Clay Holmes does not live at 221B Baker Street— no such lane exists in Queens. So perhaps it isn’t a surprise that he, unlike the detective with whom he shares a surname, couldn’t solve the case. Step aside, Moriarty, Hound of the Baskervilles, and Red-Headed League— the Phillies are the ones who can best Holmes.
Each of the first three Phillies batters achieved their goal of making it to base in a different way: Harrison Bader stroked a single to left, Kyle Schwarber walked, and Bryce Harper took
a pitch off the foot. J.T. Realmuto didn’t show much originality; he copied Bader and singled. If you can’t be creative, at least you can drive in a runner. Max Kepler was also a copycat (Nachahmer, in German), though a brave one, taking a pitch off the foot like Harper and driving in the second run. The inning ended with a 2-0 lead for the Phillies and a nauseous feeling for the scrabbling Mets, though it could’ve been worse for them.
Cristopher Sánchez was, however, committed to making things worse for them. He mowed down Met after Met through three innings that produced only a single baserunner. That single baserunner was Juan Soto, who also became the Mets’ second baserunner in the fourth when he hit a ball to deep-left center. An overzealous fan reached over the fence and grabbed at the ball, deflecting it away from Bader as Soto headed for third; the result was a spectator interference call that returned Soto to second. After that, the Mets began to solve the problem of Sánchez, at least a little. A single from Pete Alonso advanced Soto and another from Mark Vientos scored him, narrowing the Phillie lead to one. But Sánchez recovered quickly, sending the Mets down in order in the fifth.
Soon after, Soto counterbalanced his good work at the plate with some flimsy work in the field. With Realmuto on first after a single, Brandon Marsh hit a sharp grounder to right, which Soto allowed to reach the wall before fielding it awkwardly. Marsh ended up on second, and Realmuto crossed home, restoring the Phillies’ lead to two and chasing Holmes (not over the Reichenbach Falls, though). His replacement, also a Soto (former Phillie Gregory, to be specific), immediately allowed a bloop single to Kepler to score Marsh, then wrapped up the inning with a pair of strikeouts and a flyout.
Soto (the pitcher) returned for the bottom sixth, and soon found himself in trouble: the third hit by pitch of the night found Bader, and Schwarber singled to put two on, none away. A groundout from Harper put Schwarber out, leaving runners on the corners, and soon the bases were loaded on the fourth HBP of the night. Brandon Marsh, already with two hits on the night, was not precisely who the Mets wanted to see in that situation. But they did see him. And an RBI single was not precisely what they wanted to see from him. But it happened. So did a two-RBI single from Kepler, right afterwards. Then a sacrifice fly from Otto Kemp scored another. At that point, the game was 8-1, the series was all but clinched, and the sweep in Queens two weeks ago felt like a fleeting, distant dream.
Sánchez’ evening ended after the sixth, with Orion Kerkering his replacement. Kerkering allowed some traffic on the basepaths, but no runs; the Mets found little to soothe their bruised egos. The Phillies, inclined to inflict a little additional bruising, delivered another blow in the form of a solo shot from Harper. The Mets got some pride back in a form of a solo shot of their own from Soto— the only Met tonight who lived up to the Amazin’ moniker— at the expense of José Alvarado.
They then promptly lost that pride to a solo shot from Kepler. And another run from a pair of singles, a wild pitch, and a productive groundout. Lou Trivino was tasked with giving the Mets an unfriendly ending to their thoroughly unhappy day, but instead gave the Mets some life, if only a little. A succession of base hits scored one and loaded the bases for Juan Soto, needing a triple to secure the cycle. He flew out. After sweating out a trio of thoroughly miserable contests in Queens, the Phillies found themselves in position to not care much at all about ninth inning runs. That’s a good feeling, indeed.
The Phillies are 86-60. They’ll conclude the series against the Mets tomorrow at 7:15.
