows what’s going to happen next year in this league. Every year you play basketball, you play for the ultimate goal. The fact that he’s potentially leaving next year, I don’t think any of us are thinking about it.”

Ilgauskas took an interesting position.

“I can see coming to New York to play if you’re leaving a team to play for the Yankees, already a winning organization,” said the seven-footer they call Z. “But, coming to New York to play for a struggling team like the Knicks? I’d rather stay in Cleveland where I know I have a chance to win.”

Somehow, I don’t think the Knicks will be trying to sign Ilgauskas anytime soon.

Knicks fans will have to hope when next July comes along, and LeBron is sitting on his porch in Akron, Ohio pondering his next career move, he’ll think about what he can accomplish in an offense devised by Knick coach, Mike D’Antoni, a man most NBA players would take a discount in pay to play for because of his wide-open offensive schemes.

At this point, as we watch the Knicks record fall to 1-5, it’s about the only thing they have left to dream about.

Follow Scott Mandel at www.sportsreporters.com or twitter

The New York Yankees are World Champions again, and after Robinson Cano made the putout to Mark Teixeira at first that ended the Philadelphia Phillies one year reign as champions the celebration began. The Yankees after a 7-3 win over the Phillies, in their billion dollar ballpark gave their gift to the boss who made it happen.

“The Yankees won,” said team president Randy Levine on the field and moments later in a victorious clubhouse that was wilder than the 26^th Yankees championship in 2000, their last one when they beat the cross-town Mets. So Levine wasn’t kidding when he said, “The world is right again.”  Levine, instrumental in getting a new stadium for the Yankees was also proud that the Yankees won it for New York and people of the Bronx.

Because to the Yankees, it isn’t right unless they win a World Series and they did it by spending money again. Though one Yankee fan outside the press gate felt that that the spending habits of the Yankees is not the way to do it bringing in the players, a half billion dollars worth of talent this season in pitchers CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett and a hitter and defensive first baseman like Teixeira.

Regardless of what that fan was saying, these Yankees set out to accomplish what they had to do when they assembled in spring training back in February.  Every word in that champagne celebration, in the early hours of Thursday morning, conveyed a message to the boss.

Thank you, the players said for putting us together. For bringing the brilliant arm of Sabathia to the Bronx and for signing pitcher Andy Pettitte again, 2-0 in this World Series, a record 18 postseason wins and now a world champion for the fifth time along with other members of the core, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera.

Pettitte would become the first pitcher in history to start and win all three clinching games in a single season postseason, the ALDS, ALCS and the World Series. Jeter would go 3-for-5, his second three-hit game of this World Series and Rivera pitched 5.1 scoreless innings in four appearances.

“It feels better than I remember it, man,” said Jeter about being world champs again after a nine year hiatus as to being called the best. The Yankees came close as they continued to struggle over that span while spending money, but it came together in May when Alex Rodriguez returned from hip surgery.

It came together with a healthier Hideki Matsui, though playing with two bad knees. Matsui, along with Rodriguez got their first world championship. They too thanked the boss, general manager Brian Cashman and of course the manager Joe Girardi.

“My teammates, coaches, and the organization stayed by me,”’ said Rodriguez who finally became a true Yankee, his first championship with a memorable postseason setting a franchise record with 18 runs batted in. “And now we stand here as world champions,” he said.

Matsui, designated hitter for a majority of the season was named the Series Most Valuable Player the first Japanese player to do so, also the first DH to get that accomplishment.  He made a statement as to the Yankees renewing his contract next season going 3-for 4 with a double, homer, and a World Series record tying six runs batted in and batted .615 with three homers and 8 runs batted in six games.

“No, I have no idea right now,” commented Matsui when asked about next year. “Certainly it’s been a long road and a long journey,” he said about reaching the pinnacle of being with a championship team after a successful career in Japan. “I’m just happy that after all these years we were able to win and reach the goal that I had come here for.”

