NEW YORK – A turned parabolic microphone in center field disrupted Alec Bohm’s view of the pitcher’s release in the fifth inning Monday at Citi Field, causing a delay of about 10 minutes in the Phillies-Mets game.
If they had known what was to come, the Phillies wouldn’t have minded calling it a night right then and there.
As it was, play eventually continued and it went quite well for the Mets, as they scored 13 unanswered runs for a 13-3 victory on a beautiful August night. With the win, New York cut Philadelphia’s lead to six games in the National League East.
At the time of the delay, the score was tied 3-3 after the Phillies had given up an early 3-0 lead.
Cristopher Sánchez looked like his Cy Young-contending self in the first three innings, as he didn’t give up a hit on just 38 pitches. But his next 2 1/3 innings were disastrous and it got even worse as the game went on. The Phillies fell to 76-55 on the season.
Things were going well for the Phillies early as they got a triple from Trea Turner to lead off the game and he scored on a Kyle Schwarber groundout. They added two more in the third when Schwarber walked and went to third on a Bryce Harper single. Harper moved to second on the throw and both scored when Alec Bohm singled to right-center.
That was the good. The only good. The Phillies last hit was a leadoff, infield single by Harrison Bader in the fourth inning.
“I think for the whole season this was my worst outing when it comes to the changeup,” said Sánchez, now 11-5. “We could all see that out there. I missed a lot of pitches, too, throughout the start. They didn’t get me at the beginning but they made the adjustments and got me. I missed a lot of pitches early on. I felt regular at the beginning, a little bit more normal. But in the end they adjusted and I have to give them credit for that.”
Some strange happenings in the bottom of the fourth allowed the Mets to tie the game 3-3. With two outs, Sánchez allowed a single to Pete Alonso. He then balked him to second when he appeared to lose his balance on his follow-through and never let go of the ball. A wild pitch then sent Alonso to third. Sánchez then allowed consecutive hits, a walk and another hit for the tie game 3-3.
In the fifth, Sánchez walked Juan Soto with one out and then appeared to have him picked off. Soto got caught between first and second when Sánchez threw to Harper at first. Harper chased Soto towards second, but his lob throw was bobbled by Bryson Stott and Soto was safe.
Sánchez then walked Starling Marte before giving up a run-scoring double to Mark Vientos for a 4-3 Mets lead. After Sánchez gave up two doubles in the sixth, it was an end to his unusually rocky start.
Manager Rob Thomson thought that Sánchez’ slip on the mound may have led to his downfall.
“It was really strange because the next pitch was to the backstop and then from that point on he was kind of behind in the count and had to get in the middle of the plate,” he said. “I’m not sure if that affected him or not but it kind of looked like it did.”
David Robertson replaced Sánchez to finish off the sixth inning, but Jordan Romano got rocked hard in the seventh. He hit Vientos to begin the inning, walked Brandon Nimmo, and gave up a single to Tyrone Taylor to load the bases. Jeff McNeil hit a sacrifice fly before catcher Luis Torrens hit a three-run homer to right.
Not a good way to begin a series. A series that not long ago seemed so big … until the Phillies had a huge lead in the division.
Now, it might have a little more bite to it.
It was the eighth consecutive loss to the Mets at Citi Field, and their 22nd in last 28 games when you include playoffs.
“We’re just getting beat and obviously that’s a good team, they play us well,” said Bryce Harper. “We have to come in tomorrow and see what we can do.”
As Thomson likes to point out, games like this happen during the course of the long season. Which is so true. But after New York eliminated the Phillies from the playoffs last season and the two have been battling for the top spot in the East all season long, a series-opening clunker like this one surely doesn’t get forgotten about too quickly.
Or maybe it will. That will fall in the hands of lefty Jesús Luzardo on Tuesday in Game Two.
“I thought we did a good job on (starting pitcher Kodai) Senga,” said Thomson. “We got him out, put some pitches on him early and we hit some balls, but right at people. I thought the offense was fine, we had some opportunities. It really comes down to we just couldn’t hold them down. We got another one tomorrow. You just got to strap it on. You got to turn the page on this one. This was not what we were looking for coming in here.”
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