QUEENS, NY — Something about the fourth inning has unlocked a bit more Mets magic in recent nights.
New York batted around in the bottom of the fourth and scored five runs during a 10-6 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night at Citi Field, just one night after scoring nine in the very same inning on the night before against the Washington Nationals.
“As a whole, as a team, we’re going to be aggressive,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “There’s going to be days where there’s a different point of attack but today, we needed to get in the zone and be aggressive on pitches we could do damage. It showed.”
A clicking offense set a franchise record, as this is the first time in the team’s history that the Mets have scored 10 or more runs in three consecutive games.
They teed off against former Mets starting pitcher Taijuan Walker, hitting four home runs in 3.1 innings, featuring back-to-back blasts from Mark Vientos and Pete Alonso in the first inning, a two-run shot by Brandon Nimmo in the third, and a backbreaking three-run bomb in the fourth by Francisco Alvarez.
“It’s pretty amazing that the Mets have played over 10,000 games and we’re the first ones to score 10 runs plus three games in a row,” Nimmo said. “That’s pretty special.”
The Mets (85-68) have now won four straight games and maintained their two-game lead over the Atlanta Braves for a Wild Card spot. The NL East rival defeated the Cincinnati Reds 15-3 earlier on Thursday.
They were once again paced by a solid outing by a starting pitcher. This time it was Luis Severino who allowed three runs on five hits over six innings of work with seven strikeouts and two walks. Since Sept. 1, Mets starting pitching had gone 7-1 with a 1.77 ERA entering Thursday night.
With two outs in the first inning, Vientos got the Mets rolling with a laser beam of a solo home run, leaving the bat at 113.2 mph to sneak over the left-field wall for his 25th home run of the season.
Alonso immediately followed it up with his 34th round-tripper of the season, taking a Walker fastball the other way over the right-center-field fence to go back-to-back and make it a 2-0 game.
“Any time you can take the lead early against a quality opponent, it’s important,” Alonso said. “Our pitchers did a great job keeping that lead and we did a great job adding on.”
The Phillies mounted a two-out rally of their own to tie the game in the top of the third. Kyle Schwarber lined a single up the middle before Trea Turner launched his 19th home run of the season into the second deck of the left-field stands.
Nimmo got it right back for the Mets in the bottom of the third. After a lead-off single by Jose Iglesias, the left-fielder deposited his 21st home run of the season just over the 380-foot sign in right-center to put New York up 4-2.
It was Nimmo’s second home run in as many nights and his third in his last six games. Prior to that stretch, he had just two home runs in his last 50 games.
The Phillies cut their deficit to one in the top of the fourth when Brandon Marsh lined a two-out single down the left-field line after walking JT Realmuto to put runners at first and second.
Alvarez sparked the Mets’ big fourth inning and gave his team some breathing room. After Walker hit JD Martinez and walked Tyrone Taylor, Alvarez skied a towering moonshot into the left-field seats for his 10th home run of the year.
In 52 games from July 2 to Sept. 10, Alvarez hit just two home runs with eight RBI. In his last eight games, he has four homers and 10 RBI.
Walker was done after 3.1 innings, allowing seven runs on six hits with four home runs to go with three walks and two strikeouts.
The Mets kept pouring it on against reliever Jose Ruiz, though. Nimmo picked up his third RBI of the night with a double, and he was driven home by a Mark Vientos single to make it 9-3.
“We’ve just done a really good job of sticking to our approach,” Alonso said. “One through nine has done an unbelievable job putting together professional at-bats and passing the baton and just creating traffic. Guys have done a great job sticking with their approaches.”
Relievers Danny Young and Reed Garrett yielded three runs in the top of the seventh to get the Phillies back to within three — the big blow provided by Bryce Harper with a two-out, two-run double.
Luisangel Acuna made it 10 for the Mets in the bottom of the seventh with a triple, scoring Alvarez from first. In six career MLB games, Acuna has four extra-base hits.
