Segura almost meets goal, overcomes Mets
It fell a tad short of Bryce Harper’s Kreskin-like prediction of nine wins in 10 games, a recent spoken dream by Harper which the Phillies promptly made good on last week.
Yet Jean Segura’s pregame prediction Monday almost carried the same impact, even if he fell a tad short of that one, too.
The Phillies’ multi-use infielder caused a stir in the visiting clubhouse at Citi Field, donning his uniform about an hour and a half prior to an early afternoon series finale against the Mets.
“Normally I get dressed like 45 minutes or 30 minutes before the game starts,” Segura said, “but today I was super early. So my teammates, they were freaking out. They were like, ‘What are you doing, is it OK?’”
To Rhys Hoskins, the usual late-running Segura’s change of itinerary had to mean he planned to produce a special day for what everyone knew was an important game against the Mets.
“So I said I would get five hits, and I tell Rhys during the game, ‘I’m going to get five hits, I’m going to get five hits,” Segura said. “I was close. I get four.”
They were just enough for the Phillies to take down the Mets 9-8 and salvage a split of the fourgame series.
Along the way, Segura raised his batting average 24 points to .261, adding a bases-clearing double early on that helped stake the Phils to a 6-0 lead. But starting pitcher Zack Wheeler ran into trouble in the fifth and sixth innings, prompting his early and unwanted dismissal from the game. Sure enough, the Phillies’ bullpen gave up what was left of the lead and thensome, with the Mets taking a 7-6 lead in the seventh.
But none other than Segura scored a tying run in the eighth, off an Alec Bohm single. It would stay at 7-7 into extras, and Hoskins would be placed on second base at the start of the inning, as per pandemic baseball extra inning rules. He would be out in a rundown shortly thereafter, with J.T. Realmuto left at second with two outs.
Up came Segura to face hard-throwing reliever Miguel Castro, and he’d crush a fastball deep to left-center for a two-run homer. That would be the fourth hit and fourth and fifth RBIs on the day for Segura, something Hoskins acknowledged with a finger count in the dugout as Segura rounded the bases.
“It’s a very stressful year for everybody with the epidemic,” Segura said. “We’re not used to playing without fans and anything like that. I’m just keeping myself motivated and going into this game we had lost the last two, so this was one of those games that you just bring it.
“There’s pressure for everybody on the team, especially when we give up the lead; we were winning the game 6-0. They came back and tied and get ahead of us ... as soon as we tied them (again) in the eighth, they gave us an opportunity to stay in the game. That’s what happened today.”
The Mets would score their courtesy runner from second in the bottom half, but Hector Neris would escape with a save as the Phillies earned what for them is a very important victory.
Of course, with this schedule, aren’t they all?
The Phillies, who started the day three games behind the Atlanta Braves in the NL East, hop right into a pandemic-mandated pair of scheduled seven-inning games with the Boston Red Sox Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. Coming up later in the week is a trip to Miami for a head-spinning seven-game series.
Along the way the Phillies will have three of those seven-inning-special doubleheaders in seven days, and five of them in a 15day span. It’ll be all hands on deck, and they’re hoping there will be more dugout hands pointing out four or five hits for teammates along the way.
Certainly, the 32-yearold veteran Segura is as hopeful of that as anyone.
“Those DH games are way, way too important for us,” Segura said. “We’re close to making the playoffs; it’s a big opportunity for us . ... Man, I’m waiting for that moment. I’d love to play in the playoffs and have playoff games. I never did it in my career. I think it’s time to go there, and that’s why I came to this team, to go to the playoffs.
“We need to do what we need to do. This situation with the virus, it is what it is. Most of the teams play with a lot of doubleheaders ... we need to be ready for them.”