Franco’s Slam Not Enough as Mets Complete Sweep of Phillies
For whatever reason, this Phillies team won’t just give us any regular old wins or losses. They either lose by 1, lose by about 10, win by 1, or win by about 10. Would you expect anything less as a Philly fan, though? It’s never easy. Anyway…
The Phillies end their 6-game small home stand with a 5-4 loss to the Mets, as they are swept for the first time in a series this season.
Vince Velasquez and Zack Wheeler faced off in this one on Wednesday night. Wheeler made his second start of the year, which is just his second start since 2014. The last time he pitched against the Phillies was August 10, 2014.
The Mets got the scoring going in the top of the 1st inning, as Yoenis Cespedes, coming off his 3 home run game the night before, doubled in Michael Conforto to put the Mets up 1-0 early. In the top of the 3rd, Conforto kept the power surge going from the night before as he homered to make it a 2-0 Mets lead. The Phillies bats stayed quiet, with just 2 hits through the first 4 innings.
With the Mets still out in front 2-0 heading into the 5th inning, the Mets were able to tack on 2 more runs in that frame, one coming on an RBI single from Asdrubal Cabrera, and another on a Yoenis Cespedes sacrifice fly.
It stayed 4-0 in favor of the Mets heading into the bottom of the 6th when the Phillies started to show some life. Brock Stassi and Cesar Hernandez both singled to reach base, and Odubel Herrera loaded the bases with a walk against Wheeler, who was pulled after that walk in favor of Hansel Robles.
The first batter Robles faced was Maikel Franco. I think Maikel went up with a pretty good plan. He took the first pitch he saw from Robles and parked one over the 409 feet sign in deep left center field. A grand slam from Maikel made it a ballgame, 5-4 Mets.
We go all the way to the bottom of the 9th, as the combination of Luis Garcia, Pat Neshek, Hector Neris, and Joaquin Benoit, in that order, relieved Vince Velasquez beautifully after he went 5 innings and gave up 5 earned runs. The ‘pen was able to shut down the Mets the rest of the way, as they allowed just 1 hit through those 4 innings.
In the bottom of the 9th, Addison Reed came on for the Mets to shut the door. Franco led off the inning with a single, but he would not come around to score. Michael Saunders followed Franco’s base hit with a strikeout. Andres Blanco, pinch hitting for Joaquin Benoit, takes Franco’s place at first after a fielder’s choice. Andrew Knapp followed, pinch hitting for Cameron Rupp. Knapp wasn’t able to get the job done, as he grounded out to Neil Walker to end the ballgame.
The Phillies get swept by the Mets, being outscored 23-11 during the series in which there was a whole lot more negatives than positives.
With a much needed off day tomorrow on the horizon, the Phillies will rest up and travel to Washington for their first series at Nationals Park this year. Aaron Nola and Stephen Strasburg will face off in the series opener at 4:05 on Friday. Let’s hope the off day gives this team some time to figure things out. Of course, it’s a very long season, with 153 more games to go for the 3-6 Phillies, but right now, this isn’t very fun.
#TrustTheProcess.
#GoPhils
Photo: LI Phil (Via: Flickr)
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