The Mets (19-11) beat the Phillies (11-20) by a score of 3-2 on Saturday night at Citizens Bark Park.
Jon Niese pitched for the Mets and was great, pitching seven innings of five-hit ball, allowing just two runs (both of which were unearned), walking one and striking out six while lowering his ERA to 1.95.
The Mets scattered some singles against Aaron Harang in the early innings, but failed to make anything of it. With Niese cruising, one got the sense early on that this would be a low-scoring affair.
New York broke the ice in the top of the fifth. Ruben Tejada led off with a double down the line, and moved to third when Niese laid down a bunt. Curtis Granderson walked to put runners on the corners with one out, before Juan Lagares popped out to bring Lucas Duda to the plate. Duda grounded one into the shift, but Cesar Hernandez booted it, and Ruben came in to put the Mets up 1-0.
The Mets almost tacked on some insurance when Michael Cuddyer reached on an infield single, but Daniel Murphy popped out to end the threat. The Phillies then tied it up and took the lead in the home half of the sixth. Ben Revere reached when a hesitant Dilson Herrera botched an easy play, then stole second and moved to third on a single (he would have scored then if not for the fully operational cannon of Lagares). Former Met Jeff Francoeur drove Revere in with a sacrifice fly to tie it up, Carlos Ruiz followed Hernandez’s single with a double to put the hosts up 2-1.
Niese stayed in the game to hit leading off the top of the seventh and it paid off, as the lefty looped one into right for a base-hit. After Granderson flied to center for the first out, Lagares hit a shot to left-center for his first homer of the year, putting the Mets back out in front, 3-2. Niese worked an easy seventh to finish his evening and headed into the clubhouse in position to take home the win.
The Mets wasted another chance to give themselves some breathing room in the top of the eighth. After Murphy whiffed, Kevin Plawecki waked, Dilson Herrera singled, and Tejada drew a free pass to load the bases. Johnny Monell entered to hit for Niese and take his first at-bat of the season, but his hard bouncer up the middle found the pitcher’s glove, and became an inning-ending double-play.
The Phillies threatened in the bottom of the eighth against the Met bullpen. Carlos Torres was greeted harshly by Freddy Galvis, who doubled over the head of Lagares (who had made a terrific recovery on a fly ball earlier in the game). After Darin Ruf grounded out, Terry Collins brought in Alex Torres, who threw nine pitches walked two batters to load the bases. Buddy Carlyle entered to face Ruiz and escaped the jam thanks to a terrific double-play turned by Tejada and Herrera on a hard shot in the hole.
Jeurys Familia came in to pitch the ninth and worked around a single from Chase Utley to shut the door for his 12th save of the season.
That was a gutty win. Not necessarily a pretty one, and it should have been easier, but the Mets found a way to get it done, fighting back after falling behind and fending off the Phillies late to hold the lead. With the Nationals starting to pick it up (they’re within 3.5 games of first place), the Mets need to win games, and win series. They won the game tonight, and will have a chance to take the series tomorrow.
Niese has been great this year. There’s no way around it. And he was great again tonight, cruising through most of the game and containing the damage when his defense betrayed him in the sixth. I didn’t hate the call from Terry to let him bat in the seventh. It’s a lot easier to say now that he got a hit— hindsight is 20-20— but seriously, how much more likely is, say, Kirk Nieuwenhuis, to get a hit than Jon Niese, who is a pretty good hitting-pitcher? Not very likely.
Tejada had a great game, with a big double, another shot to the warning track, and the huge double-play late. He’s not going to get much playing time— at least for now— but it’s nice to see that he’s ready to go when he’s called upon. If Flores doesn’t hit, Tejada might find himself getting more playing time.
Our offense needs to be better than it’s been lately. We’ll still win some games— probably half of them— thanks to our pitching as long as our offense is scoring two or three runs a game, but if the Mets want to play in October, they need to get back to hitting like they were during Spring Training and during their winning streak. Four or five runs a game, sometimes six-plus. With this pitching staff, that’s a playoff lineup. Getting some guys from injury (eventually) would help, as could a trade. Oh, and if Duda could start showing that great pop he has, that would be nice.
Familia has been great this season. I had little confidence in him after the spring, but he’s shown that he can pitch, and more importantly, that he can close. The Mets are going to be playing a lot of close games this season, so Jeurys will need to stay healthy and stay on his game.
I won’t discuss Juan Lagares’ heroic feats of courage and knightliness in detail because I think Joe probably wants me to keep it under 1,500, but he was big tonight. He hit the game-winning blast in the top of the seventh, made a fantastic catch in the bottom seventh (although the difficulty was mostly self-imposed), and, most importantly, blessed us with a terrific bat-flip, which is the often-overlooked sixth tool.
We should be sweeping these guys. We better at least take the series. Let’s hope the big fella gets it done. And gets at least three at-bats.
Up Next: The Mets will face the Phillies on Sunday at 1:35 PM in the rubber match of their three-game set. Bartolo Colon (5-1, 2.90 ERA) will face Chad Billingsley (0-1, 9.00 ERA) at Citizens Bank Park.
