PHILADELPHIA — Call it all a convenient confluence of events: two bandbox ballparks, two struggling opposing starting pitchers and a Mets lineup that wasn’t missing pitches.
Somehow the Mets were scoring multiple touchdowns after weeks of hoping for something more than a field goal. After a 16-run laugher a night earlier in Baltimore, Thursday’s 24-4 beatdown of the Phillies in Game 1 of a doubleheader could have signified the true awakening of a team that has slumbered for most of the spring and summer. Unfortunately for the Mets, a nightcap was necessary at Citizens Bank Park and reality returned in a 9-6 defeat.
But in a lost season, the Mets can point to Game 1 as a celebration, against a team competing for the NL East title.
The margin of victory was a franchise record for the Mets, as were the 24 runs and 25 hits. It came only two weeks after the Mets suffered a franchise-worst loss: 25-4 at Washington on July 31.
Unwilling to exhaust the bullpen in a lost cause, Phillies manager Gabe Kapler used position players to pitch beginning in the seventh. From innings seven through nine, the Mets scored nine runs against Roman Quinn and Scott Kingery.
The highlight was reliever Jerry Blevins getting the first hit of his 12-year major league career (he was 0-for-3 previously) in the eighth inning, when he stroked an RBI single.
“There is nothing better,” Blevins said. “It is something you dream about when you are a kid. When I tell the story it will be I turned around 95 [mph], but it feels good nonetheless. It’s pretty awesome. I haven’t stopped smiling since.”
Jose Bautista hit a grand slam and finished with a career high seven RBIs. He entered the game in the third inning for Brandon Nimmo, who departed after getting hit on the left index finger during a swing on which he grounded to third base. Nimmo underwent X-rays that were negative. Bautista’s seven RBIs were a Mets record for a player who didn’t start the game.
Kevin Plawecki reached base six times and Amed Rosario went 4-for-7 with three RBIs to help lead the onslaught.
“The good teams have that diversity and have three or four guys that can pop the ball out of the ballpark,” manager Mickey Callaway said. “They have a couple that can get on base and slap the ball the other way and I think against a good pitcher that is probably the way to go.”
The Mets, who beat the Orioles 16-5 Wednesday, scored at least 16 runs in consecutive games for the first time in franchise history and became the first NL team to score at least 15 in back-to-back games since the New York Giants (Aug. 2-4, 1933, per Elias Sports Bureau).
“You do feel for the other team,” Callaway said. “That is one of the reasons we sent Blevins up there because we felt like we didn’t want to pile on if we didn’t have to.”
Corey Oswalt was the beneficiary, absolved for the four home runs he allowed in the first four innings. The right-hander gave up four earned runs on nine hits over six innings in his least effective start since June, but it hardly mattered.
The Mets went wild in the fifth, with 10 runs that extended their lead to 15-4. It was a brutal inning that included left fielder Rhys Hoskins dropping a routine fly ball for a run and catcher Jorge Alfaro throwing Oswalt’s bunt into center field for another, after Ranger Suarez had balked in Michael Conforto from third base. That all occurred before Bautista hit a grand slam to complete the scoring in the inning.
The Mets looked ready to pick up offensively from Game 1 by scoring two runs in the first inning of the nightcap, but Zach Eflin applied a tourniquet and kept the Mets from scoring again until the seventh, when they pulled within 8-4.
Steven Matz, in his return from the disabled list after missing two starts with a flexor pronator strain, flopped in the nightcap. The lefty lasted only two innings and allowed six runs, four of which were earned, on five hits and one walk.
“Ultimately I felt healthy, so I can take that as a positive,” Matz said, “but I’ve got a lot of work to do to get back to where I was before the All-Star break.”