No Way, José: Phillies 6, Mets 2.

The Phillies, rested from their day off following a heartbreaking walk-off loss to the Washington Nationals, played their first game of the season in Citi Field tonight against a Mets team that swept them just last week. A Mets team that has won 29 of 41 games against the Phils since the start of 2015. Which... yeah.

Things started off well in the top of the first, when Odubel Herrera hit his first Home Run of the season, giving the Phillies an early lead... a lead which disappeared almost immediately. Zach Eflin took the mound in the Mets’ portion of the inning, having been called up from Lehigh Valley after Clay Buchholz was placed on the 10 Day Disabled List. His night did not start out great, as Jay Bruce singled to score Michael Conforto and Yoenis Cespedes, both of whom reached base via walk. It was a rough inning for Eflin, but luckily the only one. He would continue pitching into the 5th without allowing any more runs or walks.

The real drama didn’t get going again until the top of the 8th, when Freddy Galvis stepped up to the plate with two outs and Cameron Rupp on first. The trajectory of the game by this point did not appear to be moving in favor of the Phillies, so it wasn’t all that surprising when Freddy delivered us an infield pop-up.

What was surprising was that noted trash person José Reyes fumbled this easily played ball to allow Galvis to reach base safely and Rupp to take third. Had he hustled, Freddy could have easily made it to second base, but he did not. I mention this because the next batter, Andres Blanco, would double to left, scoring Cameron Rupp to tie the game.

Galvis made it home too, giving the Phillies a 3-2 lead, but the ball bounced ever so slightly above the left field wall. The Mets challanged the call on the field, and after a review it was overturned in favor of a ground rule double, forcing Freddy back to third. With his lack of #hustle costing the Phillies the lead, Freddy is sure to face some gnashing of teeth from various sections of the greater Philadelphia area tomorrow.

The 9th Inning passed without incident, and the 10th reared its ugly head with the threat of a second walk off loss to a division rival in as many games.

Mercifully, however, the unhappy ending that we all (or at least I) wrote in our heads the moment the lead was reversed did not transpire. Michael Saunders and Tommy Joseph lead the inning off with a pair of singles, and Cameron Rupp hit a Sac Fly to right field, giving the Phillies a real lead by scoring Saunders. After that, the Phillies once again hit back to back singles, this time from Freddy and Aaron Altherr.

A fifth and final single from Daniel Nava capped off the inning by scoring an additional two runs, giving the Phillies a four run cushion. Just one run would have been fine, however, because Joaquin Benoit was able to navigate the bottom of the inning without incident.

This win snaps a five game losing streak, and marks the Phillies’ first against the Mets this season.