Phils erupt in 9th, beat Mets for 6th straight time

NEW YORK -- Maybe it was a good thing for the Phillies that Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom left Friday’s game after seven innings. He was dominating, striking out 10 batters.

Two innings after he departed, the Phillies took advantage of the situation against closer Edwin Diaz and defeated New York, 7-2, at Citi Field. It was the Phillies’ sixth straight victory over the Mets.

“It was a pretty big win for us,” Phillies manager Gabe Kapler said. “Look, when you are facing Jacob deGrom, you know it’s going to be a dogfight. He brought every bit what he normally brings. Our guys just stood in there and battled.”

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The score was tied at 2 entering the ninth inning when the Mets went to Diaz, who is having the worst season of his young career. J.T. Realmuto started the inning off by hitting a double down the left-field line. Jay Bruce followed and singled to center field, scoring Realmuto with the go-ahead run.

“We knew we had to scratch for everything we were going to get,” Bruce said. “We waited out [deGrom] long enough. Our pitchers kept us in the game. We got into a situation where we put some runs on the board.”

Roman Quinn then entered the game as a pinch-runner for Bruce. Quinn quickly stole second and advanced to third on a throwing error by catcher Wilson Ramos. After César Hernández walked and stole second, pinch-hitter Sean Rodríguez singled to left, scoring Quinn.

“That’s what you ask for -- everyone to get on and just have great at-bats and just keep the line moving, and we were able to tack on some runs,” said Phillies center fielder Scott Kingery, who hit the first pitch of the game from deGrom for a home run.

Jeurys Familia replaced Diaz and didn’t fare any better. Jean Segura drove in two more runs with a double to left-center field to make it a 6-2 game. At that point, all four runs were charged to Diaz.

Bryce Harper then did his damage with the bat, doubling down the right-field line to score Segura.

“I continue to say that this club battles back. It’s resilient and it continues to get back up and work hard,” Kapler said. “... We got contributions from a number of different areas.”

Velasquez does the job

If you look at what Phillies right-hander Vince Velasquez did on Friday night against the Mets, he wasn’t bad. He lasted five innings and allowed two runs on six hits and struck out three batters.

But Velasquez had one problem and his name was Pete Alonso, who drove in both runs for the Mets.

Velasquez got off to a good start. It helped that he was given a quick 1-0 lead by Kingery, and then Velasquez held the Mets scoreless during the first three innings.

But Alonso led off the fourth inning by clubbing his 29th home run over the left-center-field fence. In the fifth, Alonso doubled home Jeff McNeil.

“Outside of Alonso, Velasquez attacked the zone,” Kapler said. “It wasn’t his best stuff. I think everybody saw Velasquez threw 92, 93, not 94, 95 [mph]. But he certainly grinded, he battled for us. We asked him to deliver more pitches up. He did that. … Overall, I felt he executed the game plan well and he gave us a chance to win the game.”

Velasquez wasn’t worried about his velocity. The bottom line is he was getting outs.

“It just comes down to execution,” Velasquez said. “If you execute a solid pitch, chances are guys are going to pop up, swing and miss or foul it off. … That’s what you want. It doesn’t need to be a 97, 96 [mph] fastball. That’s a bonus. Greg Maddux was one of those pitchers that placed the ball anywhere [he wanted] and he was able to get outs. That’s the definition of being a pitcher. How do you get outs? Not strikeouts -- the strikeouts are the bonuses."