Still alive: Phillies 5, Mets 2

The Phillies are still alive.

They won 5-4 tonight, beating the Mets on the back of another stellar Aaron Nola start.

Nola went 5.2 innings, allowing just two runs on six hits and striking out nine. Unfortunately, he came up just short of hitting 200 innings on the year. With one out to go in the sixth, and two outs until 200, Gabe Kapler pulled Nola in favor of Pat Neshek. A walk and a single had put runners on the corners, and Kapler didn’t want to risk it. (I think Nola has earned the right to finish an inning like that one, especially with two outs, but the Phillies won so what do I know.) When Nola makes it to 200, which he will, he’ll be the first Phillies pitcher to do it since Cole Hamels and A.J. Burnett in 2014. (Fun fact: Kyle Kendrick pitched 199 innings for that team. Yeah. That happened.)

The Phillies saved all of their runs for one inning: the sixth. They sliced through the Mets bullpen like a hot knife through butter, scoring five runs on three hits, a walk, and a hit by pitch. Wilson Ramos hit a RBI single to score Carlos Santana, and then Justin Bour hit a pinch-hit double to tie the game 2-2. With two on (two pinch runners in place of Ramos and Bour), Jorge Alfaro hit the cream cheese out of the ball for a three-run home run.

Good GOD can Alfaro hit some monster home runs. That was glorious, holy crap.

In the seventh, eighth, and ninth, Seranthony Dominguez, Tommy Hunter, and Hector Neris locked down the game. Over three innings, they allowed zero hits and one walk.

The Braves lost, which means the Phillies are 5.5 games back with 12 left to play.

Stranger things have happened.