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The Plummer arrived just in time.
Nick Plummer went from anonymous reserve outfielder to player who had a Mets moment on Sunday night, helping his team emerge from the raw sewage of a missed Adam Ottavino save and celebrate a savage victory.
Plummer ended the game with a mighty swing in the ninth and Eduardo Escobar’s double in the 10th inning sent the Mets to a 5-4 win and a three-game win over the Phillies at Citi Field. The sweep was the Mets’ first this season.
“Pretty surreal,” said Plummer, whose 112-mph rocket from the bat to the porch in right field against Corey Knebel, who led from ninth, had hints of “Can you believe that?” attached to.
The homer was Plummer’s first major league hit. It happened on the 10th anniversary of the last Mets player to hit a homer for his first major league hit (also against the Phillies). Congratulations if you can guess the Mets’ current pitching coach Jeremy Hefner as the player who hit that home run.
Plummer, 25, was recalled from Triple-A Syracuse on Saturday and pushed into left field a night later for his first major league start.
“To just come out here and help the team win, that’s all you could ask for,” said Plummer, who was signed as a minor league free agent during the offseason.
In the 10th inning, Francisco proposed Lindor, who led against gags, and Pete Alonso was hit on foot on purpose before Escobar stroked a line drive to right field that scored automatic runner Starling Marte.
“Today they walked Pete Alonso three times and faced me,” said Escobar, who went 1-for-5 with two RBIs. “Baseball always gives you a chance. One swing changed everything and made my day.”
Escobar also leaned over the dugout’s railing to snatch Kyle Schwarber’s pop-up, which popped up before the 10th inning.
“No one pushes harder than [Escobar] does,” said manager Buck Showalter. “He has so much ‘want’ that sometimes it gets in his way. He has a good track record that we will trust and he is as good a professional as you could ask for at a club.”
The Mets improved to 9-3 against the Phillies this season. In a scheduling quirk, the NL East foes have already played four series, but the Mets have yet to face the Marlins. The final two series of the regular season between the Mets and the Phillies are scheduled for August.
The Mets (32-17) have arrived on Memorial Day – a traditional marker in a baseball season’s marathon – and lead the NL East by 8 1/2 games. It’s the largest divisional lead in MLB.
“I feel like we played together, we stuck together, it was just remarkable,” said Alonso. “We have a lot of quality, characterful guys in this clubhouse and we’re just moving in the same direction. If you have that and you also have guys who play good defensively, run the bases and hit and throw well, that’s going to be the end product.
Ottavino handed a three-run blaster to Nick Castellanos in heat eight that gave the Phillies a 4-3 lead. Joely Rodriguez conceded two hits in the inning but passed his toughest test, knocking out Bryce Harper for the second out. Ottavino entered and scored two quick shots at Castellanos before running a 96-mile fastball over the plate, which disappeared behind the left fence.
Chris Bassitt allowed a two-hit earned run over six innings with seven strikeouts and three walks to bury the memory of his worst performance in a Mets uniform in San Francisco last week (when he had eight earned runs over 4 ¹/₃ innings allowed). fighting a sinus infection).
Bassitt finished the last 10 batters he faced in a seventh start that season in which he lasted at least six innings.
He survived a 34-pitch third inning in which he walked three batters but only allowed one run. Odubel Herrera hit a fly to the left that Plummer misplayed into a double that led off the inning before Bassitt went with Johan Camargo and Schwarber to load bases. Alec Bohm scored in a double, put the run in play, and after Harper left, Castellanos struck.
“Once you’re through that inning, you’re like, ‘Okay, I’m good to go,'” Bassitt said.
The Mets took advantage of the Phillies’ poor defense to take a 3-0 lead over Zack Wheeler in the first inning. After Luis Guillorme’s leadoff double and Marte’s subsequent single put runner in the corners, Lindor first hit a grounder that Rhys Hoskins attempted to turn into a force in second. But with Guillorme running from third, shortstop Camargo rushed and never stepped onto second base before throwing for home. After Alonso singled, the Mets got two extra runs without the ball leaving the infield on grounders from Escobar and Mark Canha.
