Phillies waste dominant Wheeler outing as Mets rally to win NLDS Game 1

As it’s been all year for the Phillies, the starting pitching led the way in Philadelphia’s playoff opener. The rest of the club couldn’t hold its weight.

The Phillies wasted a dominant outing from No. 1 starter Zack Wheeler on Saturday afternoon in the National League Division Series opener. He went seven scoreless innings against his former team, the New York Mets, before the game turned upside down in the eighth.

With one hit against Wheeler through seven innings, the red-hots Mets broke out for a five-run, five-hit top of the eighth inning to secure yet another comeback victory during their torrid run into October. After New York tied the game against Phillies reliever Jeff Hoffman, Brandon Nimmo shot the go-ahead single against lefty Matt Strahm into left field as the Mets won Game 1 of this best-of-five series, 6-2, at Citizens Bank Park.

“It was stunning,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “It was, to see Hoffy and Strahmy give it up like that. That’s baseball sometimes. They haven’t done that since we’ve had them really.”

Designated hitter Kyle Schwarber went 2-for-5 with a leadoff home run, recording two of the Phillies’ five hits as the Mets pieced together a standout pitching performance. Left-hander David Peterson tossed three scoreless in relief, right-hander Reed Garrett threw two shutout and Ryne Stanek closed it out in the ninth.

With a first-round bye as the No. 2 seed in the NL, the Phillies had Wheeler lined up for their playoff opener and he delivered as he tends to do in October. Perhaps the ace of all aces over the past five years, he threw seven shutout innings, surrendered just one hit and walked four in 111 pitches. He struck out nine and geared his fastball up to 99 mph. He exited with a razor-thin 1-0 lead that Philadelphia couldn’t hold.

“Obviously, I feel like, as an offense, we wasted that start,” Phillies star Bryce Harper said. “I think it’s the same thing, man: chasing balls in the dirt, didn’t work deep into counts like we should’ve. We have to understand what they’re going to try to do to us and flip the switch as an offense.”

Wheeler’s brilliance was incredible yet typical. In 12 postseason games (11 starts), he has a 2.18 ERA across 70 1/3 innings. He has risen to the occasion again and again. Sunday was no different, even if the team around him didn’t perform at the same level.

“Wheeler was unbelievable,” Thomson said. “We haven’t seen that type of velocity out of him and stuff out of him for a while. That was as good as it gets.”

The Mets didn’t have quite the same luxury with their starting pitching. New York has had a gauntlet over the past week with a season-ending doubleheader Monday and a three-game playoff series in Milwaukee starting the next day. With a taxed staff, the Mets pegged Kodai Senga, their top starter who missed almost the entire regular season due to injury, to take the mound.

Senga, limited to just one regular-season start this year, lasted two innings in his first outing since July. The right-hander threw 31 pitches in his brief appearance. He struck out three and flashed some quality offspeed stuff with his forkball and slider.

His one mistake — a fastball left over the heart of the plate with his third pitch, in prime position for Schwarber to punish — was the only real blemish.

Peterson, a starter during the regular season who closed out Game 3 of the Wild Card Series on Thursday, followed Senga with three innings of one-hit baseball. After the Phillies went on top, he kept the lineup totally in check to keep the Mets down by only one run. Righty Reed Garrett then pitched a shutout sixth and seventh.

“There was some chase in there tonight, for sure,” Thomson said. “We got to get back in the zone. We’re going to start using the field. That’s what I talk about all the time. And just put better at-bats together.”

New York could hardly do anything against Wheeler, but found life in the eighth inning when the Phillies’ workhorse left the game. Four straight Mets reached base to start the inning as Mark Vientos tied the game with a single and Nimmo put New York ahead. The Phillies used maybe their three best relievers in the inning in Hoffman, Strahm and Orion Kerkering, and the Mets continued to tack on. They added two more runs in the inning on sacrifice flies and another on a J.D. Martinez single.

Reliever Tanner Banks allowed another run in the ninth for the Phillies. After an outstanding start from Wheeler, Phillies relievers allowed six runs in two innings. Philadelphia added a run in the ninth on a Kody Clemens pinch-hit double, but ultimately could not make up for its brutal inning.

“I’m not frustrated,” Hoffman said. “Just got to do better tomorrow. You play five games for a reason. Show up the same time tomorrow and get it done.”

The Phillies, behind starter Cristopher Sánchez, will have a chance to respond against right-hander Luis Severino and the Mets in Game 2 on Sunday afternoon.

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