Max Scherzer turned in his fourth consecutive strong start, allowing just 1 ER in 7 IP, leading the Mets to a 4-2 win and a sweep of the three-game series. The victory puts the Mets three games above .500, the first time their record has been that good since May 1.
The Phillies scored two runs in the first inning, one of which was unearned due to a throwing error by Francisco Alvarez on a double-steal attempt. After that point, Scherzer settled in and was pitching better as the game went on.
Scherzer finished the sixth inning with 89 pitches. Wednesday night, Buck Showalter pulled Carlos Carrasco after six innings with a lower pitch count. But he sent Scherzer back for the seventh and it was the right call.
Meanwhile, Mark Canha homered for the second straight game to put the Mets ahead, 3-2. And the Mets tacked on a run in the sixth inning when Brett Baty doubled, was sacrificed to third and came home on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Mark Vientos.
Jeff Brigham continued his strong pitching with a scoreless eighth inning. With a bunch of LHB coming up for the ninth, Showalter tapped Brooks Raley for the ninth, even though Raley has been much more effective this year versus righties. But he got lefties Bryce Harper and Kyle Schwarber, the latter on a called strike three on a pitch outside of the strike zone, perhaps due to a good frame from Alvarez.
But the righty Nick Castellanos singled and when the Phillies sent up a righty to pinch-hit, Showalter brought in Drew Smith, despite Smith giving up runs in his last four appearances. Smith needed just one pitch, as he got a lazy pop fly to end the game.
Big games for Scherzer and Canha. And we should put Showalter in the same category, as he made decisions that weren’t cut and dried and came up right on all of them.
Solid series for Mets Pitching and Mark Canha.
Be nice to get more hits and see our offense get rolling.
Gut Reaction : Pitching, pitching, pitching. Sweep, Sweep ,Sweep. Four hits and four runs. Efficient offense. It was a good series.
Winning is good. Sweeping the Phillies is great.
Pitching can make a non- productive line up look good, and it can make it look lousy.
The clock has officially started on the Cahna 6 week hot streak. Epoler can now deal him at the trade deadline.
Free Mark Vientos!
LGM!
Nice win. Verlander, Megill and Senga against the Jays will be one where we need to unleash the bats. Then we play the Braves. Thank goodness for some parity around the league or we’d be 10 games back instead of 3.5. Loving the long ball. It’s hard to win these days without it and I believe it can be contagious. Another knock for Baty and a sac fly to knock in a run for Vientos. I guess Vogelbach’s two walks from yesterday, and yes I know his ABs were important, earned him another start but we need Mauricio and to add some life to this lineup. So simple that all we have to do is get our starter to go 6 or more innings and for some reason we end up winning. LGM
To me it’s a no-brainer that the Pitcher should be able to pitch at least six innings if he’s a Major League Baseball Starting Pitcher. It is really inexcusable unless the Pitcher is coming off an injury and just coming back into the game for the first time. Other than that there really is no excuse but it plays out every day in baseball.