So eight years to the day, November 4^th 2001, the first time the Series was played that late, the Yankees lost to Arizona in seven games, they are champions this time. And it was a total team effort.

It was also the leadership of Girardi, wearing number 27 to signify what he wanted to achieve. When he took on the managerial responsibilities in his first and disappointing season of last year, when the Yankees failed to make the playoffs for the first time in 13 seasons.

“This is what the Steinbrenner family has strived for year after year, said Girardi. “George Steinbrenner and his family are champions. To be able to deliver this to the Boss, this stadium that he created and the atmosphere he has created around here is very gratifying for all of us.”

And now Girardi becomes the first manager to play and manage with the same team to a World Championship since Billy Martin guided the Yankees in the 1977 world title. ”The joys is the same, but it is different type of joy,” he said.   As a player its what you dream about ever since you were a little boy, and for me it was listening to Curt Gowdy and do all the World Series games.”

And for Girardi there was more satisfaction with the efforts of players who contributed during the course of a long season. Pitcher Sergio Mitre who filled in nicely as a number four starter when Chein-Ming Wang was shut down for the season and infielder Ramiro Pena brought up form Triple A.

They, too were tasting the champagne and on Friday morning will be a part of their first victory parade down the ”Canyon of Heroes” on Broadway. Girardi said all along it was the contributions of every player as we saw in this World Series. Damaso Marte, who struggled with arm problems, had his best pitches out of the pen in the six games against the Phillies.

“It’s an honor to win a championship with those guys,” said Teixeira about Rivera, Jeter, Posada and Pettitte. “It’s my first championship and their fifth, they are Yankee legends.”  On top of the Baseball world again are the Yankees and now Girardi may be looking at wearing uniform number 28.

e-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com

Matsui finished that at bat by striking out, but it didn’t matter.

The damage he inflicted on the Philadelphia Phillies’ pitching staff in Game 6 and earlier in this year’s World Series, had long been done.

Indeed, sixteen minutes after the final out of this year’s World Series was recorded, and the Yankees had completed the journey to the 27th championship in their history, Matsui was officially awarded the 2009 World Series Most Valuable Player trophy.

“It’s awesome, it’s just unbelievable,” Mastui said through an interpreter. “I mean, I’m surprised myself.”

He certainly wasn’t the only one.

Playing with a collection of some the game’s greatest current power hitters and clutch postseason performers all on one roster, including the likes of Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter, and Jorge Posada, the 35-year-old Matsui, with ailing knees and all, was initially an afterthought as a possible candidate to be this year’s World Series hero.

And yet, it wasn’t any of the much bigger stars, but it was instead Matsui, who walked away with the 2009 World Series MVP.

Matsui was so good against last year’s world champion Phillies, that Philadelphia can now relate to those who played against him when he first starting learning the game in Japan.

The accomplished left-handed hitting Matsui originally batted right-handed as a child. However, when he started playing with his older brother and his friends, Matsui was such a good batter that his embarrassed brother insisted that he bat left-handed or stop playing with them.

His brother later built the Hideki Matsui baseball museum in Japan.

Most likely, Matsui left the Phillies just as impressed, after batting .615 in the 2009 World Series, going 8–for-13, with three home runs, eight runs batted in, and three runs scored.

Talk about efficiency. An MVP award with as few at-bats as that.

Matsui put his stamp on this year’s World Series despite not being able physically, to play the field throughout the entire series.

It wasn’t always that way for Matsui. He actually still holds the major league baseball record for rookies for consecutive games played to start a major league baseball career. That streak was extended to 518 straight games played with the Yankees, which came on the heels of playing 1,250 consecutive games for the Yomiuri Giants in Japan, for a total professional baseball streak of 1,768 games in a row. He even played one more than the norm during his rookie year as a Yankee, being credited with the all-time major league rookie and Yankee team records of 163 games played in a season, due to a game in Baltimore that wasn’t completed due to rain.

