Phillies rally late, beat the Mets 5-3
After a sweep of the NL East favorite Atlanta Braves, the Philadelphia Phillies were back in action tonight against the New York Mets. In what turned out to be a bad break for the Phillies, the Mets sent their ace Jacob deGrom to the mound for their delayed Opening Day after their series against the Washington Nationals was suspended due to COVID-19 issues.
Through the first four innings, deGrom threw 50 four-seam fastballs, 36 of them clocking in at 99 mph or faster. deGrom threw 24 fastballs to start the game. He posted six shutout innings and Miguel Castro followed with a scoreless seventh inning, but the Phillies rallied against Trevor May and Aaron Loup in the eighth inning to steal a win from the Mets ace.
Matt Moore was on the mound for the Phillies and pitched well before running into some issues in the fourth inning. After walking the first two batters of the inning and watching his pitch count climb above 70, Moore watched Adam Haseley botch a routine fly ball to centerfield which allowed the inning to continue. Moore would let up a single to McCann and deGrom and the Mets took a 2-0 lead in the game.
Brandon Kintzler came in to relieve Moore and pitched great in his Phillies debut, allowing one hit in 1.2 innings of work while striking out one. Following Kintzler, Sam Coonrod made his Phillies debut and also pitched well, throwing two scoreless frames, allowing one hit and striking out three. Connor Brogdon was next up for the Phillies bullpen and threw another scoreless frame, allowing one hit and a striking out one. The Phillies bullpen delivered yet again, with Kintzler, Coonrod, and Brogdon combining to throw 4 2/3 shutout innings to give the Phillies a chance to rally in the eighth.
Thankfully, deGrom exited the game after pitching six innings of three hit, scoreless baseball. The Mets decision to take out deGrom after just 77 pitches proved to be a terrible mistake. The Phillies only had four hits entering the bottom of the 8th inning before Bamboo Brad roped a single to right center to turn the lineup over. From there, everything worked in favor of the Phillies.
- McCutchen walked and Rhys Hoskins hit a single to right field to load the bases.
- Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch which scored Brad Miller.
- JT Realmuto singled to shallow left to score Roman Quinn.
- Alec Bohm grounded into a fielders choice, but thanks to an error, Harper and Hoskins both scored.
- Didi Gregorius hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Realmuto.
The Phillies sent nine batters to the plate in the 8th inning and scored five runs against two Mets’ pitchers. Just like that, the Phillies were up 5-2 heading into the 9th inning with Jose Alvarado taking the mound to close out the game. Alvarado struck out the first two batters he faced before allowing a singles to Kevin Pillar and Francisco Lindor. Michael Conforto snuck a single under the diving glove of Bryce Harper in right field to score a run for the Mets but it wasn’t enough. Pete Alonzo flied out to Harper and Alvarado got the save.
Phillies won 5-3 and move to 4-0 to start the season. It’s the 4th time in franchise history the Phillies started a season 4-0. The third time was in 2019. The Mets pulled a Gabe Kapler tonight by taking deGrom out of the game after throwing only 77 pitches. Credit the Phillies for capitalizing on a bad decision and coming through with great situational hitting to squeeze out a win.
Next Up: The Phillies will send Chase Anderson to the mound to face Marcus Stroman tomorrow night at 7:05 pm.
Mandatory Credit: MLB.com
