Just short: Mets 7, Phillies 6

The Phillies put up a fight against the Mets last night, but they came up just short and lost 7-6. And sometimes you get home after a long week and you put on a game that’s already in progress and you wake up nine hours later.

The story of games like these, besides the recapper falling asleep on the job, are usually the same on both sides: hitters taking advantage of bad pitching. Neither Mets starter Seth Lugo or Phillies starter Nick Pivetta were very good. Lugo lasted 5 1/3, and Pivetta lasted 4 2/3. They both gave up five earned runs, though Pivetta (and really, he’s the only one we really care about here) gave up six runs total thanks to an error from young Jorge Alfaro.

We’ll get to the relief pitching in a minute because first we need to make a pit stop at the Phillies offense. They started by putting up three runs on Seth Lugo in the first (including an Odubel Herrera double, his 35th of the year), and when the Mets went up 4-3 in the third, the Phillies tied it in the bottom of the inning with a Tommy Joseph double. The Mets scored two more in the fifth, and the Phillies answered with a run in the sixth and the eighth. The game was tied, and they needed to hold on in the top of the ninth to get a chance to win it on a walk-off.

Oh, Hector Neris. Hector, Hector, Hector. The Phillies relief corps, with Jesen Therrien, Adam Morgan, and Edubray Ramos all lowering their ERAs (and some of those ERAs were pretty pretty high) with scoreless appearances. But Hector Neris couldn’t hold on. It was pretty much over with the first batter of the ninth. Amed Rosario homered off Neris, and even though the Phillies offense had been crackling all night, they couldn’t force a tie in the ninth.

So let’s focus on the good things. Cesar Hernandez is continuing to rake, going 2-for-3 with two walks and an eighth inning homer. Freddy Galvis, Odubel Herrera, Nick Williams, and Tommy Joseph all had two hits. Tommy can obviously feel Rhys Hoskins nipping at his heels, though there was no nipping last night. Hoskins is still without his first major league hit, though he did draw a walk and score a run. More good things: scoreless outings from Therrien, Morgan, and Ramos. And there were no natural disasters or alien attacks or relievers grabbing their nads. If you think about losses in those terms it’s not so bad, right?

As there will be until the beginning of October, there’s always another game. The Phillies have a chance to make sure they don’t get swept, or even perhaps split the series, with a win today.