Categories: 2020 Postgame Recaps

Andrew McCutchen’s heroics lead Phillies to series sweep over Mets

Final Score: Phillies 6, Mets 2

After getting swept by a Baltimore team that was projected to finish as one of the worst in baseball, the Phillies rebounded in a big way, sweeping the rival New York Mets to end the elongated homestand. The Phillies are now 8-9 on the season.

Zack Wheeler faced his former club and earned his third victory of the season. He struck out four Mets hitters over seven strong innings. Adam Morgan and Héctor Neris combined to throw two scoreless innings out of the bullpen.

Andrew McCutchen hit his first home run of the 2020 season in Sunday’s victory. (Photo by Kyle Ross/Icon Sportswire)

The heroics in this afternoon’s game came courtesy of Andrew McCutchen, who entered the game in the fifth and homered on the first pitch he saw from Rick Porcello. It was his first of the season and first after a long recovery from a torn ACL.

Today’s victory does not come without a few injury concerns. Jay Bruce left the game in the fifth with quad soreness. Jean Segura was removed in the eighth with a hamstring injury and Roman Quinn was placed on the injured list prior to the game. Scott Lauber of the Philadelphia Inquirer first noted that Quinn reported mild COVID-19 related symptoms and is awaiting a negative test result. Joe Girardi said in his postgame media availability that Quinn woke up with an earache and sore throat.

The Phillies have an off-day Monday and will begin a 10-game road trip on Tuesday. They’ll match up against the Boston Red Sox for a quick two-game series.

Top Plays

Segura delivered in his first game of the season in the lead-off spot. On a 1-0 sinker from Rick Porcello, Segura knocked in his first triple since Aug. 31 of last season. The next batter Rhys Hoskins drove him home with a single to center for his fourth RBI of the series.

In the top of the second with two outs, Wilson Ramos hit a soft ground ball to Alec Bohm at third base. The throw was way off target and the man on first, Andrés Giménez, rounded third and headed home. Hoskins was able to retrieve the ball quickly and throw a strike to Andrew Knapp at home to nail Giménez at the plate. The score remained 1-0 in favor of the Phillies.
The Phillies have had a tough time getting Luis Guillorme out throughout the series and that continued Sunday. With two strikes, Guillorme snuck a ball down the third-base line for a two-run base hit in the fourth. The left fielder Jay Bruce retrieved the ball off the wall and flicked it to Bohm at third to get Ramos out at third to end the inning.
Bohm knocked in the game-tying hit with a double into the right-field corner. J.T. Realmuto scored from second easily after he doubled to begin the inning.
McCutchen, who came into the game for Bruce in the fifth, blasted a first-pitch hanging slider well into the seats in left field for this first home run post-injury. It was an incredible moment for him and his teammates. Just about everyone inside the park knew the ball was out in an instant once it hit the barrel.

With former Phillie Jared Hughes in to pitch, the Phillies added onto their lead in the seventh inning thanks to a disastrous inning on defense for the Mets. Segura began the inning reaching on an error, but was pulled from the game after suffering an injury. His replacement, Neil Walker, scored two batters later on a fielding error from Dominic Smith. Gregorius extended his hitting streak to seven games with a base hit to expand the Phillies’ lead to 6-2.

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Starting Pitching Performance

Rick Porcello: 6 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 0 BB, 6 K, 94 pitches

At first, it seemed like the 31-year-old Porcello was going to earn his third straight quality start against a Phillies team who has struggled against him in the past. That narrative turned sour quickly as a three-run rally in the sixth inning put the Phillies in front.

Zack Wheeler: 7 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 4 K, 99 pitches

New York’s strategy against the former Mets pitcher was to get into deep counts and force Wheeler out early. The strategy worked well in the fourth as they wore him out just enough to score two runs on three soft singles. A seven-pitch fifth inning kept him in it. He would have probably liked to have increased his strikeout totals in this game, but nonetheless, Wheeler and the Phillies have to be happy with his performance.

Phillies Nuggets Player of the Game: Andrew McCutchen

McCutchen’s last home run came on May 31, 2019 against the Los Angeles Dodgers. After months of recovering from a devastating injury, it might have felt incredibly satisfying to finally put an early season slump to bed and come up with a huge hit for his team.

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