This time it was the Phillies who pulled out the late-inning magic, as they scored four runs in the last two innings to emerge with a 7-6 win over the Mets in Game 2 of the NLDS, tying the series at 1-1. After a day off on Monday, the series will resume Tuesday at 5:08 p.m. at Citi Field. It’ll be the Mets’ first home game since September 22.
Bryce Harper is one of the best players in the game and he hit a two-run homer in the sixth inning to cut the Mets’ lead to 3-2. He batted two more times in the game and walked both times, with the Mets essentially saying that he was not going to beat them. The problem was they failed to retire Nick Castellanos or Bryson Stott after walking Harper.
In the eighth inning, Castellanos followed the Harper walk with a single and Stott tripled them both home. In the ninth, Castellanos followed the Harper walk with the game-winning hit.
The Mets staked Luis Severino to a 3-0 lead, thanks to a two-run homer by Mark Vientos and a solo shot by Pete Alonso. Severino held the Phillies scoreless thru five innings but was victimized by the gopher ball in the sixth, giving up Harper’s homer and a dinger to Castellanos that tied the score.
Brandon Nimmo homered in the top of the seventh inning to put the Mets back on top, 4-3. Jose Butto came on to relieve Severino and hit a batter and gave up an infield single. With two outs and two runners on base, Carlos Mendoza brought in closer Edwin Diaz, who notched a strikeout to end the inning.
But Diaz blew the lead in the eighth inning. He allowed a walk and two hits and was pulled after surrendering Stott’s triple. Tylor Megill relieved him and got a weak chopper to third. It looked like it was going to be a bang-bang play at the plate but Vientos couldn’t make the transfer and Stott scored without a throw for a two-run Phillies lead.
Vientos would redeem his fielding miscue with a two-run homer to tie the game. Megill retired the first two batters in the bottom of the ninth but could not get the third out to force extra innings.
It was great that the Mets remembered how to hit home runs in this game. But they went 0-7 with RISP, with five of those coming in the first two innings. They had a chance to put the game away early and didn’t capitalize.
And there will be the debate about Mendoza’s pitching moves. It looks great when you bring in Diaz in the seventh inning and it works. But did he need to remove Butto in this game? It’s one thing when the other team hits rockets or if the pitcher can’t find the strike zone. But that wasn’t the case with this move to bring in Diaz super early.
Having used his two-best rested relievers, Mendoza painted himself into the corner and had little choice but to use Megill to close things out. And it was disheartening to see Megill, who was pumping his fastball in at 98 mph, get beat with offspeed pitches. His first walk was on a cutter, the walk to Harper was on a splitter (after he almost won the game by crushing a middle-middle slider inches foul) and the game-winning hit came on a toothless slider.
You can’t win them all and if before the series started we were asked if we would be okay splitting the first two games in Philadelphia, all of us would have signed up for that in a skinny minute. It’s just tough to lose a game in the bottom of the ninth.
If nothing else, this was the second straight Sunday where the Mets scored more than two runs, so hopefully that jinx is behind us.
Tough loss to swallow for sure, but they certainly have been on the long end of these dramatic finishes plenty of time lately. For my armchair managing, knowing that the pen was short (as Mendoza said in the post game), I would have sent Seve back out for the 7th with 92 pitches. Yeah, he gave up 2 HR, one being a 99 mph FB that he didn’t elevate enough to Harper, followed by a mistake. But he followed up in the next AB with some nasty pitches, had dominated most of the game, and was their best pitcher for the next inning. I was very disappointed in how non-competitive the pitch around to Harper was. Sure, you don’t throw him a cookie, but you bring the closer into the 8th to face the big boys, a HR does not beat you…throwing nothing close to a strike makes no sense to me.
I usually don’t get too into the coverage and announcing, but FOX has done a terrible job so far. The lack of quick replays on HRs and no replays on questionable check swings in a playoff game is inexcusable. Announcers fawning over baseball 101 plays like a runner breaking from 3b on ground ball contact with one out, I mean, really. Glanville was better on ESPN analysis, but the poor camera shots and lack of replays was glaring there as well. Baseball deserves better. As a reward, we get two 5pm starts…really?
That said, even with today’s loss, the Mets have had some week just to bring more 2024 baseball to Citifield. LGM.
While splitting in Philly is a reasonable hope before the series started, after the win yesterday and with Seve dominating for 5 2/3 and pitching really efficiently with a 3-0 lead, I started wanting more. This was a disappointing loss. It’s been a great week but could have been so much better. I’m not really taking solace in the split.
I too would have liked to have left Philly 2-0 and yes I’d have been thrilled with a split before but as was just mentioned, Severino was dominant until he wasn’t. They are good enough to come back at anytime. That’s the best. Vientos really stepped up and wouldn’t have thrown out the guy at the plate anyway. Sometimes the other guys wins. It sucks. On to Queens to kick some butt.