By Chris Murray
For the Philadelphia Sunday Sun
After struggling against a monster performance from Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler in Game 1 of the National League Division Series, the New York Mets had the National League East Champions exactly where they wanted them.
Mets win– Ryne Stanek and Luis Torrens celebrate. Photo by Webster Riddick
In his seven innings on the mound, Wheeler tortured Mets hitters by striking them out nine times and keeping them off the scoreboard for seven innings. He left the game with a 1-0 lead with nine strikeouts while allowing just one hit after throwing 111 pitches. In his final inning on the mound, Wheeler was throwing the ball at 97 mile per hour.
“Wheeler was unbelievable,” said Phiillies manager Rob Thomson. “We haven’t seen that type of velocity out of him for a while. That was as good as it gets.”
Wheeler did his part and pitched well enough to put the Phillies in position to come away with a Game 1 win.
But it didn’t happen.
A day that began with Phillies fans cheering Kyle Schwarber’s leadoff home run, ended with a chorus of loud boos thanks to the Mets’ six runs in the final two innings for a 6-2 win over the Phillies in front of a sellout crowd of 45, 751fans at Citizen’s Bank Park.
With Wheeler done for the night, the Mets took advantage of the Phillies bullpen in the top of the eighth inning by scoring five runs off Phillies relievers Jeff Hoffman, who allowed three runs on two hits, and Matt Strahm, who gave up two runs on two hits.
Phillies J.T. Realmuto scores a run. Photo by Webster Riddick
“It was stunning to see [ Hoffman] and [Strahm] give it up like that, but that’s baseball sometimes,” Thomson said. “They haven’t done that since we’ve had them. …. It’s probably about execution and leaving some pitches in the middle of the (strike) zone. “
Hoffman said the hard part about losing this game was the bullpen could not capitalize on Wheeler’s brilliant effort.
“It stinks because you definitely want to capitalize on an outing like that,” Hoffman said. “He did everything he could to keep us ahead in that game, so we will try to hold on that one next time.”
New York got RBI singles from third baseman Mark Vientos and Brandon Nimmo and a run-scoring sacrifice fly from first baseman Pete Alonso, who was two days removed from his dramatic three-run homer against Milwaukee that brought the Mets to Philadelphia for today’s NLDS. The Mets scored two more runs from pinch hitter J.D. Martinez and a sacrifice fly from Sterling Marte.
The Mets added another run in the top of the ninth which drove even more fans to the parking lot.
As much as fans would be right in blaming the bullpen for this loss, it didn’t help that the Phillies offense didn’t build on Schwarber’s early home run, and they did not score again until a meaningless RBI double by pinch-hitter Kody Clemens that scored J.T. Realmuto from second.
“There was some chasing there tonight for sure,” Thomson said. “We gotta get back in the zone and start using the field. “That’s what we talked about all the time. Just put better at-bats together. We have to cut down on our chase and do the little things and the big things will happen. Get on base, move runners. We had nine or 10 baserunners and that’s not going to score a of runs.”
Phillies’ first baseman, Bryce Harper, said the offense wasted a brilliant performance by Wheeler by not building on Schwarber’s home run.
“Every time he goes out there, he gives us a very good chance to win,” Harper said. “He threw the ball great, and it was very good to see. Obviously as an offense, we wasted that start. It’s the same thing.
Chasing balls in the dirt, we didn’t go deep in the counts like we should have. We’ve got to understand what they’re doing to us and flip the script as an offense.”
Phillies right fielder Nick Castellanos attributed the Phillies’ hitting woes to players not seeing the ball because of the late afternoon shadows between the mound and home plate. He said the problem affected both teams throughout the game until the sun went down.
“It’s a lot harder to see the baseball, “ Castellanos said. “It’s like when we have those 1:30 games and it gets more difficult. Four o’clock it’s going to be harder if there are no clouds in the sky …we’re going to have to find a way to deal with it and score more runs than them.”
Fortunately for the Phillies, they get another home game to right the ship. On Sunday, Christian Sanchez takes the ball for the Fightin’s in game two of the National League Division Series. First pitch is at 4 p.m. and you can catch the game on Fox Sports-1
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