To go from that, to being limited in this year’s World Series because of past injuries and lingering knee problems certainly had to be difficult to handle, at least mentally.

Yet, Matsui rose above it all, to shine, even in a restricted role, as the 2009 World Series’ single most outstanding offensive player, over a bunch of other offensive talent in both dugouts.

That type of success on a grand stage was nothing new for Matsui. He was a three-time MVP in the Japanese Central League (1996, 2000, and 2002), leading his team into four Japan Series, while winning three titles (1994, 2000 and 2002). He also made nine consecutive all-star games and led the league in home runs and RBI’s three times (1998, 2000, and 2002).

Still, because of the constrained role he was forced to play due to his achy knees and past surgeries, many looked elsewhere for World Series heroes in the Yankee lineup before choosing the player who always batted sixth as a DH in a loaded lineup at home, and as a pinch hitter on the road in this World Series.

Nevertheless, Matsui came through in a huge way.

He hit in five of the six games in which he appeared in the Series.

Mastui broke a 1-1 tie with a two-out, sixth inning solo home run in an eventual 3-1 Yankee win in Game 2.

In Game 3, he came off the bench for a pinch hit eighth inning homer to increase the Yankees’ lead to 8-4, as New York went on to win 8-5.

And then, he saved his best for last.

In the Game 6 clincher, Matsui went 3-for-4, tying a World Series record which stood for more than 49 years, that of former Yankee Bobby Richardson’s 6 RBI, set back on October 8, 1960.

Matsui set the tone in Game 6 with a second-inning two-run home run to put the Yankees ahead, 2-0. In the third inning, after the Phillies cut the Yankees’ lead in half, he drove in two more runs with a single, to give New York a 4-1 lead. And, in the fifth inning, Matsui put the game out of reach and started the process of getting the champagne ready in the Yankee clubhouse with a two-run double, giving the Yankees a commanding 7-1 lead, as New York went on to a 7-3 victory to seal its latest championship.

Baseball is ultimately a business, and despite winning a World Series MVP, Matsui, because of his inability to play the field the way he once used to, could very well not fit into the Yankees’ plans in 2010.

For that reason many people, fans and baseball experts alike, forgot about Matsui as being such a threat in this year’s World Series.

Obviously, the Phillies didn’t pitch to him like that, not the way they feared all of the other superstars in the Yankees’ lineup.

Matsui realized his childhood dream of turning success in Japan into triumph in the United States. He not only made it to the majors, but he excelled. And then, among all of the others who were thought to be bigger factors in this year’s World Series, Matsui was left hoisting the game’s most prized possession for a player –- the World Series MVP trophy.

When a minor league player makes to the major leagues, they say he’s made it to “The Show.”

The World Series is baseball’s grandest show.

Coming from Japan, Matsui not only made it to “The Show,” but surprisingly, he stole the biggest show of all.

Utley is exactly the type of gritty, rise-to-the-occasion player which has filled the Phillies’ roster the past two years, and those traits might be what ultimately carry the Phillies to their second straight world championship over a team which is widely considered better than the team which owns 2008 World Series rings.

Yes, that’s right, it’s the Yankees who have to take that title from Philadelphia, not the other way around, as it might have often seemed leading up to this season’s World Series.

Behind Utley, the Phillies served early notice that they won’t be intimidated in the least by any sort of Yankee postseason mystique.

For all the talk of how dominant Sabathia had been this postseason (and, he was) and how powerful the Yankees’ lineup is (and, it is), it seems that a certain thing was forgotten by many fans and media members about the team in the opposing dugout –- that Philadelphia, not New York, is the defending world champion, and that the fightin’ Phils, with a payroll of nearly S100 million less than that of their 2009 World Series counterparts, possess both the ability and all of the intangibles needed to overcome the mighty, favored Yankees.

