Wednesday, April 17, 2019

Mets' Start To Season Shows N.L. East Is Going To Be A Battle

Philadelphia's Hector Neris celebrating on Wednesday. @Phillies.



The Mets lost 3-2 to the Phillies on Wednesday afternoon, with Philadelphia winning the rubber game of the three-game series in the City of Brotherly Love.


The Mets took the first game of the series on Monday night, grinding out a 7-6 win, while the Phillies scored 10 in the first inning on Tuesday night on their way to a 14-3 victory.

Wednesday afternoon was a classic pitchers' duel between Zack Wheeler of the Mets and Jake Arrieta of the Phillies, as both pitchers went deep into the game.

Wheeler had perhaps his best start of the season, as he went seven innings, allowing 3 runs on 5 hits and 3 walks, with 5 strikeouts.

Arrieta was just a bit better, as he pitched into the ninth, and his final line was: 8 innings, allowing 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks, with 5 strikeouts.

Philadelphia got a run in the second on a Maikel Franco sacrifice fly, followed by a Scott Kingery home run in the fifth, and a homer for Cesar Hernandez in the sixth to make it 3-0.

The Mets came right back in the seventh as Michael Conforto hit a solo home run to make it 3-1.

In the ninth, Alonso led off with a single off Arrieta, and that was all for him as he hit 105 pitches.

Adam Morgan came out of the Phillies bullpen and he drilled Robinson Cano with a pitch in the back to give the Mets two runners on base for Michael Conforto, who flew out.

The Phillies then turned to their closer Hector Neris, who struck out JD Davis for the second out.

Amed Rosario then got an infield single to score Alonso (run was charged to Arrieta), and that made it 3-2.

Wilson Ramos was up next pinch-hitting for Travis d'Arnaud, and he took one right in the left elbow to reach base.

The Mets now had the bases loaded with two outs for Keon Broxton, who worked it to a full count and then struck out on a rising fastball.

The Mets are now 10-8, and it is not hard to see why, as they split six the first week of the season with the Washington Nationals, split four with the Braves in Atlanta this past weekend, and narrowly lost two of three in Philadelphia.

The National League East was thought to be a four-team race excluding the Miami Marlins, and it has lived up to the hype early on.

The games have been intense, tight affairs, with plenty of personality on all these teams to keep it interesting.

The Mets have also shown, as they did again on Wednesday afternoon, that more often than not, they will stay in a game until the very end.

The Mets head to St. Louis for three over the weekend starting Friday night to conclude this 10-game road trip.

The Phillies come into Citi Field on Monday night for a three-game series.

This will mark Bryce Harper's first trip into Queens as a Phillie, and he is sure to be greeted about as warmly as he did when he was a member of the Nationals.

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