PHILADELPHIA — Brett Baty hesitated getting the ball out of his glove. Josh Walker failed to throw the ball over the plate. Jeff Brigham threw his baseballs directly at Phillies hitters.
Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner couldn’t escape the wild ones, and the Phillies sluggers were plunked in consecutive at-bats.
The Mets simply couldn’t get out of their own way in a fundamental breakdown in the eighth inning that turned almost comical — at least for Phillies fans — as they choked away a sure thing.
The final tally, for those keeping score at home, the Phillies walked three times, were hit twice, reached on an error and had just one hit in a 10-batter, four-run eighth inning that set off a 7-6 win over New York on Sunday.
“Crazy one,” Turner said “Kind of weird. Lot of fun.”
Even by the Mets’ sometimes-feeble standards throughout their history, that was an amazin’ meltdown.
“I’m not sure if I’ve seen it before,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “The chances are unlikely, I think.”
Leading 6-3 in the eighth, Walker allowed the first three batters to reach base and was yanked for Brigham (0-2). Brigham got Alec Bohm to hit a tailor-made double-play ball to Baty, but he hesitated, and a low, short-armed throw to second pulled Jeff McNeil off the bag to make it 6-4.
“That play needs to be made 10 times out of 10,” 23-year-old Baty said. “That cost us the game, cost us the series.”
Wild, yes.
The Mets were just warming up.
With new life, Brandon Marsh walked with the bases loaded and it was 6-5. Brigham then plunked Schwarber on his left knee, which tied it at 6-all as another sellout crowd of 42,901 went wild as the rally stretched another batter. Brigham then buzzed Turner with consecutive pitches before finally drilling the star shortstop for what turned out as the improbable winning run.
“What else could we do?” Mets manager Buck Showalter said.
Maybe … try getting tossed?
Showalter’s frustration boiled over in the ninth, and he was ejected by plate umpire Erich Bacchus.
On the brink of losing the series, the Phillies settled for taking two of three at home against the Mets.
“Sometimes things get lucky and it goes your way,” Turner said.
Walker and Brigham gave up one hit and four runs, three earned, walked three, and threw just 16 pitches in the eighth.
The Mets seemed poised to win their first series since they completed a three-game sweep of the Phillies on June 1. Pete Alonso hit his 24th home run and had three RBIs; Francisco Lindor homered; and the Phillies wasted chances to blow the game open.
Alonso, just one behind Atlanta’s Matt Olson for the NL home run lead, provided the bulk of the offensive damage against Phillies starter Zack Wheeler. He hit a two-out, two-RBI blooper just beyond the outstretched arm of Turner in the third inning for a 2-1 lead. Alonso went deep on a line shot off Jose Alvarado into the right-field seats in the seventh for a 6-3 lead.
That should have been enough.
“We had the chance to open things up,” Showalter said. “We didn’t”
Jeff Hoffman (1-1) tossed a scoreless eighth for the win, and Craig Kimbrel struck out two in the ninth for his 11th save.