PHILADELPHIA — It was only three weeks ago Michael Conforto was getting booed from his own fan base while he battled an early-season skid for an ugly start to his walk year. On Saturday, Conforto heard enough. He silenced the grumblers and parked a go-ahead solo home run in the ninth inning to give the Mets their first win in nearly a week, snapping a three-game losing streak during a heated series.
Conforto’s clutch at-bat resulted in his second home run of the year in the Mets’ 5-4 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park. Edwin Diaz collected his third save of the season to tie the series at one game apiece on a night when Brandon Nimmo (left index finger bruise) and J.D. Davis (left hand sprain) both left the matchup with respective injuries.
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Despite multiple battle wounds to their regular players, the Mets caught a break from an oblivious umpiring crew that kept the score knotted at 4-4 until Conforto’s go-ahead shot.
Luck (or just bad umpiring) was on the Mets’ side in the seventh inning when umpire Jose Navas, parked at second base for Saturday’s game, listened to Francisco Lindor’s plea and mistakenly called that Andrew McCutchen ran out of the baseline. The Phillies dugout and manager Joe Girardi were livid with Navas’ call, which helped the Mets turn an inning-ending double play and kept the game tied to enter the eighth. Bryce Harper was ejected for arguing with the umpires from the bench, though he wasn’t playing anyway while continuing to recover from getting hit by a pitch in the head days ago.
“That was about as straight of a line as you could run,” Girardi said. “He said he left the baseline. It’s a terrible call. To me, the sad thing about it is it’s not reviewable because it’s a judgment. Well, I’m sorry, that’s about as clear as it can be.”
The Mets scored more runs in the first inning Saturday than they had in their past 30 innings, up to that point. The momentary cure for their cold bats was former teammate and Saturday’s Phillies starter Zack Wheeler. Six consecutive Mets batters reached base via hit by pitch, walk or hit in the first inning against Wheeler to give the Mets an early 4-0 lead.
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Taijuan Walker received a comfortable four-run lead from his offense’s eventful first inning against Wheeler. But the Phillies chipped away with a two-run second inning, highlighted by Wheeler lining an RBI single off Walker, before clawing back to tie the game in the sixth. Walker had seemed to find his groove his second time through the Phillies’ order, retiring 10 of 11 batters from the second inning to the fifth.
Walker’s good run ended in the sixth when a bloop and a blast changed the disposition of the game. He gave up a leadoff single to Rhys Hoskins before Alec Bohm drove him in with a two-run shot to right field and tied the game at 4-4. Walker’s final line, four earned runs with one walk and four strikeouts across 94 pitches, looked worse than his actual outing.
The Mets bullpen kept the Phillies’ bats at bay with scoreless innings from Aaron Loup, Trevor May and Diaz. The relief corps has pitched 19 scoreless innings with 26 strikeouts.
