Utley Finds His Swing, But Phillies Still Lose to Mets, 6-5

Chase Utley seems to have found his swing. In Tuesday night’s game against the Mets, he was 3-3 with two home runs–one of which came off Mets starter Matt Harvey–and 3 RBI. Unfortunately for the Phillies, Utley’s night wasn’t enough. The offense would only score one other run–a home run by Cody Asche, also off Harvey. Starter David Buchanan gave up five runs in 5.2 innings, and just looked off all night. He couldn’t find the strike zone, and when he did, he was tagged by the Mets hitters. He gave up nine hits, and 13 total baserunners.

He hit two batters in the second inning, which caused a bit of tension between the two teams, especially since Michael Cuddyer had to leave the game to get x-rays (which later came back negative). Mets fans even booed Buchanan when he came up to bat in the next inning, and chanted some Not-Safe-For-Work words at him. Harvey would later hit Utley on the first pitch of an at-bat, which resulted in a warning from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez and a death stare from the Phillies second baseman.

After that Utley HBP, Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud was charged with catchers interference on Ryan Howard. Upon replay, it wasn’t even close to interference. d’Arnaud immediately began yelling at the umpire, and Terry Collins actually stepped in between the two to save d’Arnaud from getting ejected. Collins was then ejected. The play loaded the bases, but the Phillies wouldn’t capitalize on the mistake.

The good news is that the Phillies were able to get to Matt Harvey, something they haven’t been able to do in the past. Prior to Tuesday night, Harvey had only given up four earned runs and one home run to the Phillies in 33.1 innings. He had faced 122 batters and only gave up 15 hits.

With four home runs, the Phillies tripled their 2015 total (2).

David Wright left the game in the eighth inning after hurting himself on a slide into second on a steal.