May 7 -- GAME 25 WRAP: DON'T MESS WITH THE JOHAN

BY SCOTT LAUBER

NEW YORK -- So, as Jimmy Rollins walked through the clubhouse after last night's game, he spotted a few Phillies beat writers among a group of reporters from New York.

"Was that game as fun to watch as it was to play?" J-Roll said with a smile.

Personally, I love games like last night's. Home runs are great, but there's nothing like an old-fashioned pitchers' duel. Chan Ho Park was superb, for a change. Johan Santana was awesome, as usual. Between them, they allowed three hits, and if the game hadn't been decided by an unfortunate throwing error by Pedro Feliz, it would've been an instant classic. Chad Durbin probably summed it up best when he said, "[Park] threw the ball so well. It's something to build on for him. In a 1-0 game, he gave Santana a run for his money."

Here, then, are a few random thoughts, some of which made it into today's News Journal and others that didn't.

1. It occurred to me that Park has been at his best when his spot in the rotation hasn't been assured. He had to win the fifth-starter spot in spring training, and he was excellent. Then, after four largely dismal starts, I think Park knew he needed to pitch well last night to guarantee he'd get another start. Lo and behold, look what happened. Earlier this week, Park talked about lacking "focus" during his start against the Mets last Friday night. He had plenty of focus here last night. Asked after the game if he ever thought his rotation spot was in jeopardy, Park said flatly, "No." I'll take him at his word, but it sure seems like he "focuses" more when he has something to prove.

2. If there's a better pitcher in the National League than Santana, I haven't seen him. Cole Hamels has a great changeup, and when he's on, a good fastball. But Santana's slider is probably better than Hamels' curveball. Add that to Santana's wicked changeup and nasty fastball, and he can be virtually unhittable. "That's probably the best I've seen him," said Jayson Werth, who struck out three times last night.

3. Pedro Feliz bolted from the clubhouse without talking to reporters last night, so we may never know what he was thinking when he charged and barehanded Fernando Tatis' broken-bat roller and threw it wide of first base. It was an uncharacteristic miscue by Feliz, one of the NL's best defensive third basemen. Come to think of it, you won't see the Phillies lose many games because of defense. Entering last night, they had the best overall fielding percentage (.994) in the NL.

4. Citi Field is underwhelming. Perhaps my expectations were too high, but to me, there's nothing particularly special about it, at least not these days, when new ballparks are cropping up every year. I'm impressed by the selection of food. I like the look of the Jackie Robinson rotunda. But with the tall scoreboards in center field and right-center and the towering third deck in left field, it almost feels like the ballpark is enclosed. Of course, it's a tremendous upgrade over Shea Stadium, which has been reduced to rubble (sniff, sniff).

5. Just when I thought I'd heard everything about last year's World Series run, Charlie Manuel told an interesting story yesterday. After the Phillies lost Game 2 in Tampa, Manuel said he had a team meeting. Evidently, he believed some players were more concerned with talking to the large numbers of reporters and cameras at the World Series than with preparing for the games. "I had a meeting about people looking for attention in different areas and wanting to get interviewed after the game and standing around," Manuel said. "We forgot what our purpose was for being there. So, I had a meeting. That was probably one of the best meetings I ever had, if you want to know the truth. We worked all year to get there, and it was about our team. It was not about one individual. When I walk about the clubhouse and I see people looking for attention, looking for the media, interviews on TV, I got pissed off. It wasn't what got us there. That wasn't what we were about."