Bruce delivers, Phillies score 5 in 9th to beat Mets
NEW YORK >> Jay Bruce hit a goahead single in the ninth inning off closer Edwin Diaz, Mets manager Mickey Callaway lost an early replay challenge that might have cost him late and the Philadelphia Phillies beat New York 7-2 Friday night.
Nine days after blowing a save in Philadelphia, Diaz (1-6) allowed J.T. Realmuto’s double and Bruce’s RBI single to start the ninth, which snapped a 2-all tie. The Phillies poured it on after that, batting around and scoring five runs against Diaz, Jeurys Familia and Luis Avilan. Jean Segura drove in two with a double, and Bryce Harper scored him with a two-base hit to cap a rocky day that started with three strikeouts against Mets ace Jacob deGrom.
Philadelphia tied it in the seventh on a close play that Callaway couldn’t challenge. Rhys Hoskins scored on Cesar Hernandez’s slow roller toward third, but replays showed catcher Wilson Ramos appeared to tag Hoskins before he touched the plate. The Mets couldn’t ask for a review, however, because Callaway had unsuccessfully used the club’s challenge in the second inning on Todd Frazier’s stolen base attempt. Umpires can’t initiate a crew chief review until the eighth inning.
The Phillies have won six straight over the Mets for the first time since a nine-game streak spanning 2007 and ‘08. New York has won the season series the past seven years, but Philadelphia is 8-3 in the rivalry this season and needs two more wins to end that skid.
New York traded away Bruce in a seven-player deal that brought back Diaz from Seattle in the offseason. Bruce also beat the Mets with a gameending double during Philadelphia’s four-game sweep at home last week.
DeGrom allowed two runs and three hits over seven innings, striking out 10 after allowing a homer to Scott Kingery on the first pitch of the game.
Pete Alonso accounted for New York’s first two runs with his 29th homer and an RBI double. He scored fellow All-Star Jeff McNeil with the latter against Vince Velasquez to make it 2-1 Mets in the fifth.
Velasquez pitched two-run ball over five innings, striking out six. The Phillies have allowed a National League-most 151 homers.
Adam Morgan (3-3) got two outs on two pitches to end the eighth.
The Mets celebrated “Seinfeld Night” 30 years to the day after the show’s debut. Mets fan Jerry Seinfeld threw out the first pitch, a perfect strike from a full windup atop the mound.
“On the money,” Seinfeld said. “It was the greatest moment of my life.”
The comedian’s first pitch was better than deGrom’s. Kingery launched that one into the second deck in left field, showing no ill effects from a long Thursday — after a July 4 night game in Atlanta, the Phillies didn’t check into their Manhattan hotel until around 4 a.m.
Philadelphia hit the snooze button after Kingery’s shot, although deGrom had plenty to do with that. The NL Cy Young Award winner reached 100 mph while striking out Harper later that inning and cruised until walking Hoskins and allowing a double to Realmuto in the seventh, setting up the close play at the plate.
TRAINER’S ROOM
PHILLIES >> Called up RHP Yacksel Rios from Triple-A Lehigh Valley and optioned LHP Austin Davis to the IronPigs.
UP NEXT
Phillies RHP Jake Arrieta (8-6, 4.43 ERA) faces Mets RHP Noah Syndergaard (5-4, 4.56) on Saturday night. Arrieta allowed two homers and five runs against New York on June 25. Syndergaard last faced Philadelphia on April 15, when he permitted five runs in five innings.