The Mets dropped the second game of their three-game set to the Philadelphia Phillies on Saturday, 5-3.
Here are some key takeaways …
1. The first-inning woes for Carlos Carrasco continued, as he allowed a first-pitch solo home run to Jean Segura, the second batter he faced. Carrasco came into the night with a 15.00 ERA in the first inning this season (15 earned runs in nine innings). Segura’s blast was the seventh first-inning homer he’s allowed this season.
2. Aaron Nola struck out a couple of batters in the first, but the Mets put runners on the corners with two outs in the second, as Pete Alonso singled and then went first-to-third on a Jeff McNeil single, but James McCann went down swinging to end the threat and leave two men on base.
Segura got Carrasco again in the third, blasting an almost identical solo home run to the one he hit in the first inning. Segura’s 14th of the season doubled the Phillies lead to 2-0.
3. The Mets finally cracked Nola in the sixth, as a Brandon Nimmo one-out triple put them in a prime scoring position. Nimmo, who made a spectacular, run-saving catch earlier in the game, came in to score on a Francisco Lindor grounder to cut the Phillies’ lead in half.
And after Nola walked Alonso later in the inning, his night came to an end. He went 5.2 innings, allowing just one earned run on four hits, while striking out nine and walking only one. The move to the bullpen paid off for Joe Girardi, as Jose Alvarado struck out Conforto on three pitches to end the inning.
4. Brad Hand came on to pitch the seventh for the Mets, but he got off to a rocky start, allowing a leadoff double to Brad Miller before throwing a wild pitch and allowing another double to Freddy Galvis to make it a 3-1 Phillies’ lead. Hand later hit a batter before being pulled from the game.
Trevor May came in to try to clean up the mess, but with two on and two out, Bryce Harper delivered a dagger with a two-run double down the right field line to make it a 5-1 game. All three runs in the inning were charged to Hand.
5. The Mets got one of those runs back in the bottom of the seventh, as a two-out, pinch-hit single by Dominic Smith scored Baez from second to make it 5-2. They added another in the eighth with a solo shot from Nimmo, but it wasn’t enough in the loss.
Highlights
What’s next
The Mets and Phillies finish their series with a Sunday Night Baseball matchup at 7:08 p.m.
Rich Hill will face Kyle Gibson.