Gut reaction: Phillies 14, Mets 3 – 4/16/19

You can’t win ’em all, but this one was a real clunker. The high following the Monday night nail biter win was short-lived as the wheels came off in Philly on Tuesday. Starter Steven Matz gave the team no chance, coughing up eight runs in the first inning without retiring an out. The defense did him no favors, making costly errors in the ugly first inning. The damage came courtesy of two home runs, one by Scott Kingery and the other by perennial Mets killer Mikael Franco. Drew Gagnon took over and gave up another two runs to put the Mets in a 10-0 hole of which they’d never be able to climb out.

Matz brutal pitching performance was far from the only ugly part of this game. The Mets defense made five errors leading to three unearned runs. The box score says four errors, but if you saw Keon Broxton losing a routine fly ball in the lights, you’d say five. Brandon Nimmo exited the game with a stiff neck after being run ragged in center field by a barrage of Phillies doubles. And the Phillies just kept on hitting all night, scoring another six runs off Drew Gagnon to bring their run total to a sturdy 14. The Mets offense tallied 10 hits and three walks but kept stranding runners inning after inning.

There were a few positives in this game. The Mets managed to score three runs, courtesy of home runs by Michael Conforto and Wilson Ramos. Ramos drove in another run on a sacrifice fly Dom Smith, Jeff McNeil and J.D. Davis keep getting hits. Robinson Cano joined the fun with two hits of his own. Gagnon did give us 5.1 innings of needed relief and Paul Sewald looked okay. Mets pitchers limited the walks to a more manageable three in this game.

Tomorrow is another day and the Mets will go for the series win with Zack Wheeler on the mound against Jake Arrieta in the daytime rubber match. Come on, Mets.