Aaron Nola struggles as Philadelphia Phillies lose 11-3 to New York Mets
One team in the National League East made a statement in mid-September. It wasn't the team that currently has the best record in baseball.
Francisco Alvarez and Brandon Nimmo belted a pair of three-run home runs in the fifth inning to lead the New York Mets to an 11-3 blowout victory over the Philadelphia Phillies in the first of a critical three-game series at Citizens Bank Park Friday night. The Phillies entered Friday with a commanding lead over the Mets in the NL East, but the team that's 57-33 since June 1 [second-best record in baseball] looked like the group that is ready to make a deep October run.
The Mets are fighting for their playoff lives, keeping a hold on the final game in the NL Wild Card standings with less than two weeks to play. New York is just one game behind the San Diego Padres for the No. 5 seed in the playoff standings and remain one game up on the Atlanta Braves for the final wild card spot with the victory.
Aaron Nola gave up six runs in a fifth inning in which he could only record one out. He gave up consecutive singles to Jose Iglesias and Tyrone Taylor before Alvarez blasted his three-run home run off the foul pole to give the Mets a 3-0 lead.
The damage was far from done. Francisco Lindor and Mark Vientos followed with singles before Brandon Nimmo followed up with a three-run home run of his own to make it 6-0 in favor of the Mets. The Nimmo home run knocked Nola out of the game, as he threw 4 1/3 innings while giving up six runs on six hits — all in a fifth inning that blossomed his ERA from 3.41 to 3.62.
"Made some bad pitches," Nola said of the fifth. "I left some balls over the plate, two bad curveballs that I threw. One just popped out of my hand and over the plate too much....I just gotta eliminate the big inning.
"That's really all I can do, just flush this one."
Nola was more frustrated with his results than in past outings. The Phillies starter hasn't won just one game since the All-Star Break and has failed to get past the fifth inning in each of his last two starts.
"Obviously Nola's a competitor and this was a big game for us," said Phillies catcher J.T. Realmuto. "I think it's pretty obvious why he'd be frustrated after that game. He wants to do well for the team, but we didn't score many runs today anyway so it didn't matter much. Knowing Nola, he just wanted to throw the ball a little better."
The Phillies offense could muster just three hits in a lifeless performance. Bryce Harper had a two-out double in the first inning, but nothing came of it as Nick Castellanos grounded out to Pete Alonso in the next at bat. The Phillies didn't have a runner reach second base until there were two outs in the ninth inning. Brandon Marsh hit a three-run home run to prevent the Phillies from being shut out, hitting his 15th home run of the year to make it 11-3.
Harrison Bader capped off the dominant night for the Mets with a three-run home run in the eighth inning to put New York up 10-0. The Mets finished with 14 hits and were 4 of 6 with runners in scoring position.
The Phillies lead over the Mets is seven games with 15 to play, and the National League East is still theirs to lose. The script can flip in the division title chase with a win on Saturday, giving the Mets even less time to mount a comeback in the division race.
All the Phillies can do is make the hole deeper, instead of giving the Mets a way to climb out of it.
"This is a very important series for us," Realmuto said. "Really every series is the rest of the year is. Every game seems a little more magnified right now.
"It's just kind of the way we lost, just going out there and getting our butts kicked basically. That's never fun, and in a game of this magnitude it's definitely frustrating."
Notes
Rob Thomson said Alec Bohm and Edmundo Sosa will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Lehigh Valley Saturday. Bohm is expected to return by the Milwaukee series if everything goes well. Bohm will play third on Saturday and Sosa will play second. Bohm will be the designated hitter on Sunday while Sosa will play either second of shortstop.
Kolby Allard will start Saturday for the Phillies, but the Phillies haven't made a corresponding roster move yet.
