NEW YORK (AP) — Derek Hill robbed Juan Soto of a two-run homer with a spectacular catch that helped Zack Wheeler and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the reeling New York Mets 2-1 on Friday night.
Trea Turner drove in Hill with a tiebreaking single in the seventh inning, and Philadelphia spoiled Andy Green’s debut as Mets interim manager by handing New York its seventh consecutive defeat.
Green replaced Carlos Mendoza, who was fired Friday morning after
the high-priced Mets reached the season’s midpoint at 34-47 and 9 1/2 games back of the NL’s last wild-card berth.
Mendoza, who went 206-199 in 2 1/2 seasons, became the third major league manager to lose his job since the season started. Boston’s Alex Cora was replaced by Chad Tracy and Philadelphia’s Rob Thomson by Don Mattingly, both in late April.
The Phillies have gone 37-17 under Mattingly to move into the top NL wild-card spot.
Bryce Harper also had an RBI single for Philadelphia, which has won four straight. Turner’s two-out hit off reliever Huascar Brazobán (4-2) made it 2-1 in the seventh, six innings after Hill — racing at full speed — leaped at the right-center wall and snared Soto’s drive high above the fence.
Wheeler grinned before Hill exchanged high-fives and chest bumps with right fielder Brandon Marsh. The crowd of 39,077 at Citi Field gasped and even applauded some when the replay was shown on the large videoboard in center.
Wheeler (8-1) allowed four hits over seven innings, including Jared Young’s run-scoring single in the fourth, and struck out five against his former team. He has a 2.03 ERA in 12 starts since returning from last August’s thoracic outlet syndrome surgery.
Jhoan Duran earned his 20th save with a one-hit ninth to close out a game that took just 2 hours, 20 minutes.
Mets left-hander Zach Thornton gave up one run and five hits over six encouraging innings in his second major league start. He struck out seven and walked one.
Phillies RHP Alan Rangel (0-0, 2.25 ERA) starts Saturday against Mets RHP Christian Scott (2-0, 3.10), who is scheduled to come off the injured list.
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