Mets rally late against Phillies but lose anyway

The Mets squandered a huge bases loaded opportunity in the tenth which immediately came back to haunt them when they were walked-off in the bottom of the inning to lose 5-4. The Mets biggest bats in Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso both struck out with runners on in the tenth so they couldn’t even manage to get the free runner across. In the bottom of the inning Phillies wasted no time to get their free runner across against Adam Ottavino when Alec Bohm walked it off with a single.

Alonso however did put them on the board early in the first with a RBI double. That remained the score until the fifth when three straight one-out singles by Rafael Ortega, Omar Narvaez, and Brandon Nimmo gave the team a 2-0 lead. The rally ended there after a pickoff by old friend Taijuan Walker and a strikeout by Francisco Lindor.

It then all fell apart an inning later. To their credit both David Peterson and Tylor Megill had been pitching better ever since Max Scherzer and Justin Verlander got shipped out of town but both found ways to struggle this series and neither can get deep into games. That was the case for Megill who looked great until it turned and turned quickly in the sixth. First Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch, then a play wasn’t made at second on an Alec Bohm infield hit, and finally the lead evaporated with one swing by JT Realmuto. Megill’s night was done after completing the inning and it technically was a quality start. He struck out six in six innings but he was clearly struggling in that final nightmarish inning and can’t be trusted to go deep into games.

Phil Bickford came in relief of Megill and gave up a run in his appearance to put the Phillies up by two. It took two blasts, one by Francisco Lindor in the eighth and one by Brett Baty in the ninth to send the game to extras where neither the offense or the pitching was successful in trying to win a ballgame. It was a microcosm of why the two teams are headed in different directions after October 1. Just one week left. We can get through this.

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What’s WPA?

Big Mets winner: Brett Baty +27.2% WPA
Big Mets loser: Adam Ottavino -36% WPA
Mets pitchers:-39.5% WPA
Mets hitters: -10.5% WPA
Teh aw3s0mest play: Brett Baty home run in ninth
Teh sux0rest play: JT Realmuto home run in sixth