The Phillies yesterday won the Roy Oswalt sweepstakes — and the Mets were among the biggest losers.
“A move like that, it gets your attention,” Mets manager Jerry Manuel said of the trade that sent the two-time 20-game winner from Houston to the Amazin’s NL East rival.
“He’s one of the top guys out there. To have that piece in your rotation is quite an improvement.”
With tomorrow’s non-waiver trade deadline looming and the best player on the market headed to their division, the Mets don’t appear close to landing anyone of significance.
Still, GM Omar Minaya is confident the current roster can compete.
“We have enough, but we are going to stay talking to teams,” Minaya said.
Manuel, asked if he was jealous of the Phillies’ acquisition, laughed and said, “That’s fine.”
But Carlos Beltran knows what a difference Oswalt will make in Philadelphia, where he’ll join fellow stud Roy Halladay.
“He’s a horse,” said Beltran, who played with Oswalt briefly in Houston in 2004. “It would have been great if it was a different story, with him coming here, but it is what it is. I think we’ve gotta play with what we’ve got.”
It won’t be easy.
“Everything has to go well for us to play late [into the postseason],” Manuel said. “We have to play extremely well with the group we have, and we are capable of doing that. Things really have to go our way.”
That didn’t happen yesterday — at least off the field.
“They’ve got two of the best pitchers in baseball,” Jeff Francoeur said of the Phillies. “It’s impressive. Obviously, they’re going after it.”
The Mets, however, will continue to try to stay in the race without another ace.
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Jason Bay still appears headed to the DL. If his symptoms don’t improve by today from what the Mets are calling a mild concussion, suffered on Friday in Los Angeles, the Mets figure to make a move.
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David Wright was given yesterday off, but Beltran convinced Manuel to keep him in the lineup after Wednesday’s 13-inning loss.
“His comment was, ‘I need to be out there and I want to push it,’ ” Manuel said. “Part of it was Bay not being available and seeing how we’re struggling a little bit.”
Beltran went 1-for-4 with an RBI.
“I feel good,” Beltran said. “I just want to be out there.”
Beltran’s return hasn’t hurt Angel Pagan, who continues to play well. Yesterday, he went 2-for-3 with two runs and a triple. . . . Yesterday’s shutout was the Mets’ 14th of the season, which leads the majors.