He can still clear the fences, though.
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Howard homered and Maikel Franco singled home the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday night.
Yoenis Cespedes went 0 for 3 with a walk in his return to the lineup. It was the 13th homer of the season and the 370th of his career for Howard, who moved into a tie with Gil Hodges for 77th on the all-time list.
“Definitely fun and hopefully I have many more”, he said. Zach Eflin was the losing pitcher for the Phillies.
“We don’t seem to hit as well as we should in this park”, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. I’ve also written about the fact that if the Mets are going to win, or at this point even contend, they have to stop leaving men on base.
Yu Darvish returned from the disabled list to strike out nine but was inefficient and wild at times, and Anthony Rizzo’s two-run double helped lead the Chicago Cubs past the Texas Rangers 3-1 on Saturday.
“He’s gotten a little stronger”, manager Terry Collins said of deGrom.
“It didn’t look like we took a lot of bad swings”, Rupp added.
New York, which entered second in the NL in home runs, upped its season total to 124. He walked and struck out two hitters.
The Phillies have won 11 of their last 15 games, while the Mets have dropped four of five. When Carlos Ruiz tried to score on Eickhoff’s infield single, James Loney made a solid throw and Travis d’Arnaud tagged Ruiz on the hand as he slid into home.
Philadelphia capitalized on Cabrera’s throwing error at shortstop in the bottom half for the go-ahead run. Franco blooped Robles’ first pitch, a 97 miles per hour fastball, into left field, and Bourjos came around to score. “I had all the time”, he said. I went out there every inning like it was the first inning. Conforto was demoted on June 25 after hitting.148 after May 1. Juan Lagares had the first of those and went to third on Verrett’s sacrifice before scoring on Jose Reyes’ sacrifice fly.
NY took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly before the Phillies tied it in the fifth on Asche’s groundout that scored pitcher Jerad Eickhoff.
DeGrom helped his own cause in the fifth.
“He’s ready to go”, Mackanin said.
Francisco Rodriguez (1-0) got the win with an inning of scoreless relief. This series brings together familiar faces with Phillies rookie OF Tyler Goeddel and his older brother Erik, a Mets reliever.
He has gone 2-0 with a 1.35 ERA and 20 strikeouts (compared to four walks) in 20 innings over his last three starts, and his last time out he worked seven innings in a 4-2 victory over Miami. The right-hander is 1-4 with a 5.20 ERA as a starter this season. He took Matt Harvey’s spot in the rotation this month when the former ace was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome. “I had a good two-seam, and I was trying to get them to hit ground balls”. Collins said the outfielder will undergo testing Sunday morning to determine if he is able to play.
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Facing Jacob deGrom in their series finale against the New York Mets, the Philadelphia Phillies put up their worst offensive performance of the year, mustering just one hit in a 5-0 loss to their National League East rivals.