The other main story in Philadelphia’s 6-1 Game 1 victory besides Utley’s heroics was that of the Phillies’ own ace starter, Cliff Lee, who finished a complete game as the only pitcher in baseball history to strike out 10 batters while allowing no walks and no earned runs in a World Series game.

Pitching on the grand stage as a Game 1 World Series starter in Yankee Stadium, it was Lee who showed up the Yankees and shut them down the way many thought Sabathia would stop the Phillies’ powerful lineup.

Lee certainly didn’t shy away from such an opportunity. “I’ve never been nervous in the big leagues,” he said, a few moments after winning the first ever World Series game played at the new Yankee Stadium, a victory which comes six months and twelve days after Lee won the first regular season game ever played in the same building, on April 16th, as a member of the Cleveland Indians.

After very nonchalantly sticking out his glove to catch a pop-up on the mound by Johhny Damon in the 6th inning as if he was shagging a fly ball during batting practice, and later in the 8th inning, fielding a bouncing ball behind his back, to retire Robinson Cano, Fox television announcer Joe Buck remarked, “His body language is like he’s pitching in spring training… Cliff Lee has made it look easy.” Tim McCarver jokingly added, “Yeah, he’s just getting his work in.”

That attitude typifies the Phillies and why they lead the World Series 1-0 as last year’s champions even though the Yankees are favored and thought of by most as being a stronger team from top to bottom.

As Utley said, it doesn’t matter in the Phillies’ clubhouse what others think of them or what they think of a team like the Yankees in comparison. “We have confidence, we know we have a good team,” Utley said.

Without Utley, who set a major league baseball record in Game 1 by reaching base in his 26th postseason game (matching his uniform number), the game’s final two innings (during which the Phillies tacked on four runs after Sabathia left the game), might have played out much differently, and Lee’s spectacular efforts might have gone to waste.

However, it didn’t matter to the clutch left-hand-hitting Utley that Sabathia hadn’t allowed a home run to a left-handed batter all season. Utley hit the ninth pitch of his third inning at-bat, sending a two-strike, 95 mph fastball into the right field seats for a 1-0 Phillies’ lead. Sabathia then retired the next eight hitters until Utley’s next at-bat. So, what did the ultimate gamer Utley, do then? He smacked another 95 mph fastball, this time, on an 0-2 pitch, even further than his earlier home run, into the right-center field stands, to put the Phillies up 2-0, in the sixth inning.

Before Utley, the only other left-handed hitter to homer twice off a lefty pitcher in a World Series game was legendary Yankee Babe Ruth, in 1928, off of the Cardinals’ Bill Sherdel.

It’s only one game, and this World Series is far from over. But, Utley’s play on Wednesday night exemplified the scrappy, determined nature of the Phillies, and why the Yankees may be on the verge of yet again, vastly outspending the rest of major-league baseball with free agent mercenaries like Sabathia, only to possibly fall short of a world championship yet again.

Recent history doesn’t bode well for New York in that regard. The last six World Series winners have all won Game 1, as Philadelphia did on Wednesday night. The team that started that trend? The underdog Florida Marlins, who sharing many of the same characteristics of Utley and his current Phillie teammates, fought their way to a 4-2 victory over the heavily favored Yankees, in 2003.

If you’re a Met fan, you have to.

And, Angel fans on the west coast?

If you’re wondering who in New York might support your team in its quest to accomplish the unexpected in the Bronx this weekend (winning a Game 6 as well as a Game 7 against C.C. Sabathia), look toward the suffering fans of New York’s other team, which just completed its worst season in six years, finishing 23 games behind the Philadelphia Phillies. Yes, the defending world champion Phillies, otherwise known as one of the reasons Met fans are on your side for at least one more game in this year’s American League Championship Series.

Met fans have reason to search for something to cling to this October after enduring one of the most brutal years in their team’s 48-year history. It was a season of ineptitude and bad luck, of off-the-field issues and poorly handled public relations.

