Add Philadelphia to the list of cities on the New York Mets October road victory tour. (Stops on the West Coast and elsewhere, TBD.)
New York exploded for five runs in the eighth inning and beat the Phillies 6-2 to take the opener of the National League Division Series at Citizens Bank Park Saturday in the first-ever playoff meeting between the long-time rivals.
Bill Streicher-Imagn Images
The winning rally started with the Mets trailing 1-0 when Francisco Alvarez singled off reliever Jeff Hoffman, who came on after Zack Wheeler threw seven scoreless innings of one-hit ball. After a Francisco Lindor walk, Mark Vientos tied the game with an RBI single to left.
Brandon Nimmo hit the go-ahead RBI single and Pete Alonso added a sacrifice fly. After a pitching change to lefty Matt Strahm, pinch-hitter J.D. Martinez connected for an RBI single and Starling Marte hit a sacrifice fly. In all, five singles, a walk, and two sacrifice flies totaled five New York runs.
Two days after rallying for four runs in the ninth in Milwaukee to save the season and five days after scoring eight runs in the eighth and ninth innings in Atlanta to clinch a playoff spot, the Mets came from behind again. Nimmo added an RBI single in the ninth.
Surprise starter Kodai Senga tossed two innings, settling down after Kyle Schwarber hit his third pitch 425 feet to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead. He gave up just that one hit, walked one, fanned three and threw 18 of his 31 pitches for strikes. It was his first start since his only start this season on July 26.
“I thought he was actually pretty good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said in an on-field interview with FOX during the fourth inning. “Other than that fastball that Schwarber took him deep, he was really good. Up to 97, the split was really good, had depth to it. The slider was good, threw strikes. So I was pretty pleased with that outing.”
Wheeler, (nine strikeouts, one hit, four walks), was fantastic. He threw a playoff career-high 111 pitches.
David Peterson tossed three scoreless innings of one-hit ball in relief of Senga. Reed Garrett pitched two scoreless innings behind him. Phil Maton and Ryne Stanek finished off the Phillies.
The Mets bullpen pitched seven innings of one-run ball. The Phillies relief corps gave up six runs in two innings.
The Mets are 525-555-1 all-time vs. Philadelphia in the regular season. And 1-0 in the playoffs.
Vientos was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. He got the only hit off Wheeler.
Luis Severino (11-7, 3.91 ERA) will look to help New York take a commanding 2-0 series lead when he faces Cristopher Sánchez (11-9, 3.32 ERA) in Game 2 of the NLDS at 4:08 p.m. ET. Sevy was 1-0 with a 4.50 ERA in two starts vs. Philadelphia this year, striking out 12 and walking three over 12 innings. Sánchez was 1-0 with a 3.06 ERA vs. New York in three starts. He fanned 19 and walked nine in 17.2 innings. The game will air on FS1.
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