Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park it was a tale of two New York teammates as the Mets held on to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies in a precarious 5-4 win.
Zack Wheeler recovered from a forgetful return to the mound in his second start with five innings of shutout ball before a rough sixth inning, picking up his first win since 2014 after Hansel Robles almost threw it all away.
Wheeler was pulled with a 5-0 lead after walking Odubel Herrera to load the bases with two outs in the sixth. Maikel Franco then took Robles’ first pitch for a 409 ft. grand slam to center to make it a one run game.
And while Wheeler is finding his footing back in the majors, Michael Conforto is doing everything to avoid traveling to baseball stadiums on a bus.
Terry Collins put Conforto in the lead off spot and the kid looking to remain on the roster, put his manager in an awkward position.
With a homer, single and three runs scored, the big question remains – how do you keep Conforto down on the farm?
In an already overcrowded outfield a manager could have worse problems than where to put a young player who is long to be in the lineup. If Conforto continues to be all that, he will be a kept man.
For now the Mets are sitting pretty with a four-game winning streak. Two of their reconstructed pitchers look like shades of their former selves, Jay Bruce is swinging a hot bat, and Addison Reed is filling in fine for Familia.
Yeah, Jose Reyes may need a day or two off to get out of his not hitting head, but like I said, things could be way worse for Collins.
