Phillies Bombed by Mets

The Philadelphia Phillies were crushed on Tuesday night under a barrage of New York Mets home runs.

It was a shooting gallery at Citizens Bank Park last night. Unfortunately it was the visiting Mets holding the guns, and the host Phillies acting as targets. The defending National League champs bombed Phils pitching for six home runs en route to an 11-1 victory in South Philly.

The first victim of the Mets longball barrage was Phillies starting pitcher Vincent Velasquez, who came into this game as the talk of the spring for the Fightin’ Phils.

Whatever magic, mystique, or magnificence Velasquez had coming in was quickly shunted aside by New York. The Mets lineup got to the 23-year old right-hander for five runs in the first three innings, and knocked him out in the fourth.

Velasquez allowed five runs, but only two were earned. He also allowed five hits, striking out four and walking none. He allowed a two-run home to Michael Conforto in the 1st inning, and a three-run shot to Yoenis Cespedes in the top of the 3rd inning.

Around a one-out double by David Wright and the Conforto homer in the 1st, Velasquez struck out the side, and looked like he could be off to another dominating start with the Conforto blast as a minor blip. But it was not to be his night.

Setting up the Cespedes homer in the 3rd was a big error by Ryan Howard, who failed to hold a throw from Freddy Galvis on a grounder by Mets pitcher Logan Verrett to lead off the frame.

Velasquez retired the next two batters, so should have been out of the inning clean. Instead, with Verrett aboard on the error, he allowed a two-out single to Conforto, and then Cespedes’ blast.

Per a Tweet sent out by beat writer Meghan Montemurro (below), Velasquez said that he had a stomach bug on Monday, but felt fine when he took the mound. He felt that he had good stuff, but simply made a couple of bad pitches on the homers by Conforto and Cespedes.

Verrett is getting a chance with the Mets’ rotation as Zack Wheeler continues to recover from surgery and Jacob deGrom remains away from the team due to an illness situation with his newborn child.

The 25-year old righty delivered a 2nd straight Quality Start for New York, going six innings, allowing no runs and six hits while striking out four and walking one.

In the top of the 6th, Neil Walker ripped his 5th home run of the season, a solo shot off Phils’ lefty reliever Brett Oberholtzer. It was the first of three Mets’ homers and four earned runs off Oberholtzer.

With two out in the top of the 7th, Lucas Duda got to Oberholtzer for a two-run home run. He was followed immediately by Walker, who went deep again for his 6th homer of the year and 2nd of the game. It was a second consecutive night going back-to-back for that pair.

In the top of the 8th, the Mets pushed their lead out to 11-0 when Curtis Granderson completed the long ball barrage by blasting his 2nd of the season, a two-run shot into the stands in right field off lefty reliever James Russell. The Phillies bullpen ERA has now risen to an unacceptable and unprofessional 6.14 mark.

The Phillies avoided the shutout by scraping out a single run with a two-out “rally” off Mets’ reliever Rafael Montero in the home half of that 8th inning. Odubel Herrera singled, Andres Blanco drew a walk, and then Howard singled to center to score Herrera.

“We didn’t pitch well. We didn’t hit well. We didn’t play well tonight,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said per MLB.com reporters. “We got beat pretty bad. The Mets seemed to want it. There’s not a whole lot to say.”

There is not likely to be a whole lot to say for the skipper as this season unfolds. At least as currently configured, he has been dealt a losing hand with this punchless offensive lineup. Of course, he knew what he was getting into when he took the job at the beginnings of a rebuilding program.

Unless something changes quickly, this feeble Phillies offense could begin to approach record lows for scoring futility. They have scored just 37 runs over 15 games, an average of just 2.47 runs per game. While they have yet to be shut out, the club has scored two or fewer runs nine times.

This game marks the 15th consecutive game in which the Phillies were unable to record 10 hits, which extends the franchise record to begin a season. The last team in Major League Baseball to go this deep into a season without a single 10-hit game was the Mets, all the way back in 1978.

The two teams finish up this series, and the Phillies end their season-long 10-game homestand, with a Wednesday night game. They have Thursday off, and then begin a stretch in which 16 of their next 19 games will be on the road.

Next: Hot Prospect Alfaro Injured