Walks Haunt Mets in 10-5 Loss to Phillies
After playing two games in New York, the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies traveled to Philadelphia to continue their four-game series on Wednesday night with game three at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies swept the Mets in New York to take a two-game series lead back to Philly.
Looking to get back on track, the Mets sent left-handed pitcher Joey Lucchesi to the mound for his 2024 debut after being recalled from Triple-A Syracuse. 30-year-old Lucchesi went against Phillies’ southpaw Ranger Suárez (7-0, 1.37 ERA).
The Phillies defeated the Mets 10-5 on a sloppy defensive night for the Mets. They had two errors in the field on Wednesday night, and the Phillies teed off against their pitching in the middle innings to run away with the game.
Along with recalling Lucchesi, the Mets also recalled third baseman Mark Vientos, who knows that he has to perform while he is with the big league team. Vientos did just that and was the highlight of the night. He came out swinging with two hits, an RBI, and a run scored, showing a strong call-up performance.
Vientos got the Mets’ offense started and on the board first with the lead early. With two runners on and two out, Vientos, in his first at-bat after being called up, hit a line drive double to left field off of Suárez, scoring Francisco Lindor to give the Mets the early 1-0 lead.
The Phillies, however, answered in the bottom of the first as Bryce Harper hit a two-out solo home run off of Lucchesi to left field that tied the game 1-1. That was Harper’s 10th home run of the season.
The Mets extended their lead in the third. After Pete Alonso doubled to left field and advanced to third on a throwing error, he scored on a wild to give the Mets a 2-1 lead.
The Mets held on to that lead until the fifth inning when the game began to unravel for Lucchesi. After two straight walks, Johan Rojas hit a sacrifice bunt to load the bases. He issued his third walk to Kyle Schwarber, who scored a run and tied the game. With the bases still loaded, J.T. Realmuto singled to right field to give the Phillies a 3-2 lead, and Bryce Harper followed with a two-RBI double that made it a 5-2 Phillies lead and knocked Lucchesi out of the game.
Grant Hartwig replaced Lucchesi on the mound with one on and one out, and retired the Phillies, ending the inning.
Lucchesi’s final line: 4.1 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 4 BB, 2 K, 1 HR, 10.38 ERA
With a 3-2 lead, the Phillies went to their bullpen in the sixth. Spencer Turnbull replaced Suárez on the mound. He threw a perfect first inning of work.
Suárez’s final line: 5 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 0 HR, 1.37 ERA
The Phillies continued to pour it on in the bottom half of the inning. With runners on first and third, Cristian Pache grounded out to third on a play that allowed Bryson Stott to score. Two batters later, the red-hot Schwarber hit an RBI single to score a second run in the inning. The Phillies took a commanding 7-2 lead over the Mets into the seventh.
They again piled on some more in the seventh, scoring three more runs: Edmundo Sosa reached on a bases-loaded fielder’s choice to score, followed by a sacrifice fly by Pache that scored a second run, and an RBI single by Rojas to score the Phillies’ third run of the game and make it a 10-2 Phillies lead going into the eighth.
The Mets made things interesting and put some pressure on the Phillies, bringing in three runs in the eighth. J.D. Martinez led off with a solo shot to make it a 10-3 game and get the Mets’ momentum going. Vientos followed with his second hit of the night. Two batters later, he scored on an RBI double from Jeff McNeil to make it 10-4 before Tomas Nido drove McNeil in on an RBI single to cut the Phillies’ lead in half and make it a 10-5 game.
That was as close as the Mets got, as the Phillies defeated the Mets 10-5 to take a 3-0 series lead.
With their loss on Wednesday night to the current first-place Phillies, the Mets fall to 19-23 and remain in fourth place in the National League East.
PLAYER OF THE GAME
Vientos is the Metsmerized player of the game for Wednesday night. He went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored in his first game after being recalled. It’s a small sample size, but assuming Vientos receives adequate playing time, it could be a sign of things to come and might just be what the team needs to get their offense going.
And just like that Mark Vientos gives the Mets an early lead in his first at-bat back with an RBI double! pic.twitter.com/TRc0SI5XhB
— Metsmerized Online (@Metsmerized) May 15, 2024
ON DECK
The Mets and Phillies conclude their series on Thursday at 6:40 P.M. EST. Jose Quintana (1-4, 5.44 ERA) takes the mound for the Mets against the former Met, Taijuan Walker (3-0, 4.82 ERA) for the Phillies. Walker was recently activated off of the 15-day injured list by the Phillies after dealing with right shoulder soreness.
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