Matz recovers from horrid outing as Bryce gets boot

During a long 162-game schedule, allowing a bad start to define a pitcher does more harm than good. As such, players try to flush the lousy days out of their systems and focus on the next game.

There was no doubt Steven Matz wanted nothing but to forget his last outing: Eight earned runs against eight batters faced without re- cording a single out at Citizens Bank Park.

In his second crack at the Phillies, Matz bounced back to transform into a strong pitcher en route to a 5-1 victory Monday night at Citi Field.

Matz out-dueled 2015 National League Cy Young winner Jake Arrieta. The southpaw struck out six, including two consecutive whiffs against Bryce Harper. Matz held the Phillies to one earned run on three hits with two walks over six innings and 99 pitches.

“I think it was big,” Matz said of his second win of the season. “I didn’t put too much weight in that last start, to be honest. It happens, and I was confident that I was able to bounce back and that’s what I did. It was just a good team win today, especially against a team like the Phillies.”

Jeff McNeil crushed his first home run of the season in the fifth inning. By going 2-for-3 with an RBI, McNeil recorded his 30th career multi-hit game on Monday night. Jose Reyes and Kaz Matsui are the only other Mets with 30 multi-hit games within their first 84 career games. McNeil was also hit by a pitch for the fifth time this season. The infielder was plunked on his hand by a 89-mph heater from Jose Alvarez. He underwent precautionary X-rays after the game, but McNeil said his hand feels fine.

“When it happened, it was just a little bit of shock and I was a little bit scared,” McNeil said. “But once I started running the bases it was all good.”

Pete Alonso notched his 20th career RBI faster than any other Met (by games played) on Monday night. Alonso reached the mark in his 22nd career game after plating the game’s first run with an RBI double in the third inning. The rookie drove in another run in the seventh with a hit by pitch following McNeil’s at-bat.

“Every game matters,” Alonso said of recording a win against the division-rival Phillies. “At the end of the year when you look at it, the difference between some teams is going to be miniscule. So every game that we can grab is huge.”

Proudly serving as Mets fans’ least favorite Phillies player, Harper was passionately booed each time his name popped up on the Jumbotron. Harper’s at-bats were limited to just those two strikeouts during a stinted performance on Monday night.

Matz struck Harper out swinging on a 93-mph slider to end the first inning. The Phillies right fielder slouched back to the dugout, but returned for his second at-bat with a vengeance. He fouled off a curveball, then took a pair of balls outside to get ahead in the count, 2-1.

Harper took Matz’s next two strikes standing up to strike out looking for his second consecutive whiff. Again, Harper retreated to the dugout fuming. Four batters later, Harper charged full speed at home-plate umpire Mark Carlson after he was ejected from the dugout for arguing balls and strikes.

“He made some comments in the dugout that were inappropriate that caused his ejection,” Carlson said after the game. “What he said warranted an automatic ejection.”