Phillies Victimized by Mets Crooked Inning
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Phillies | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
| Mets | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 0 | x | 10 |
The Philadelphia Phillies dropped a second straight game in New York as the host Mets exploded for a crooked 5th inning that made the difference.
The Phillies took a lead for a second straight night at Citi Field. But the host Mets exploded for six runs in the bottom of the 5th, then put up three more in the 7th to pull away to a 10-5 victory on Friday night.
Jeremy Hellickson had a 3-1 lead heading into that pivotal bottom of the 5th inning, but there were warning signs.
He had already yielded three doubles to that point, two of those from Michael Conforto and Travis d’Arnaud in the bottom of the 2nd to get New York on the board.
The Phils had taken an early lead with a pair of runs in the top of the 2nd inning on RBI singles from Cesar Hernandez and Roman Quinn.
23-year old Gabriel Ynoa was lifted at that point by Mets skipper Terry Collins after allowing two earned runs on fives hits and a walk in the first two frames.
Ynoa was making the start in place of Steven Matz, who it was hoped would be able to return from a DL stint, but who proved not ready for the assignment.
In the top of the 3rd, Maikel Franco blasted his 24th home run off new Mets pitcher Logan Verrett, a solo shot which put the Fightin’ Phils on top by that early 3-1 margin.
In that difference-making home 5th, Rene Rivera led off with a base hit off Hellickson (12-10), who then walked two batters after recording an out.
With the bases loaded, Curtis Granderson delivered an RBI single, and then Kelly Johnson followed with a two-run single to put the Mets on top by a 4-3 score.
Pete Mackanin decided he had seen enough, and removed Hellickson in favor of reliever Frank Herrmann for some unfathomable reason.
The 32- year old Herrmann has been wholly unreliable for the Phillies since his mid-August promotion, and was unreliable once again.
Conforto immediately greeted him with his 12th homer of the season, a three-run shot to put the capper on the crooked inning, extending the Mets lead out to a 7-3 margin.
The Phillies made a move to get back into the game, scoring twice in the top of the 6th when Darin Ruf drilled his first home run of the year to make it a 7-5 ball game.
But the Mets put up yet another crooked number, scoring three times in the bottom of the 7th inning to put it away.
After Yoenis Cespedes led off the inning with a double, a throwing error by Cameron Rupp on a sacrifice bunt by Juan Lagares allowed him to score. Eric Campbell then drilled an RBI single, T.J. Rivera lofted a sac fly, and the Mets had their final 10-5 margin of victory.
“They threw a bullpen game against us, so that’s tough to take,” Mackanin said per MLB.com contributors. “That was a shame. Helly just wasn’t at his best.”
The Phillies will again try to influence the NL Wildcard race on Saturday night. The win for the Mets left them on top of that race at 82-72, a game up on both the San Francisco Giants and Saint Louis Cardinals for the two available postseason berths.