The Mets (6-3) beat the Phillies (3-6) by a score of 6-1 on Wednesday night, closing out a sweep in their first series at Citi Field this season.
Jon Niese made his second start of the year and was good, pitching 6.1 innings of one-run ball, striking out four and dancing around nine hits, two walks, and an error made behind him.
Just as he did in Atlanta, Niese got off to a rough start, allowing a triple to Odubel Herrera to begin the game. Herrera scored on a groundout from Chase Utley to give the Phillies an early edge, but Niese and the Met bullpen would keep them off the board for the rest of the night.
The Mets evened it up in the bottom of the second inning, by taking advantage of bad defense as they have done all season (or should I say all week?). After recently summoned Eric Campbell singled, Phillies catcher Cameron Rupp had trouble locating a ball he had knocked down, and Soup moved to second. Juan Lagares drove him in with an RBI single to make it a 1-1 game.
The Mets would score in each of the next several innings to take control of the game. Travis d’Arnaud lined into the seats in left for a solo shot in the third, his first homer of the year. In the fourth, with Lagares running from second, Niese squeaked one past the infield to help his own cause and put New York up 3-1. Lucas Duda led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot (the new fence was unnecessary for this one), and after Michael Cuddyer doubled and subsequently moved to third, Soup was able to get him in on a grounder. Duda struck again in the home half of the sixth, doubling in d’Arnaud to put the Mets up 6-1.
While the Mets were pouring on the runs, Niese was working in and out of trouble on the mound. Ruben Tejada made an error in the sixth, but Niese kept his composure and picked up his defense to put up a fifth straight scoreless inning. After Niese fanned Chase Utley with two on and none out in the seventh, Terry Collins called on Carlos Torres, who got Jeff Francoeur to ground into a double-play two pitches later.
Alex Torres came in for the top of the eighth and walked the first two hitters he faced, but settled in from there, retiring the next six Phillies to put the finishing touches on a Mets victory and a series sweep.
That’s four wins in a row for our Mets! The offense responded very well to last night’s injuries, and Duda, who has been terrific so far, finally cleared the fences. Travis kept up his hot streak as well, and Niese took advantage of the solid run support (to which he himself was a contributor). It was a nice win. The Phillies aren’t going to be good this season, or even decent, so it’s hard to get too pumped. But a sweep is a sweep.
*Note: Citi Field’s attendance was something like 21,000 tonight, that’s half capacity. What happened?
Up Next: The Mets will begin a four-game series with Miami on Thursday at Citi Field. Dillon Gee will face Jarred Cosart at 7:10 PM.