The Mets had a relentless string of injuries to seemingly every other player they put on the field this year (including freak ones, like second baseman Luis Castillo injuring himself walking down the dugout steps during a game). They lost games in which Castillo dropped a routine pop-up, turning the final out of a win into an excruciatingly embarrassing loss, and in which the right fielder they traded out of New York (Ryan Church) failed to step on third base, costing the Mets a possible winning run in Los Angeles. There was the firing of their former Vice President of Player Development, Tony Bernazard, who reportedly challenged players of the Mets’ minor league affiliate in Binghamton to a fight, while shirtless, in the locker room. And, there were the stammering, incoherent, bumbling press conferences of the man who is supposed to represent the face of the Mets’ franchise, general manager, Omar Minaya.

To top it all off, the Met faithful are just one more New York Yankees’ win from ending their nightmare of a 2009 baseball season with a World Series matchup between their two most hated rivals: the Phillies and the Yankees.

It’s easy to realize Met fans’ natural loathing for the Phillies once Philadelphia replaced Atlanta as the Mets’ latest nemesis in the NL East division. Ever since the Mets were one big hit away from the World Series, losing in Game 7 of the 2006 National League Championship Series to the St. Louis Cardinals, the Phillies have been everything the Mets have not.

Philadelphia has been clutch, largely homegrown, and hugely successful, while the Mets have been chokers, failing with imports via ill-advised trades and misguided free agency moves. The sentiment among most Met fans is that the success which the Phillies have been enjoying over the past three seasons could have, and perhaps should have, been that of the Mets. And, perhaps they’re right.

The Mets had the biggest collapse in Major League Baseball history in 2007, finishing 5-12 while the Phillies went 13-4 to overcome the Mets’ once-thought insurmountable 7-game lead with just 17 regular season games left that year. The following season, the Mets were again passed by the Phillies, having blown a 3½-game September lead, while stumbling to the finish line with a 7-10 mark, setting the record for the biggest consecutive September collapses in major league history. After a pair of successive seasons like that, 2009, with the rash of injuries, a myriad of fundamental mistakes, and a leadership circus, seeing the Phillies back in the World Series, defending last year’s championship, is too much to take for Met fans.

Likewise, the disdain for the Yankees among Met fans is equally understood. With only two championships in their team’s history, and none since 1986, the mere thought of the Yankees’ comparative success often makes Met fans cringe.

Already hearing frequent Yankee fans’ boasting of their team’s 26 world titles (including a run of four in five years in the late 1990’s and 2000), seeing the Mets’ cross-town rivals back in another World Series this year might be cause enough for Met fans to skip viewing this year’s Fall Classic altogether.

As one caller on New York’s Mega sports radio station, WFAN, a self-described diehard Met fan put it this Thursday afternoon, “I’d root for Al Qaida before I root for the Yankees.”

Yes, when it comes to baseball in New York, the emotions run that deep, especially when a New York baseball fan’s biggest rivals are involved.

A Met fan’s second favorite team is usually whoever is playing the Phillies or the Yankees. So then, what does a Met fan do if those two teams play each other in Major League Baseball’s biggest series?

Alas, Met fans, there may yet be hope for you this October.

Remember 2004? Of course you do. You know, the moments that if they were pitched to Hollywood in a script, would have been denied for not being plausible enough? The Boston Red Sox, down three games to none after a blowout 19-8 home loss to the Yankees in Game 3, go on to win four straight games, with Curt Schilling and his iconic, bloodied red sock in Game 6?

Well, tell me you weren’t thinking the same type of thing is possible this year after the Angels’ comeback tonight in Game 5 of this year’s ALCS.

Should the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim not pull off such a series comeback (and they don’t deserve to with a ridiculous name like that), the conundrum of Met fans is that there would be no October bandwagon to hop aboard next week. Nope, no darling Cinderella team to knock out the hated Phillies or the despised Yankees. No wild-card Florida Marlins to stun the Yankees in six games as they did in 2003, after the Mets finished just 66-95. And, no scrappy, overachieving Tampa Bay Rays to root for to beat the Phillies, as Met fans did during last year’s World Series.

