Mark Vientos, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo and Francisco Alvarez homered against Taijuan Walker and the New York Mets scored 10 runs in three straight games for the first time in their 63-year history with a 10-6 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.
Philadelphia, which leads the NL East by six games over second-place New York, failed in its second attempt to secure the title after Wednesday’s loss at Milwaukee. The Phillies would clinch a playoff spot with a single win over the Mets during the four-game series and would secure their first division title since 2011 with two wins over the Mets this week.
New York won its fourth straight game and 16th in the last 20 games to maintain a two-game lead over Atlanta in the battle for the NL’s final wild-card position.
Rookie Luisangel Acuña, a brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr., drove in the 10th run with an RBI triple in the seventh off José Alvarado. The Mets are coming off 10-1 and 10-0 routs of Washington and are 61-33 after a 24-35 start.
Mets star Francisco Lindor missed his fourth straight game with back pain.
Luis Severino (11-6) gave up three runs and five hits in six innings with seven strikeouts and two walks.
Walker (3-7), making his first start since Aug. 28 after being demoted to three appearances in the bullpen, surrendered a career-low four homers to go along with eight runs, eight hits, three walks and a hit batter in 3 1/3 innings. His ERA rose to 6.91 in an outing that saw him strike out his 1,000th batter.
Philadelphia’s pitchers threw eight hits, a season record.
New York’s JD Martinez went 0-for-4 and has no hits in his last 28 at bats.
On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Mets commentator Bob Murphy, Vientos put the Mets ahead with his 25th home run, a 113.2 mph line drive down the left-field line. Four pitches later, Alonso hit an opposite-field drive to right-center for his 34th home run, giving the Mets back-to-back long balls for the sixth time this season.
Turner tied the score in the third inning with his 19th home run, hitting the ball 430 feet (132 m) into the second deck of left field.
Six pitches into the bottom half, Nimmo put the Mets ahead with a 21st homer, a two-run drive to right-center. Brandon Marsh’s RBI single closed the Phillies to 4-3 in the fourth, but Alvarez hit his third homer in six starts, a three-run drive in a five-run fourth that extended the lead to 7-3. Nimmo added an RBI double and scored on Vientos’ single.
Philadelphia made it 9-6 thanks to a two-run double by Bryce Harper against Reed Garrett in a three-run seventeen.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Mets: Lindor was limited to indoor activities and Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said it is unclear whether he will resume this series.
NEXT
Phillies LHP Cristopher Sánchez (10-9) opens Friday night against Mets LHP David Peterson (9-2, 2.85), who failed to score a decision and threw a season-high 7 2/3 innings in Sunday’s 2-1 loss to Philadelphia.
