Francisco Álvarez Clubs Two Homers, Mets Defeat Phillies 11-4 Sweeping Doubleheader

After the New York Mets defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 1 of Saturday’s doubleheader 4-3, the two clubs squared back up for a night-cap at Citi Field in the penultimate game of the 2023 regular season and the last game for the month of September.

Tylor Megill (9-8, 4.70 ERA) pitched 7 1/3 innings in Game 1, giving up just four hits to take the win in one of his most dominant outings of the season. The Mets turned the ball over to José Quintana (3-6, 3.31 ERA) for game two.

The Mets’ offense exploded on Saturday evening to make Quintana’s job a little more relaxing on the mound. The offense tallied 11 runs on nine hits, including two home runs and six RBIs by Francisco Álvarez.

The scoring began with Francisco Lindor on second, Brett Baty then hit an RBI single to put the Mets on the board. Álvarez extended the Mets’ lead in the very next at bat with a two-run no-doubt home run to left field to extend the Mets’ lead to 3-0 over the Phillies.

New York picked up right where they left off in the third and even batted around, scoring five runs in the bottom of the third. With Rafael Ortega on first, Ronny Mauricio doubled and Ortega was able to score on a throwing error by Cristian Pache to give the Mets a 4-0 lead.

Pete Alonso and Lindor were then hit by pitches back-to-back to load the bases. Álvarez then came up and hammered his second home run of the day, a monster grand slam to left field to open up the score and give the Mets an 8-0 lead through three innings.

The Phillies answered back in the top of the fourth. With two runners on Pache hit an RBI single to put the Phillies on the board. Pache was followed by a three-run home run by Kyle Schwarber (his 47^th home run of the season) to make it an 8-4 game.

The Mets answered right back in the bottom half of the inning. With Mauricio on after collecting his second hit of the day, Lindor launched a two-run home run to left field to get two runs back and extend the Mets’ lead to 10-4 over the Phillies through four innings.

After José Quintana showed his first signs of fatigue in the fourth, with no playoff implications in place for this game, the Mets went to their bullpen in the fifth. They brought in Phil Bickford to replace Quintana on the mound for the Mets.

Jose Quintana’s final line in his last start of the season: 4.0 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 SO, 1 HR. He ends the year with a decent 3.57 ERA.

The Mets tacked on another run in the fifth as Tim Locastro joined the RBI rally on an RBI single that scored Francisco Álvarez to give the Mets an 11-4 lead.

The Mets never looked back from there as the bullpen shut down the Phillies the remainder of the game and the Mets went on to defeat Philadelphia 11-4 to complete the sweep of the day-night doubleheader.

Reed Garrett (1-0, 6.41 ERA) was credited with his first win of the season; Michael Plassmeyer (0-1, 22.09 ERA) was credited with his first loss.

Player of the Game: Francisco Álvarez

Álvarez went 2-for-3 with two home runs (including a grand slam), three runs scored, and six runs batted in. He desperately needed a game like this before the season ended given the extreme slump he found himself in.

On Deck

The Mets (74-86) and Phillies (89-72) conclude their series and the 2023 regular season on Sunday at 3:10 pm ET at Citi Field. José Butto (1-3, 3.75 ERA) takes the mound for the Mets’ season finale against Matt Strahm for the Phillies.