The shortstop’s hot weekend ended early.
Advertisement
Ellis drove Robles’ fourth pitch over Granderson’s head in left field, scoring Joseph and Altherr with his first hit for the Phillies.
The Phillies felt better about the idea of offering the soon-to-be free agent a qualifying offer, and should he leave as a free agent this winter, recouping the compensation draft pick as a result.
The home run by Cespedes – which was the second of four crushed by the Mets – was preceded by a double by Noah Syndergaard.
“Tonight”, manager Pete Mackanin said, “was embarrassing”.
Wilmer Flores launched a grand slam, Asdrubal Cabrera homered from both sides of the plate and even Colon had two helpful hits while pitching the third-place Mets to a 9-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
The Mets have enjoyed success against Phillies starter Jeremy Hellickson this season, and they continued their production against him Saturday on the strength of two homers. In 438 plate appearances for the Mets this year, the 30-year old shortstop is having a nice season, slashing.269/.320/.444 with 16 home runs. “They make you feel good every time you do something special”. When I did get ahead, I couldn’t put them away. His four opposite-field home runs are one more than he had from 2013-15 combined, though he shrugged that off as being an improved part of his approach. The current hot stretch follows a 34-game stretch in which NY went 13-21 and scored three runs or fewer 18 times. David Hernandez tossed two scoreless innings for the Phillies, but reliever Michael Mariot had no such luck in the seventh.
Sure, the Phillies have struggled to score runs all season.
Hellickson, who had won four consecutive decisions and six of his last seven, gave up a three-run shot to Cespedes that gave the Mets a 5-1 cushion with two outs in the fourth. He has a 1.70 ERA in eight starts, though he has walked 19 in 47 2/3 innings pitched (3.6 per nine innings).
Perhaps the loss was predictable, considering the home team’s lineup.
Of course that run also clinched their first NL East divisional title since 2006 and the Mets went on to the World Series and lost in five games to thee Kansas City Royals.
“I think the energy in that room right now goes back to the last two months of last season”, outfielder Yoenis Cespedes said through a translator after Saturday’s win.
RHP Vince Velasquez will look to earn his first win of the second half Sunday afternoon, when he takes the mound for the Phillies in the finale of a three-game series against the New York Mets at Citi Field.
“He established his fastball early, and then he threw us a bunch of breaking balls later after we saw him”, Mackanin said. “So it’s hard to figure out”.
Advertisement
But the way the pitching is trending, is Mackanin anxious whether he has enough healthy and competent pitching to get through the final 33 games on the Phillies schedule, including eight more against the Mets?
