Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. The Mets are getting no-hit and then break out with a six-run inning. They’ve now done that in back-to-back starts, although this time it came in the fifth inning rather than the ninth. The Mets opened up their series with the Phillies with a convincing 11-3 win Friday night in Philadelphia. The Mets are now 12-2 in their last 14 games and are a season-high 15 games over .500 with an 81-66 record.
Jose Iglesais led off the fifth inning with a single and he was followed by a single from Tyrone Taylor. And then Francisco Alvarez took an inside pitch deep, hitting it off the fair pole for a three-run homer. One out later, Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos singled back-to-back, setting the table for a three-run homer from Brandon Nimmo. And the rout was on.
In the article posted earlier today, there was this line: Maybe a trip to Philadelphia is all they need for the hits to start falling in and the XBH to materialize. The Mets finished with 14 hits, with six of those going for extra-bases.
The recipient of the offensive explosion was Jose Quintana, who pitched a very strong game. He gave up a first-inning double and that was the extent of the damage. He ended up with seven scoreless innings with no walks and three hits. The other two players to reach base got there on infield hits. Quintana evened his record at 9-9 and lowered his ERA to 3.91 for the year. After his start on August 20, Quintana had a 4.57 ERA. Since then, he’s allowed 1 ER in 25 IP.
The Mets again used power to make it 7-0, as Harrison Bader and Francisco Lindor hit back-to-back doubles in the sixth inning. However, Lindor did not slide on a close play at second and ended up wrenching his back. He played the field in the bottom of the inning but with the game out of hand, Carlos Mendoza removed him for the seventh. Hopefully he gets early treatment and will be back in the lineup on Saturday.
Bader added a solo homer in the eighth inning and Pete Alonso chimed in with a 3-run homer in the ninth to make it 11-0.
Alex Young gave up a three-run blast for the final score. But it didn’t come close to ruining the good vibes of picking up a statement win against the first-place Phillies. The Mets are now seven games back of Philadelphia with six games remaining against their NL East rival.
Flip the bader and alonso homers. Baders was the 3rd 3 run homer of the game. Alonso hit a solo shot off Roger Clemens…son.
Good game by Quintana and the bats. One down, nine to go.
Gut Reaction: Three, three run homeruns, combined with three hit pitching by Quintana made it a trificata night. Let’s go for a trificata weekend!