Mets sweep Phillies in wild fashion with the help of unlikely heroes

The Mets proved to be comeback kids once again in their thrilling 5-4 win over the Phillies to finish off the series sweep of Philadelphia. Two unlikely heroes stepped up for the Amazin’s in the late innings after their bullpen had given up the lead in the eighth.

The Mets originally took the lead in the first inning after taking advantage of a Rhys Hoskins error. With two runners on, Francisco Lindor hit a weak ground ball to Hoskins. Hoskins hesitated and his throw to second pulled Johan Camargo off the bag and then Camargo’s throw home sailed wide to give the Mets their first run with still nobody out. They would score two more runs in the inning with two groundouts to stake them to a 3-0 lead against Zack Wheeler.

Chris Bassitt was on the hill for the Mets and got bit by his own defense. Nick Plummer misplayed a ball out in left field that set up a rally for the Phillies in the third. Bassitt was able to limit the damage to just the one run and was solid overall during his outing. Unfortunately his hard working third drove his pitch count up and he exited after six innings. It was definitely an improvement over his previous outing and he gave up just the one run and struck out seven against the potent Philadelphia lineup.

Wheeler for his part shut the Mets down and didn’t give them anything for the rest of his night. He gave his team a chance to come back and they took advantage against Adam Ottovino. He came in relief of Joely Rodríguez who left with runners on base. Ottovino threw an absolute meatball on an 0-2 pitch to Nick Castellanos who did not miss and gave the Phillies their first lead of the game in the eighth inning.

After his earlier misplay, Nick Plummer was in need of some redemption and he made his first major league hit count. He swung at the first pitch he saw from Corey Knebel and hit an absolute no doubter to tie the game at four. That sent the game into extra innings with the ghost runner on second.

Edwin Díaz came in to hold the ghost right where he was and got a major assist from Eduardo Escobar. Kyle Schwarber hit a weak pop-up near the Phillies dugout and Escobar leaned as far as he could go to snag the ball for the out. Díaz then induced a ground ball from Alec Bohm for the second out of the inning. After an intentional walk to Bryce Harper, Roman Quinn was up next in the lineup after he came in for defense the previous inning. Díaz struck out the light hitting outfielder to send the game to the bottom of the tenth still tied.

With one out and an intentional walk to Pete Alonso, Escobar walked to the plate with a chance to send the Citi Field crowd home happy after assisting Díaz in the top of the inning. He lined a ball to left for a hit and with Starling Marte as the ghost runner he scored easily for the walk-off win. Escobar has had a tough season so far and his joy was evident as his teammates mobbed him on the field.

Unfortunately it wasn’t all rosy for this team since Drew Smith exited the game early with a dislocated pinky after attempting to snag a line drive with his bare hand. While the loss of Smith certainly hurts, the Mets head into Memorial Day with their first sweep of the year under their belts and a eight and a half game lead in the standings.

Box scores

ESPN
MLB

Win Probability Added

Fangraphs.com

What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Nick Plummer, +40.4% WPA
Big Mets loser: Adam Ottovino, -60.8% WPA
Mets pitchers: -0.4% WPA
Mets hitters: 50.4% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Nick Plummer home run in ninth
Teh sux0rest play: Nick Castellanos home run in eighth

SB Nation GameThreads

Amazin’ Avenue
The Good Phight