The Philadelphia Phillies were shorthanded last night as they opened up a weekend series against the New York Mets at Citizens Bank Park. They managed to squeeze out a 2-1 win vs the Mets thanks to an extremely unusual play in the second inning.

Chase Anderson swung at a third strike with the bases loaded and two outs. James McCann completely missed the pitch from Marcus Stroman and the ball hit off home plate umpire Jeremie Rehak’s shin guard and rolled over to the Phillies on-deck circle. Brad Miller from third and Andrew Knapp on a heads-up play, scored from second. It gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead.

Anderson became the first Phillies’ pitcher not named Aaron Nola, Zack Wheeler, or Zach Eflin to pitch into the sixth inning this year. He finished the night throwing five innings, allowing five hits, one run, and two walks while striking out six Mets batters. The Phillies as a team, only managed three hits the entire night while striking out 12 times. Fortunately, that was all they needed to walk away with a 2-1 victory, but not before things got spicy during. thefinal two frames of the game.

After José Alvarado struck out Dominic Smith swinging with the tyling run on third and the go-ahead run on second to end the eighth inning, he celebrated on the mound. Alvarado was screaming, pumping his fists, and capped it off by making a few gestures to Smith, who didn’t take kindly to them. Smith said a few things back to Alvarado, and José dropped his glove and started walking towards Smith at home plate. The benches and bullpens emptied but nothing else happened from there.

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Smith, who told reporters after the game that he has “never been a player like that” to be annoyed by players “pimping strike outs and stuff on the field” was clearly annoyed. The part that he did not like was Alvarado pointing at him and walking towards him because “grown-ass man” Dominic Smith, insisted that he was in fact, a “grown-ass man.”

Alvarado and Smith have history dating back to early April. It stemmed from an incident at Citi Field on April 13th when Alvarado threw a 100.2 (gas) mph fastball near Michael Conforto’s head in Game 1 of the doubleheader. Alvarado then hit Conforto with a 100.1 mph fastball on the left arm.

Smith, the grown-ass man that doesn’t get annoyed by things, was the most vocal player on the Mets, screaming from the bench at Alvarado on the mound. Alvarado dismissed him and motioned for Smith to shush. José remembered this last night, and after he was battling on the mound with little to no accuracy in the early goings, was able to bounce back and strikeout Smith, causing the celebration.

Smith, probably the only clever thing he said during his pathetic post-game rant, said that if “Alvarado can’t throw strikes then he shouldn’t be in the big leagues” which is exactly what Girardi said after Harper and Didi both got plunked in the St. Louis series.

Things didn’t deescalate from there. Mets right-hander Miguel Castro walked Hoskins on four pitches with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning. The third and fourth pitches from Castro were way inside and Rhys Hoskins did not appreciate that.

Mets right-hander Miguel Castro walked Hoskins on four pitches with one out in the eighth. The third and fourth pitches were way inside.

Hoskins stared down the lanky Castro before jogging to first base. Once Castro saw James McCann following Rhys down the first base line, he stepped off the mound and started following as well. Real tough, buddy.

Hoskins commented after the game saying “Nobody likes that. But it’s nothing, man. Emotions were high tonight. We had just had the benches clear the inning before. That’s how these division games are. It doesn’t matter if it’s April or September. It seems like we always have these dogfight games, especially against the Mets. Just another one tonight.”

In the end, the Phillies climbed back to .500 yet again at 13-13 and finish April in first place atop of the National League East. This game was played without Bryce Harper, J.T. Realmuto, Didi Gregorius, and Jean Segura. They scored their only two runs on a strikeout in the second. It was the first time the Phillies scored two runs on a strikeout since the expansion era.

Up Next: The Phillies will play the Mets again at CBP today at 6:05pm. Taijuan Walker (1-1, 2.14 ERA) will be on the mound against Zack Wheeler (2-2, 3.13 ERA).

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