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Phillies Withstand Mets’ Late Charge, Hold on for Seventh Straight Win

Bob Wankel

By Bob Wankel

Published:

PHOTO CREDIT: Kyle Ross-USA TODAY Sports

After waiting 91 days to reclaim sole possession of first place in the NL East, the Phillies didn’t give it right back to the Mets on Saturday evening — even if they tried to in the ninth.

Ranger Suárez and three Phillies relievers held a scuffling New York lineup scoreless through eight dominant innings before the Mets made a ridiculous ninth-inning charge against reliever Mauricio Llovera that was powered by back-to-back-to-back homers.

Closer Ian Kennedy would put a pair of Mets on before turning out the lights to record his second save in as many days, ensuring two Brad Miller homers and a three-run blast by Odúbel Herrera would hold up.

Deep breath. Hold. Exhale.

The Phillies’ first seven-game winning streak since September 2012 didn’t come without angst, but they are now a season-best five games over .500 and hold a 1 1/2 game lead over the free-falling Mets nonetheless.

“I know you guys get tired of hearing me saying it. They’re resilient,” Joe Girardi said after the game. “We’ve lost two in a row and bounced back. And that’s exactly what they’ve done. It’s been fantastic, and it has come from so many different places.”

The Phillies were able to withstand a slow start at the plate against Mets starting pitcher Tylor Megill, who cruised through four scoreless innings before running into trouble in the fifth.

Miller, who again started in place of an injured Rhys Hoskins, broke a scoreless tie with a 437-foot smash into the Phillies bullpen for his 11th home run of the season.

Four batters later, Herrera provided some breathing room with a three-run shot into the second deck in right.

Herrera’s bomb had the 37,050 in attendance at Citizens Bank Park fired up. Well, except for the thousands of Mets fans — and this guy:

After a miserable July, Herrera’s recent resurgence could not come at a better time for the banged up Phillies. Following a July in which he hit just .167 with an abysmal .487 OPS, Herrera has rebounded to hit .385 with a 1.125 OPS this month.

“I haven’t changed much, but to me, it’s all about keeping faith in yourself,” Herrera said. “You’ve got to know what type of player you are. So if you believe you’re a good player, you’ve got talent, and you’re putting in the work in the cage and all of that, it helps big time.”

Four runs was all the offense the Phillies would need, but Miller’s second home run of the game would provide some useful insurance as the Mets unexpectedly brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the ninth.

Stretch It Out

Suárez completed three scoreless innings on 33 pitches in his first start last Monday, so the Phillies hoped he could get through four of five frames against the Mets with somewhere in the neighborhood of 60 pitches at his disposal.

Despite holding New York scoreless, Suárez wasn’t nearly as efficient this time around. He needed 27 pitches to work out of trouble in the first, setting the tone for an abbreviated outing.

He departed in the third inning after recording just eight outs, although he should’ve been through the third after this pitch to Pete Alonso.

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1424115798294024195?s=20

The would-be third strike was instead called ball four by home plate umpire Bruce Dreckman, who had perhaps the worst day behind the plate I’ve seen this season. Just awful — both ways.

Still, despite struggling a bit with his command — just 33 of his 61 pitches were strikes — Suárez again showed promise as a starter. He held the Mets hitless while generating whiffs on 9 of 22 swings against him and did so while maintaining his velocity.

In two starts since moving to the rotation, Suárez has held opponents without a hit in 5 2/3 scoreless innings.

A (Kind of) Nice Bullpen Stretch!

The Phillies’ bullpen remains a work in progress. Clearly.

But dating back to Wednesday night, Phillies relievers had teamed up to allow just three earned runs over 17 1/3 innings before Llovera’s disastrous ninth.

Héctor Neris, who worked two scoreless innings, is among a number of arms in the midst of solid runs.

In four scoreless appearances this month, he has yielded just one hit over 5 2/3 innings. In fact, Neris hasn’t allowed a run in seven appearances dating back to July 26.

“Hector has been through this before a bunch of different times in his career where he has a tough month,” Girardi said. “He always finds a way to come back and pitch really well.

“He’s had a couple two-inning stints for us, I think he’s even closed a game through all this. He’s played a bunch of different roles in all of this, but it’s great to see because Hector is so loved in that clubhouse.”

This Better Work

The newly-acquired Freddy Galvis, who should be nearing a return to action, was spotted giving some pregame pointers to Luke Williams and Alec Bohm.

That’s good teammate stuff from Galvis, but a day after making two errors, Bohm had another rough go of things at third base.

In the fourth, he double-clutched a softly-hit grounder that led to an infield single by Javy Báez. An inning later, he almost kicked the third out of the inning, but recovered in time to get Pete Alonso by a step.

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1424127975763726356?s=20

In the sixth, he made an error on a routine grounder off the bat of J.D. Davis.

https://twitter.com/BrodesMedia/status/1424135707866578946?s=20

Earlier this week, Bohm admitted that mistakes can quickly pile up.

“I think that is kind of how baseball is, right? When it’s bad, it’s bad. When it’s good, it’s good,” he said. “The game just speeds up on you and things get out of hand, so things can definitely snowball on you. One bad at-bat can lead to another, one bad game can lead to another, and the big thing is just focusing on the present and the future, not worrying about the last game or the last at-bat.”

To Bohm’s credit, he collected a multi-hit game. But after a few more shaky plays and a league-worst 15th error at third base, it certainly seems like things are snowballing on him defensively right now.

Bob Wankel
Bob Wankel

Bob Wankel covers the Phillies for Crossing Broad. He is also the Vice President of Sports Betting Content at SportRadar. On Twitter: @Bob_Wankel E-mail: b.wankel@sportradar.com

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