PHILADELPHIA -- Better late than never. The Phillies dinked and dunked their way past the Mets on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park, 3-1, behind timely base hits and solid pitching.
"It's nice to come here and smile," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said entering his postgame news conference. "Great win. Any time we beat the Mets, it's a plus."
Mets left-hander Steven Matz allowed just two walks in his first four innings before Nick Williams' slow fifth-inning tapper to second ended the no-hit bid. For the second out in the fourth, Amed Rosario ranged deep into the hole at short and whipped a jump throw to first to rob Rhys Hoskins of his first big league hit.

Williams' hit was followed immediately by a single from third baseman Maikel Franco, and the pair scored on RBI singles from Cesar Hernandez and Freddy Galvis, respectively.
"Couple of big hits for Cesar in back-to-back nights," Mackanin said of his second baseman, who tied the game with a solo homer in the eighth on Friday, then tied Saturday's game in the fifth.

As is tradition when Yoenis Cespedes enters Philadelphia, he mashed his 14th homer of the year, his fifth at Citizens Bank Park this season and his fourth in the month of August. Cespedes homers on average every 7.7 at-bats in Philly, where he boasts a 1.090 career OPS, compared to every 20.6 at-bats in all other parks.
Aaron Nola was sharp again with just the one blemish to Cespedes on his line -- the 24-year-old allowed just two hits, two walks and struck out eight across seven innings. He hasn't allowed more than two runs in 10 consecutive starts, the most in the Majors this season, and holds a dazzling 1.71 ERA over his last 10 starts.

"He moved the fastball around, pitched inside, good breaking ball," Mets manager Terry Collins said of Nola. "He pitched very well."
MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
Challenging Cespedes: The Mets put a runner on in the sixth directly following the Phillies taking a 2-1 lead in the fifth. With Brandon Nimmo on first and the ever-dangerous Cespedes at the plate, Nola jumped ahead 0-2 and tried something a little different. He buzzed Cespedes with a fastball up-and-in, then induced a swing-and-miss over a changeup to end the frame. In the 8th with the tying and go-ahead runs on board, Phillies reliever Ricardo Pinto went right after Cespedes and blazed a 98-mph fastball by him.

"That was a high-leverage situation for him to appear in, which was good to see," Mackanin said of Pinto's important inning. "That was super. I'm happy for him."
Galvis' slapper: Not trying to do too much, Galvis took what he was given with two outs in the home half of the fifth and rapped a go-ahead RBI single to right through the opening in the infield. Over his last 10 games, Galvis is hitting .310.

QUOTABLE
"He's really coming into his own. We heard about how good he was defensively and he's showing every bit of it." -- Collins, on Rosario's defense
SOUND SMART WITH YOUR FRIENDS
Odubel Herrera elongated his hitting streak to a career-high 15 games and is hitting .373/.413/.644 over that span. It's the longest Phillies hitting streak since James Rollins' 15-game stretch in June 2014.
WHAT'S NEXT
Mets: Fresh off his first Major League win, Chris Flexen (1-1, 8.49 ERA) will start Sunday's 1:35 p.m. ET series finale in Philly. Flexen struck out four and allowed three earned runs across 5 2/3 innings in his win vs. Texas, the longest of his three starts this year.
Phillies:Zach Eflin (1-3, 5.67 ERA) makes his 10th start this season and second since returning to the Phillies rotation earlier in the week. His return was quite clean, allowing just two runs over seven innings in Atlanta. He's lasted seven frames in four of his nine starts this year.
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