Aaron Nola and the Philadelphia Phillies shut down the New York Mets, who were swept in the Queens half of their home-and-home four-game set with a 4-0 loss on Tuesday afternoon at Citi Field.
After being no-hit for eight innings on Saturday night against the Atlanta Braves, the Mets (19-22) were blanked by Nola for the first five innings — the Phillies starter setting down the first 15 men he faced on Tuesday. Tyrone Taylor spoiled the perfect-game bid with a clean single to left to lead off the sixth.
Nola became just the eighth pitcher in Major League Baseball this season to throw a complete game and just the fifth to record a shutout, allowing just four hits with eight strikeouts and no walks on 109 pitches.
“It’s a little bit of both,” Mets manager Carlos Mendoza said as he deciphered what was plaguing his offense as of late. “It’s the combination of a few guys going through it right now and find their rhythm. And you’re facing a really good pitcher who was on it today with all of his pitches.”
The Phillies scored two runs in the third inning despite recording just one hit off Jose Butto. Following a lead-off single by Johan Rojas, New York’s starter walked Kyle Schwarber and Bryson Stott to load the bases with two outs. He then proceeded to hit Alec Bohm and walk Brandon Marsh to plate a pair.
The 41-pitch inning derailed his afternoon after he retired the first six batters of the game. He rebounded to retire seven in a row to end his afternoon, which went just five innings, but was undone by free passes. He allowed just one hit in his outing but walked four with that hit batter in Bohm to go with four strikeouts.
Mets pitchers in total walked eight on Tuesday.
“I was just fighting myself with the walks,” Butto said. “I limited the damage… but we lost the game.”
Reliever Yohan Ramirez ran into trouble in the sixth, loading the bases with no outs. He managed to escape without yielding a run, however, by getting Whit Merrifield to ground out before strikeouts of Kody Clemens and Rojas.
While Taylor’s single avoided the Mets becoming a dubious footnote in the history books, Nola got right back on track. He retired the next three men he faced and needed just three pitches to get through the seventh inning. After Starling Marte singled on the first pitch, Francisco Lindor lined out to second base on the first pitch he saw. Pete Alonso ended the inning by grounding into a double play on just one pitch.
Stott added insurance for the Phillies in the top of the ninth when he pulled an RBI single to right to score Kyle Schwarber from third off Sean Reid-Foley. Bohm then dropped a fly ball just inside the right-field line for a ground-rule double to score another and make it a four-run game.
The Mets recorded two of their four hits on the afternoon in the ninth inning — a double by Jeff McNeil and another single by. Marte — to put runners on the corners with two outs, but Lindor flew out to put the bow on Nola’s big day.
“He executed, he moved the ball very well,” Lindor said. “His curveball was working, it was effective. Whenever we got good swings on the baseball, they caught it. Overall, they just played better than us.”
