Life, uh, finds a way
Ranger worked a 5-pitch inning in the fourth to swing the momentum back a bit but in the bottom of the inning, Nick Castellanos tried to turn a single to right into a double and was thrown out by a good 15 feet.
The true shift came in the bottom of the fifth when Lucchesi walked the first two batters and Rojas bunted his way on to load the bases. Kyle Schwarber walked on four pitches to force in a run before JT Realmuto punched an RBI single up the middle to give the Phillies the lead. Bryce added on two more with a double, chasing Lucchesi from the game with the score 5-2.
In the top of the sixth, Suarez gave way to Spencer Turnbull who mostly looked good through his first two innings of relief. The offense gave him some more breathing room in the bottom of the frame thanks to, you guessed it, more sloppy defense! After Stott was hit by a pitch and Sosa got on with a single, Pache drove in a run when Vientos bobbled a potential double play ball at third, allowing Stott to score and Sosa to reach second with one out. After a Rojas flyout, Schwarber hit what should have been the third out to Jeff McNeil at second, who threw wide of Alonso at first allowing Sosa to score. 7-2 Phils.
The Phillies tacked on three more in the seventh to give Turnbull a 10-2 cushion heading into the eighth. JD Martinez got one back on a homer to left before another Rojas miscue led to a McNeil RBI double. Tomás Nido singled to center in the following at-bat to drive McNeil in and cut the lead to 5. Rob Thomson left Turnbull in to get out of it and his faith was rewarded as Nimmo struck out to end the threat.
Seranthony Dominguez wrapped it up on the mound in the ninth, seeing what Ranger did in the fourth and besting it with a four-pitch shutdown inning to give the Phillies their third win in a row.
Next up
The Phils will send Taijuan Walker (3-0, 4.82 ERA) to the mound tomorrow to try and finish off this strange 4-game home-and-home set against the Mets’ Jose Quintana (1-4, 5.44 ERA).
In a game that could be best described as having chaotic little-league energy, the Phillies emerged victorious, 10-5, in perhaps their sloppiest game of the season.
The Phils and Mets combined for four errors on the scoresheet and perhaps just as many more that weren’t scored as such. While most of the messiness could be partially blamed on the rain, it felt like there wasn’t a single inning in this game that didn’t include some kind of fielding or baserunning miscue.
A weird start
Johan Rojas got the party started in the first when he dropped a fairly easy fly ball, allowing leadoff batter Brandon Nimmo to reach base. After striking out Pete Alonso, Ranger Suarez plunked Francisco Lindor to put runners at first and second. After JD Martinez reached on a fielder’s choice, Mark Vientos - in just his second start of the season - knocked the lead runner in with a double to right, a hit with an xBA of just .090. For what it’s worth, Vientos came into the game with an OPS of 1.286 in his (very) limited action this season. Ranger limited the damage thanks to a great stop at third by Alec Bohm, perhaps the only defensive highlight of the evening.
Bryce Harper quickly tied the game in the bottom of the frame with a solo shot to left, his team-leading 10th home run of the season as well as his 30th RBI (spoiler: there were more to come). I’ll leave the headache jokes to the professionals:
In the second, we had more miscues:
Top 2nd - Harrison Bader reached first on a single that slipped out of Edmundo Sosa’s glove.
Bottom 2nd - Bryson Stott hit a grounder to Pete Alonso, who had to run and slide to tag first base when he realized that Joey Lucchesi wasn’t going to make it to cover the bag in time.
In the top of the third, Alonso smacked a double to left that was fairly well played by Christian Pache. Yet even this became an adventure when his throw was offline to Bryson Stott at second (a good throw could have gotten Alonso there), catching Bryce off-guard and out of position to back up the play, allowing Alonso to reach third. After a walk to Lindor, a wild pitch allowed Alonso to score putting the Mets back in front, 2-1. Even though Ranger got out of the inning with minimal damage again, this game was starting to feel a bit loss-ish.
Of course, as they have for the Phillies just about all season to this point, the tides would turn back into the home team’s favor.
Phillies slugger Bryce Harper gestures to the crowd after hitting a homerun vs the Mets - May 15th 2024
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