PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Pete Alonso hit his 30th home run and surpassed 100 RBIs, Sterling Marte stole home and the New York Mets continued their season-long mastery of the Philadelphia Phillies with a 7-2 win on Friday night.
The Mets were coming off their first series loss of the season after dropping three of four to Atlanta. The cure, as it seems to be this season, was a date with the Phillies.
The NL East-leading Mets improved to 12-4 against the Phillies this season -- 5-2 in Philadelphia. Philadelphia’s wild-card chase could be on shaky ground with three more games this weekend against the Mets.
The Mets won two of three against the Phillies last weekend in New York; the highlight a 1-0 win that spoiled Philadelphia right-hander Aaron Nola’s mostly masterful complete game.
Nola (8-10) couldn’t come close to matching that start.
He caught some bad luck in the first when third baseman Alec Bohm’s throwing error on Alonso’s fielder's choice -- his 10th error out of 51 for the Phillies -- led to a run in the first inning. Alonso anticlimactically reached 100 RBIs.
That sparked loud chants of “Let’s go Mets!” from many of the New York faithful among the sellout crowd of 43,176 at Citizens Bank Park. The Mets cheer was quickly drowned out by boos.
The boos soon turned toward the home team.
Alonso lined a two-run shot to left in the third and became the fifth player in Mets history with multiple 30-home run seasons. He joined New York long ball specialists Mike Piazza, Howard Johnson, Darryl Strawberry and Dave Kingman on that list.
The homer gave him 102 RBIs and Alonso joined David Wright as the only Mets with multiple 100-RBI seasons within their first four years in the league.
Alonso just might get to 40 homer this season at this rate.
Alonso could at least chase down Phillies slugger Kyle Schwarber for the NL lead. Schwarber, who leads the league with 34 homers, had been reduced to two pinch-hit appearances since he strained his right calf last week. Schwarber was back in his leadoff spot and did rip a two-RBI single to right in the fifth.
The Phillies left two runners stranded in the fourth and fifth innings against Chris Bassitt (11-7). Bassitt, who had not allowed an earned run over his last 24 innings, gave up seven hits and threw 104 pitches in six innings.
Marte made it 5-0 in the fifth on a mad dash toward home on the back end of a double steal and Brett Baty, who homered against Atlanta in his first major league at-bat, added a two-run single in the seventh for a 7-2 lead.
The Mets are now 32-10 in games following a loss
TRAINER’S ROOM
Phillies: Looks who’s (almost) back: 2021 NL MVP Bryce Harper took about 60 swings in the batting cage Friday and is on track for a rehab assignment next week in his return from a broken left thumb.
“It looked really good. Bat speed’s there, he said it felt good,” interim Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
UP NEXT
Let’s play two! The Phillies send RHP Zack Wheeler (11-6, 2.92 ERA) to the mound in the first game of a doubleheader and LHP Baily Falter (0-3, 4.85) starts the second. The Mets did not announce the order of LHP David Peterson (6-2, 3.30) and RHP Trevor Williams (2-5, 3.02).
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