Final Score: Phillies 4, Mets 3
Thursday night’s game was chaotic and sloppy.
At times, the matchup between the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies seemed like a snoozefest due to a lack of offense and tempo on both sides. In reality, the Phillies played a squeaky clean brand of baseball on Friday.
That was until Archie Bradley entered the game in the eighth. The Phillies right-hander was tasked with protecting a three-run lead and he surrendered three doubles before being taken out of the game.
Since the bullpen is short of back end arms, closer Ian Kennedy was asked to pick up a four-out save. In his last outing against New York in August, Kennedy threw fastball after fastball and the Mets hitters, who have struggled to hit fastballs all season, kept swinging and missing. It took a couple fly balls this time around, but Kennedy was able to leave the game unscathed and wrap up a much-needed victory for his team.
The Phillies came into this game liking their chances because the ace Zack Wheeler took the mound. The Cy Young candidate was OK through five, but his teammates were able to carry him to his 14th victory of the season. José Alvarado, who is not well liked in New York following a verbal altercation with Dominic Smith earlier in the year, was called upon in relief of Wheeler with two on and no out and left the outing without giving up a run.
Two of their four runs scored on sacrifice flies. The first can be attributed to the hustle of catcher J.T. Realmuto, as he got to second on a stolen base and tagged for third on a fly ball in the second inning. On the second, they were the beneficiary of a bad call by the umpires on a play that should have led to Didi Gregorius getting picked off at first. Instead, Matt Vierling drove him home to extend the Phillies lead to 3-1 in the seventh.
Speaking of Gregorius, he made one of the plays of the year in the bottom of the seventh. Jonathan Villar hit a ball sharply to Gregorius’ right. He dove for the ball and made a no-look pass to the first second baseman Jean Segura for the second out of the inning.
Gregorius followed up his spectacular play in the eighth with a clutch two-out double to expand the lead to 4-1.
The San Francisco Giants beat the Atlanta Braves on a walk-off sacrifice fly from pitcher Kevin Gausman in 11 innings. The Phillies are now two games out of first place in the NL East.
Shibe Vintage Sports Starting Pitching Performance
Zack Wheeler: 5 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO, 93 pitches
Wheeler has faced his former club five times this season. He gave up seven earned runs in his first two outings and just one over the last three. He cruised through three, but command issues led to a 29-pitch fourth inning that kept him from going much further. Wheeler pitched into the sixth, but did not record an out.
Taijuan Walker: 5 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 3 SO, 1 HR, 88 pitches
Like Wheeler, Walker has also seen the Phillies five times this season. He was pretty good through five, but manager Luis Rojas was not comfortable with having his All-Star pitcher face the Phillies lineup a third time through.
Phillies Nugget Of The Game
Harper’s fourth inning double extended his hit streak to 13 games. It’s now the longest hit streak of the season for the Phillies.
Ticket IQ Next Game
- Saturday, Sept 18 vs. New York Mets at 7:15 PM
- TV: FOX
- Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP
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