Mets Walk Off Phillies 6-5 in Electric Win

Every game against the Philadelphia Phillies is a must-win for the Mets. With a 13-3 win over the Phillies on Monday night, the Mets entered Tuesday night’s game six games back of Philadelphia in the NL East. The Mets are still above the cut line for a spot in the wild card round, but the Reds trail just two and a half games back of New York for that third wild card spot. With that, the Mets need to find a way to win down the final home stretch of the season.

And the Mets did just that. After the Phillies took the lead early and later tied it late, the Mets came up clutch with four straight hits by Starling Marte, Pete Alonso, Brett Baty, and Brandon Nimmo to walk off the game for the Mets in a 6-5 win.

It was a pitcher’s duel through four innings on Tuesday as Sean Manaea had thrown four scoreless with eight strikeouts, and Phillies left-handed starter Jesus Luzardo had matched with five strikeouts. But then the fifth is when the offenses got to the pitchers.

The Phillies took the first lead of the day in the fifth. It started with a leadoff single by the former Met, Harrison Bader. Three batters later, Trea Turner singled to put two on. That was enough to knock Manaea out of the game as with runners on the corners and two outs, the Mets brought in Gregory Soto to face his former team.

Soto walked Kyle Schwarber and then fell victim to Bryce Harper’s third hit of the day, a two-RBI single that scored Weston Wilson and Turner to give the Mets a 2-0 lead before Soto struck out J.T. Realmuto to end the inning.

But in the same way they came from behind on Monday, the Mets answered right back in the home half of the fifth, striking for five runs to take a 5-2 lead.

Luis Torrens got the party started by getting hit by a pitch to reach. Francisco Lindor and Juan Soto then hit back-to-back singles, with Soto driving in Torrens. A walk to Marte loaded the bases to knock out Luzardo as the Phillies brought in Orion Kerkering in relief.

Kerkering immediately gave up a two-RBI double to Alonso to make it a 3-2 Mets lead on Alonso’s third hit of the day. Mark Vientos then kept the momentum cruising with an RBI single, followed by a sacrifice fly by Brandon Nimmo to make it a 5-2 Mets lead as the Mets answered to back up Manaea.

The Phillies got one run back in the sixth. Alec Bohm singled, and two batters later, Bader doubled to put runners on second and third for Edmundo Sosa, who singled to drive in Bohm and make it a 5-3 game.

The Phillies tied it up in the eighth. After Castellanos walked, Bader hit a two-run home run off of Ryan Helsley, who had come in in relief of Tyler Rogers for the Mets. Bader’s two-run shot made it a 5-5 game. The former Met had three more hits against the Mets and now has nine hits in just four games this year.

But then in the bottom of the ninth, the comeback kids loaded the bases off of one of the best closers in MLB in Jhoan Duran. Knowing all he needed to do was put the ball in play, Nimmo was the hero with an RBI single that walked it off for the Mets to win a crucial game 6-5 and claim the series win. The Mets are now five games back of the Phillies for the NL East.

And Edwin Diaz was a huge part of this win as well as he threw 1 2/3 innings, striking out four to keep the game tied and put the Mets in position to walk it off.

That is their ninth straight win against the Phillies at Citi Field.

Player of the Game

Nimmo is Tuesday night’s player of the game. Though he only had one hit in the game, it was the game-winner. He had two RBIs on the night.

“It was great! Just glad to come away with the W,” said Nimmo in an on-field post-game interview with Steve Gelbs as he was doused with the Gatorade bath by Alonso.

“We’re playing great baseball right now. Our pitching did great, kept us in there. Proud of our offense,” said Nimmo, who gave credit to all of the Mets’ offense for the way they fought through the ninth inning. He even credited Baty as being a name “who will be here for a long time.”

On Deck

The Mets and Phillies wrap their three-game series on Wednesday with first pitch scheduled for 7:10 PM. It will be

Taijuan Walker (4-6, 3.44 ERA, 70 SO) is on the hill for the Phillies against the rookie Nolan McLean (2-0, 1.46 ERA, 15 SO), making his third big league start and looking to keep his momentum going for the Mets.

With a sweep, the Mets can get within four games of the NL East.