It would stay at this score even with a few mildly irritating threats from the Mets, one of which was extinguished by a strike out-throw out double play in the fifth that was almost perfection in motion.
In the sixth though, the most annoying Met of all time led off the inning with a home run that probably still has some paint on it from scraping over the fence.
What you’ll notice so far in his recap is a lack of discussion about the offense. That’s because the Mets pitching, led by Megill and including the bullpen troika of Phil Maton, Jose Butto and Edwin Diaz, largely shut down the Phillies bats once the first inning drew to a close. There was the familiar chasing of pitches out of the zone, this time not the down and away version, but the continued trouble chasing pitches up and out of the zone.
The eighth and ninth innings against Diaz were not without some electricity. Turner reached in the eighth and stole two bases before Diaz induced an inning ending ground ball. Bryson Stott drew a one out walk in the ninth and stole two bases himself, one at third that was a base away from tying the game at two.
In the end, the offense disappeared, the Mets finished off a series win that let them maintain control of a wild card spot and now the Phillies will have to clinch at home against a Cubs team with nothing to play for.
Annoying.
Baseball is such a marathon that it provides different types of losses, some you experience on a weekly basis.
There are the gut wrenching ones.
The inexplicable ones.
The concerning ones.
And then you have the ones that you have tonight, the annoying ones. The Phillies came into Citi Field facing a team that was red hot. The Mets had so much more to play for with their playoff lives at stake almost each night. The Phillies just needed to win one game. They did that, the bare minimum. Tonight provided an opportunity for the team to win the division and celebrate on enemy turf, yet an annoying evening prevented that.
It looked promising in the first inning. Trea Turner hit a one out single, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two out single by Alec Bohm.
They would load the bases against Tylor Megill, all with two out, but failed to convert and would ended up being haunted by that inability to extend the lead. Zack Wheeler was on the mound and pitch incredibly. He allowed the Mets to score in the second inning on a two out single by Tyrone Taylor, but spent much of his night making the New York lineup look foolish.
The Phillies lost 3 of 4 to the Mets. They'll conveniently have to settle for a chance to clinch the division at home on Monday vs the Cubs.
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