The Philadelphia Phillies (76-55) squandered a 3-0 lead and allowed 13 unanswered runs to the New York Mets (70-61) to diminish their hold on the division to six games in a 13-3 series opening loss to their rivals.
They are 2-5 against the Mets so far this year, 0-4 at Citi Field this season and 0-8 going back to September 21st of last year.
Trea Turner led off the game with his sixth triple of the year and was grounded home by Schwarber to open the scoring.
Schwarber worked a one-out walk and Bryce Harper singled to set the table for Alec Bohm who drove in both runners with a single to extend the early advantage to 3-0.
The Phillies would get two more runners on in the fourth via a Harrison Bader infield single and Bryson Stott walk, before going 1-2-3 every subsequent inning prior to the ninth.
Christopher Sanchez gave no cause for concern in the early going, needing just 39 pitches to retire the minimum through the first three innings. His fourth inning was the stuff of nightmares.
Juan Soto led off the inning with a single but was quickly erased by a double play hit into by Starling Marte. Then in the course of three pitches, Pete Alonso singled, advanced to second on a balk and to third on a wild pitch. Sanchez unraveled, allowing a double to Mark Vientos, a single to Brandon Nimmo, a walk to Tyrone Taylor and another single to Jeff McNeil to tie the ballgame.
The only offensive incident of note for the Phillies after their early scoring was an odd moment in the top of the fifth where Bohm pointed out a shining microphone dish positioned in center field that apparently led to his grounding into a double play and which caused a ten minute delay while the crew determined the source and removal of the issue. Brandon Marsh promptly ended the inning on a grounder one pitch later and no other grievances were filed.
With a low pitch count, Thomson let Sanchez go back out for the fifth, where he would again allow a two-out run to score after back to back one-out walks to Soto and Marte and another RBI double to Vientos.
Taylor’s leadoff double to start the bottom of the sixth and another double by Luis Torrens one out later ended Sanchez’s night on the mound and a walk to Soto and single to Marte issued by David Robertson closed the book. Sanchez’s six total runs allowed were a season high.
Jordan Romano came on in the seventh to make Sanchez look better by comparison, hitting Vientos to begin the inning. A walk to Nimmo, a single to Taylor and a sacrifice fly to McNeil allowed another run before Romano got behind 1-2 on Torrens and then left a slider up in the zone for a three-run homer.
Joe Ross began the bottom of the eighth with an HBP of his own to Marte, walked Brett Baty and gave up back-to-back-to-back RBI singles to Taylor, McNeil and Torrens.
The Phillies will hope to bar the Mets from a momentum-building series victory by evening things up tomorrow night as lefties Jesus Luzardo and Sean Manaea are set to battle it out.
