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Phillies Crumble in the Ninth Despite Nola's Dominance
The Philadelphia Phillies went down to the New York Mets with an 8-7 loss on Thursday night. This was already the seventh matchup of the season between the two teams, with the Phillies winning just two to the Mets’ five.
The Phillies went into the ninth inning with a 7-1 lead and were just three outs away from victory. James Norwood took the mound and quickly gave up four runs on four hits which included a Francisco Lindor two-run home run.
Phillies Manager Joe Girardi was forced to call upon Phillies closer Corey Knebel to end it. Knebel did not fare any better as he also gave up four hits and three runs giving the Mets an 8-7 lead.
This was Knebel's first blown save of the season.
Despite the ninth inning collapse, Aaron Nola pitched an absolute gem and put the Phillies in prime position for victory. He had great bite on his curveball, impressive control with his sinker, and a killer changeup that fooled right-handed batters all night.
Nola continues to look better and better with each start, and has done an excellent job of mixing up his pitches with every batter he faces.
Nola ended the night with a final line of 7.0 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 7 K.
The lone Mets run off of Nola came from a Starling Marte homer in the sixth that was just the second hit of the game for New York.
Offensively, the Phillies took charge from the very start. Bryce Harper got things going early with an RBI double into left field in the first. Nick Castellanos, J.T. Realmuto, and Jean Segura all followed suit by driving in runs of their own.
All nine Phillies batters stepped up to the plate in the first inning which was an impressive change of pace compared to recent performances.
In the fourth, Harper and Castellanos brought the big boy bats to the plate when they popped back-to-back home runs to end Mets’ starter Taijuan Walker’s night.
The Phillies pounded Walker all night long to create what should have been an insurmountable lead. Walker’s final line: 4.0 IP, 9 H, 7 R (6 ER), 2 BB, 2 K.
Castellanos drove in three of the Phillies seven runs while four different players had multi-hit games. All together, the Phillies totaled 12 hits with eight of the nine batters making it safely on base.
Above all else, the Phillies performance offensively was a great example that good things happen when you put the ball in play.
The Phillies are still searching for their first win in May and drop to an 11-15 record. Games like this will come back to haunt the Phillies later in the season as the Mets continue to leap further ahead in the NL East standings.
Game two of the four game series picks up tomorrow with a 7:05 pm first pitch. Kyle Gibson is scheduled to take the mound for the Phillies with a tough matchup against Max Scherzer for the Mets.
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