Tell me honestly that when the Yankees wiped out a 4-0 Angels’ lead with a 6-run seventh inning after Angels’ starter John Lackey, who had been cruising along for six innings, you didn’t say, “Damn Yankees! They did it again! NOW, who do I root for, or should I just skip the Phillies-Yankees World Series and hope that Omar somehow figures it all out in the offseason?”

And then, when the Angels stormed right back with three in the bottom of the seventh, to win 7-6, and send the series back to the Bronx, weren’t you thinking about 2004 all over again? And, were you justifying it by thinking, “Well, sure, the Yankees have followed up the majors’ best home record of 57-24 this year with a perfect 4-0 at the new Yankee Stadium, but so what?! The Red Sox were down 3-0 in 2004 and THEY did it! This is only 3-1! Let’s go Angels!”

You know, you thought it, Met fans. I know I did, as I’m one of you.

So, Met fans, do you believe?

Do you believe in Angels?

If you want to stomach watching this year’s World Series, you should.

So when the Atlanta Braves scored eight runs in the second inning Wednesday evening, all off Mets starter Bobby Parnell, Mets fans had to look forward to memories of that championship team of 40 years ago. This Mets team is not that team of 1969. They, more and more are reliving memories of those 1962 Mets that could do nothing right.

Luis Castillo has had a positive season at the plate. Since July 1, The Mets second baseman has led the National League in on base percentage ,but he opened the door for the Braves in that second inning by failing to cover second base that would have got the Mets out of the inning. That paved the way for the Braves to continue their onslaught, a 15-2 rout.

Five more runs would score after Castillo failed to cover second on a two-out grounder to Anderson Hernandez off the bat of Garett Anderson with runners at the corners. “When Garret Anderson hit the ball Anderson kind of thought Luis would be covering,” was the explanation from Mets manager Jerry Manuel.

But it was more than the Castillo blunder and big inning for Atlanta that caused most of the 38,602 fans at Citi Field to leave the ballpark after the sixth inning. Manuel would manage the game as if it was a spring training contest. He would constantly make changes to the lineup, switched Castillo and Anderson from second to short two different times before Castillo was lifted for good in the fourth inning.

By that time the Mets were on their way to losing their 64^th game of the season, and now for sure are playing the role of spoilers against division opponents Atlanta, Florida and Philadelphia. “Luis has been playing extremely well and I wanted to give him a little break,” explained Manuel about his decision to lift him early.

Parnell, making his third Major League start would allow nine runs and nine hits in three innings. And it all went downhill for him after Castillo failed to cover second. “My game plan is to make them hit the ball,” said Parnell. He added, “Ground balls got through.”

Former Met Ryan Church reached base three times, the Braves hit three home runs including two long balls that landed on the bridge out in right field at Citi Field. The 15 runs allowed tied a season high which was also done on June 14^th against the Yankees.

Atlanta had a season high 18 hits and their highest scoring game of the season.

So perhaps Manuel, with all the changes from the fourth inning on, was starting to see what could be done for next season. “It gives us an opportunity to see guys get at bats,” he said.  “See if they can get some enthusiasm and energy in those situations,” said Manuel.

But energy and enthusiasm, at least on this night left the ballpark in that second inning moments after Castillo failed to cover second base. The only bright spot was for the Braves who managed to score the eight runs after giving up eight in an inning the night before as they kept pace with Colorado in the NL wild card standings.

“They got to communicate before the play,” commented Manuel about the Castillo-Anderson play.  Interesting to see what Manuel does in the rubber game of the three-game series Thursday evening with his infielders.  Johan Santana (13-8) gets the start for New York against (5-9) Kenshin Kawakami of the Braves.

e-mail Rich Mancuso:  Ring786@aol.com