The New York Mets came from behind late to defeat the Philadelphia Phillies by a score of 5-4 on Wednesday night (Box Score).

Jacob deGrom was very un-deGrom like tonight giving up three-runs in two innings before exiting with a right hamstring spasm.

This performance was the second shortest outing of deGrom’s career and saw his ERA balloon to 2.09 on the season.

Luckily, Michael Wacha kept his team close in relief of deGrom with four innings of one-run ball.

While the Mets offense was only able to scratch across three-runs off Zack Wheeler over the course of seven-and-a-third innings, the Phillies’ bullpen let the lead slip away as Adam Morgan surrendered an RBI double to J.D. Davis, which evened the score up at 4-4 in the top of the eighth.

After a single, a balk, and an intentional walk off Hector Neris in the top of the ninth, the Mets took the lead on an Andres Gimenez RBI single to put them up 5-4.

This proved to be a lead they would not relinquish as Edwin Diaz held it down in the ninth to strikeout three-batters for the save.

The Amazins’ kept their slim playoff hopes alive and improved to 22-27 on the season with 11 games left to play.

Pitching 

DeGrom’s night initially started off on a high note as he worked around a leadoff single from Andrew McCutchen to work a scoreless first inning on 13 pitches.

But the second inning would not be as kind to the ace.

Met killer Jean Segura smacked a leadoff opposite field double to set the Phillies up in the bottom of the second. That was followed up by Ian Knapp who laced a double of his own past the glove of Dominic Smith for an RBI double. The relay throw got by Andres Gimenez allowing Knapp to advance to third.

Scott Kingery walked to put runners on first-and-third before Adam Haseley drove in Knapp with a sac-fly to extend the lead to 2-0.

Roman Quinn got in on the action with the third hit of the inning to once again setup first-and-third, this time with one-out. McCutchen added the third-run of the inning on an RBI groundout that saw the runner beat the throw home.

Luckily, deGrom got out of it with a strikeout of Bryce Harper and a pickoff of McCutchen at first on a throw from Wilson Ramos. But the damage was already done in a three-run inning.

As previously mentioned, deGrom exited after just two innings with an injury and was replaced by Wacha to start the bottom of the third.

After making quick work of the first two batters, Segura struck again with a solo homer off Wacha.

Wacha stayed on for the bottom of the fourth and let up a leadoff double to Kingery. Haseley advanced the runner over to third with a grounder to the right side.

This brought Quinn to the plate with Kingery standing on third with one-out. Wacha came back to strikeout Quinn on three-straight filthy changeups for a huge out before getting McCutchen to groundout to escape the jam.

Pitching for a third-straight-inning in long relief, Wacha got two quick outs, but allowed Gregorius and Segura to get on base. But he once again danced out of trouble by inducing a fly-out of Knapp to get out of the inning.

Wacha stayed in for the bottom of the sixth and worked another 0 to keep his team within a run. Final line for Wacha on the night was four innings, five hits, 1 run, and four strikeouts.

Left-handed reliever Justin Wilson came on for the bottom of the seventh and delivered a strong inning with back-to-back strikeouts.

Newcomer Miguel Castro pitched into-and-out-of-trouble in the eighth to strand a pair, picking up three-strikeouts to keep the game tied.

Diaz came on for the one-run save attempt in the bottom of the ninth and struck out three-batters to lock down the victory.

Offense 

After tearing his fingernail off putting on his jeans, which forced him to miss his last start, former Met Zack Wheeler returned to the hill to face off against his old team for the third time this season.

With one-out in the top of the first, Michael Conforto shot a single up the middle off Wheeler to get things going for the Mets. But that’s all they would get as J.D. Davis struck out and Dom Smith was robbed of a hit by the shift.

Wheeler worked an easy 1-2-3 inning in the top of the second.

Coming back to the plate trailing 3-0 in the top of the third, Brandon Nimmo picked up an infield hit with two-outs and advanced to second on a throwing error that went into the dugout. But Conforto was unable to drive him in as he popped out to end the threat.

 

Davis picked up a leadoff double to start the fourth with his team behind four-runs. A ground ball from Smith moved Davis over to third with one-out for Robinson Cano.

Segura robbed Cano of a hit with a diving play on the ground at third, but Davis was still able to score for the Mets first run to cut the deficit to 4-1.

Jeff McNeil led off the top of the fifth with a leadoff infield single but that’s all they’d scratch across as Ramos grounded into an inning ending double play.

Nimmo led off the sixth with a double and then Davis smashed an opposite field two-run shot to get the Mets within a run, 4-3.

Unfortunately, Cano grounded into an inning ending double play to let Wheeler off the hook.

Wheeler set the Mets down 1-2-3 in the seventh inning to hold the lead for the Phillies.

Back out for the eighth, Wheeler got the first batter he faced before Joe Girardi went to his bullpen.

Left-hander Adam Morgan came on in relief, which caused Luis Rojas to pinch hit the struggling Pete Alonso for Nimmo. But the move did not pay off as Alonso bounced out to third base for the second-out.

Conforto kept things alive drawing a walk, which brought up Davis to face the lefty.

Davis came through for his third hit of the night with a clutch RBI double off the wall to plate Conforto and tie the game at 4-4.

Hector Neris worked the ninth for the second-straight night and allowed a leadoff single to Cano on a quick pitch. Representing the go-ahead run, Amed Rosario subbed in for Cano to pinch run for him.

With McNeil batting with one-out, Neris dropped the ball, which was ruled a balk allowing Rosario to go to second base.

The Phillies opted to intentionally walk McNeil to setup first-and-second for Gimenez.

The rookie shortstop made them pay with a go-ahead RBI single to center field to give his team their first lead of the night at 5-4.

Following a Jake Marisnick strikeout, another base running error ran the Mets out of the inning with just the one-run.

Up Next 

Seth Lugo (2-3, 2.63 ERA) goes against Aaron Nola (5-3, 2.40 ERA) in the final game of this series as the Mets look to pickup the series win in the rubber match.

First pitch will be thrown at 7:05 pm EST. and the game can be seen on SNY.