PHILADELPHIA — With back-to-back rainouts, the Phillies had plenty of time to mull over a historic defeat at the hands of the Mets on Thursday, but they were quick to turn things around on Sunday in Game 1 of their doubleheader against New York. The Phillies offense did a good job against starter Max Scherzer and a tough Mets bullpen, tallying 11 hits en route to a 3-2 win over their division rivals. The Phillies are now 12-15.
Mother’s Day homer
Bryce Harper decided to celebrate Mother’s Day by launching a Scherzer fastball 390 feet to right-center field in the first inning. As Harper crossed home plate and walked toward the dugout, he pointed to the camera and yelled, “I love you Mom.”
Harper followed that up with an RBI single in the bottom of the third to score Kyle Schwarber. He went 2-for-4 in the first game of the doubleheader.
Gibson delivers
Entering the sixth inning of Game 1, starter Kyle Gibson had allowed only two Mets players to reach base. He found some trouble in the sixth, allowing four hits and two earned runs, but avoided more damage by inducing a double-play ground ball from James McCann. Gibson ended his day by striking out Jeff McNeil with the tying run on second.
In all, Gibson pitched six innings, allowing six hits, two earned runs, and no walks, while striking out three. He was very efficient, throwing only 72 pitches, 48 of them strikes (for reference, Scherzer was at 101 pitches through six innings of work).
Stott gets to Scherzer (again)
Rookie infielder Bryson Stott joked Saturday that Scherzer in his first game back on the Phillies’ active roster wouldn’t be ideal, but Stott may have been selling himself short a bit. Stott entered Sunday’s game with four hits, but two of them were off of Scherzer, during Stott’s first career multi-RBI game on April 13.
Stott added to that total on Sunday, hitting a single to left field in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Bullpen hangs on
The Phillies’ one-run lead over the Mets in innings six, seven, eight and nine seemed tenuous at best, but the bullpen was able to hold it down.
Seranthony Dominguez came in for Gibson in the seventh, starting off his outing with two walks but following those walks with three straight strikeouts. Jose Alvarado came in for the eighth in a relatively unexciting outing, allowing a walk with two strikeouts and a groundout. Corey Knebel earned his fifth save of the season in the ninth, striking out two with zero walks to secure the win.
