Cabrera's homer in 11th lifts Mets to 7-4 win over Phillies (Sep 30, 2017)
PHILADELPHIA (AP) On this night at least, Terry Collins pushed all the right buttons in his bullpen.
Asdrubal Cabrera hit a three-run homer with two outs in the 11th and eight Mets relievers combined to allow one hit over seven scoreless innings as New York beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-4 on Saturday.
Cabrera also had an RBI double in the seventh and finished with four hits and four RBIs. The teams combined to use 17 pitchers in a game that took 4 hours, 10 minutes.
Jacob Rhame (1-1) pitched two shutout innings to earn his first major league win. Jeurys Familia tossed a scoreless 11th for his sixth save, capping an impressive performance by New York's embattled relief corps.
''Our bullpen did a great job,'' Collins said.
The season finale Sunday is widely expected to be Collins' final game as manager of the Mets (70-91) amid recent reports of friction with the front office - partly over how he's handled the bullpen.
Collins' contract expires after the season, but every move he made against Philadelphia worked to perfection.
''They were just getting ahead and made pitches when they had to,'' Mets catcher Kevin Plawecki said. ''They fought and kept us in the ballgame, obviously. In a situation like that, that's all you can ask for.''
Philadelphia, for its part, already made it official on Friday by firing manager Pete Mackanin, who will remain with the team as a special assistant to general manager Matt Klentak in 2018.
Mackanin was in the dugout managing on Saturday and will be again Sunday when the Phillies close out their season.
Cabrera extended a Mets record with the club's 224th homer of the season, sending his drive to left-center off Adam Morgan (3-3).
''I was just trying to hit a base hit in that situation,'' the switch-hitter said. ''I hit it pretty good.''
New York ace Jacob deGrom was supposed to start but got scratched Friday due to a stomach bug. Seth Lugo started in deGrom's place, allowing two runs and six hits in four innings.
Maikel Franco homered for Philadelphia. His solo shot to left in the second and Cesar Hernandez's RBI infield single gave the Phillies a 2-0 lead. The Mets got a run back in the fourth and went ahead on Brandon Nimmo's two-run triple in the fifth.
New York took a 4-2 lead in the seventh on Cabrera's double, but the Phillies answered with a pair of runs in the bottom half on Aaron Altherr's sacrifice fly and Rhys Hoskins' RBI single.
Hoskins nearly ended the game in the 10th, but his drive into a strong wind in left-center was caught just in front of the wall.
''Tough loss on a cold night,'' Mackanin said.
PHILLIES NEMESIS
Cabrera raised his batting average to .406 in 17 games against Philadelphia this season. He has a hit in 15 of those games.
WINDY CITY
Prior to Cabrera's homer, both teams came up just short on several occasions in their effort to clear the fence at hitter-friendly Citizens Bank Park due to a strong wind blowing in.
''You had to hit it tonight with that wind blowing and as cold as it was,'' Collins said. ''There were about four balls hit on both sides that normally were home runs here.''
TRIPLE TWENTY
Hoskins became the first Phillies rookie since 1957 to have at least 20 hits, 20 RBIs and 20 walks in a month. He is batting .263 with 18 homers and 48 RBIs since his Aug. 10 call-up from Triple-A Lehigh Valley.
TRAINER'S ROOM
Phillies C Jorge Alfaro left the game after appearing to get elbowed in the head by Juan Lagares on a play at the plate in the sixth inning. Alfaro caught Nick Williams' strong throw from right field and tagged Lagares to complete a double play. Mackanin also said Alfaro hit his head on the ground. Alfaro wanted to remain in the game but Mackanin took him out as a precaution.
UP NEXT
Mets: RHP Noah Syndergaard (1-2, 3.18 ERA) makes his second abbreviated start Sunday since returning from the disabled list. The right-hander missed most of the season with a torn lat muscle. Syndergaard, who got hurt April 30, is scheduled to pitch one inning just as he did against the Nationals last Saturday, when he allowed one hit on five pitches in his return.
Phillies: Rookie RHP Nick Pivetta (7-10, 6.26) will make his fourth start against the Mets. He is 1-1 with a 6.48 ERA in three previous appearances.
---
More AP baseball: https://apnews.com/tag/MLBbaseball
