Scott Kingery laced a tiebreaking, three-run double in the eighth inning Sunday night for the host Philadelphia Phillies, who salvaged the finale of a three-game series by beating the New York Mets 5-2.
The Phillies moved within 2 1/2 games of the Chicago Cubs for the second National League wild card. The Mets, who have lost seven of nine, remained four games behind the Cubs.
Bryce Harper led off the eighth by singling against Daniel Zamora (0-1), who was among the Mets' call-ups earlier Sunday.
Jeurys Familia entered and walked Rhys Hoskins before allowing a long flyout to Brad Miller that allowed Harper and Hoskins to advance a base apiece. Cesar Hernandez was intentionally walked to bring up Kingery, who laced a 1-0 pitch into the left-center-field gap.
Hector Neris (3-5) uncorked a wild pitch that allowed the tying run to score in the top of the eighth, but he recorded the final five outs to earn the win.
Pete Alonso gave New York the lead with a solo homer off Phillies starter Zach Eflin in the first. It was his 43rd homer of the season, nine shy of the rookie record set by the New York Yankees' Aaron Judge in 2017.
The Phillies took the lead in the second, when Brad Miller hit a leadoff homer off Marcus Stroman and Corey Dickerson delivered a two-out RBI single.
The Mets tied the game in the top of the eighth when Brandon Nimmo raced home after ball four from Neris to Alonso skipped past catcher J.T. Realmuto.
Eflin allowed one run on three hits and one walk while striking out three over seven innings -- his longest outing since he went eight innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 12.
Stroman gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out six over six-plus innings.
Mets catcher Wilson Ramos doubled in the fourth inning to extend his hitting streak to a career-long 25 games -- the longest run in the majors this year.
--Field Level Media
NY Mets | Philadelphia | |
Marcus Stroman | Player | Zach Eflin |
No Decision | W/L | No Decision |
6.0 | IP | 7.0 |
6 | Strikeouts | 3 |
7 | Hits | 3 |
3.00 | ERA | 1.29 |
NY Mets | Philadelphia | |
Pete Alonso | Player | Brad Miller |
2 | Hits | 2 |
1 | RBI | 1 |
1 | HR | 1 |
5 | TB | 6 |
.667 | Avg | .500 |
Team | Hits | HR | TB | Avg | LOB | K | RBI | BB | SB | Errors |
NY Mets | 4 | 1 | 8 | .138 | 7 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
Philadelphia | 9 | 1 | 16 | .281 | 16 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 |