Alonso Leads The Way in 9-6 Win Over Phillies

The New York Mets came into their Wednesday matchup with the Philadelphia Phillies looking to take their second straight series from an N.L. East opponent to start the season. The Mets defeated the Phillies 9-6 behind a huge offensive day from Pete Alonso, who went 3-for-5 with two run-scoring doubles and a three-run home run as the designated hitter. The Mets also got five solid innings from Max Scherzer despite him not being at his best.

In his second start as a Met, Scherzer did not get off to a great start. His day began in a similar fashion to Zack Wheeler’s start on Tuesday night. Despite not allowing a hit, Scherzer found himself in a bases loaded jam. Like Wheeler, Scherzer was able to get out of the inning unscathed by striking out Jean Segura before retiring Didi Gregorius on a ground ball.

After the shaky first inning, Scherzer settled down in the second. After Johan Camargo struck out to lead off the inning, Bryson Stott pulled a ball inside the first base line that looked like a sure double. Starling Marte fielded the ball off the side wall and made a perfect throw to get Stott at second base for the out. Scherzer then struck out Matt Vierling to retire the side.

Like Tuesday, Nimmo got the scoring started when he hit his second home run in as many days to put the Mets ahead 1-0 in the top of the third. Pitching with the lead, Scherzer threw his first 1-2-3 inning of the day in the bottom half of the third.

In the fourth, it was Aaron Nola who found himself in trouble from a lack of control. After Marte singled and Alonso doubled to drive him in, Nola lost the strike zone. After a walk to Eduardo Escobar and a strikeout of Dominic Smith, Nola hit Mark Canha and Jeff McNeil to force home the Mets’ third run of the game.

Scherzer was in another jam quickly in the bottom half of the fourth after a Nick Castellanos double and a Segura infield single put runners on the corners with nobody out. He nearly got out of the inning without allowing that run to score. After striking out Gregorius and Camargo, Scherzer allowed a two-strike single to Stott to get the Phillies their first run of the day. He retired Vierling to end the inning.

The Mets wasted no time getting that run back in the top of the fifth. After a one-out double from Francisco Lindor, Alonso hit his second RBI double of the day with a two-out shot off the wall in left-center to put the team ahead 4-1. Facing the top of the order in the bottom of the inning, Scherzer allowed just a single to J.T. Realmuto in the inning to hold the lead at three.

After failing to generate a big inning despite having chances to over the first five innings, the Mets finally cashed in in the sixth inning. With runners on the corners and two outs, Marte muscled a single up the middle to drive in the Mets fifth run of the game before Alonso hit a three-run home run to blow the game open.

The Phillies did not go away quietly. They tacked on two runs off of Sean Reid-Foley in the sixth inning after loading the bases with nobody out to start the inning, and added two more in the seventh inning off of Joely Rodríguez to cut the Mets’ lead to 8-5.

After Seth Lugo came in for a 1-2-3 eighth inning, the Mets added an insurance run in the top of the ninth inning. Escobar hit a triple off the top of the high wall in left center that hit a young Phillies fan’s glove before a review deemed it to be a triple. For the second time in the game, the Mets aggressively challenged Castellanos’s arm. Escobar tagged up on a shallow fly ball from Smith for a sacrifice fly to extend the Mets’ lead to four runs.

With a four run lead, Edwin Díaz came into the game in the ninth. After Bryce Harper hit a 100 MPH fastball that tucked right behind the foul pole, Díaz retired the final three batters to close out the game and secure the series win.

Player of the Game: Pete Alonso

He may not prefer the designated hitter role, but Alonso has been incredible in his two games in that position. The Mets’ slugger drove in five runs on three extra-base hits, and all three of those hits came in two-strike counts. As the designated hitter, Alonso has four extra base hits, including both of his home runs on the season and has driven in nine runs in just two games. Considering how successful Alonso has been in those two games, it will be interesting to see how often Buck Showalter decides to use Alonso as his designated hitter.

“Me being out there [at first base] helps the team the most,” Alonso said following the win. “But Buck is trying to win every single day. I trust Buck. He’s all in, I’m all in.”

On Deck:

The Mets’ next game is the home opener at Citi Field on Friday at 1:10 PM ET against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Chris Bassitt will be making his second start of the season, and the day will begin with a ceremony unveiling the new Tom Seaver statue starting at 10:30 AM ET on SNY.