Phillies Finish Poor Homestand With 11-2 Loss To Mets
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Maybe hitting the road will help the Philadelphia Phillies.
Wilmer Flores hit a grand slam and drove in a career-high six runs, Bartolo Colon threw seven-plus sharp innings and the New York Mets beat the floundering Phillies 11-2 Monday night in a makeup from an April rainout.
After playing 39 innings in the three previous games, the teams finally didn't go extras. The Mets took four of five from the Phillies and are 9-1 in Citizens Bank Park, dating to last season.
"Tough series, grueling games, long games," manager Ryne Sandberg said. "We had our chances. We came up short on offensive side."
The last-place Phillies went 4-7 on a season-long 11-game homestand and are 12-19 in Philadelphia. They're a season-worst seven games under .500 and barely resemble the team that won five consecutive NL East titles from 2007-11.
"We didn't play that well this homestand," Chase Utley said. "Nothing we can do about it now. We have to go on the road and win games."
Despite their struggles, the Phillies are only 6½ games behind Atlanta in the NL East.
"We've shown better baseball before this series. We'll continue to work at it," Sandberg said.
Roberto Hernandez (2-3) failed to pitch six innings for the sixth time in 10 starts. He allowed five runs — four earned — and five hits in 5 1-3 innings.
"Hernandez had good stuff," Sandberg said. "Lack of run support. Lack of sound, fundamental baseball."
Colon (5-5) allowed two runs and six hits to win his third straight decision. The 41-year-old righty has a 1.61 ERA in his last three outings.
Bobby Abreu and Lucas Duda hit consecutive doubles in the second to give the Mets a 1-0 lead.
The Mets chased Hernandez in the sixth. Matt den Dekker and Daniel Murphy hit consecutive singles to start the inning. David Wright drove them both in with a shot off the wall in center. After a one-out walk to Abreu, Hernandez was replaced by Mario Hollands.
Duda hit a grounder to second base that should've been an inning-ending double play, but Chase Utley booted it for an error. Flores then looped a two-run double down the right-field line for a 5-0 lead.
The Mets blew it open with six runs in the ninth off Jake Diekman and Phillippe Aumont capped by Flores' hitting a grand slam, his second career homer in 145 at-bats.
Den Dekker, called up from Triple-A Las Vegas a day after being sent down, robbed Ryan Howard of his third homer in three games. He jumped above the short wall in center and grabbed Howard's drive in the second.
Den Dekker saved another run in the third when he threw out Reid Brignac trying to score from second on Ben Revere's single. Brignac hadn't even reached third base when den Dekker fielded the ball in medium center, but third-base coach Pete Mackanin inexplicably waived him home.
Howard's RBI groundout in the sixth ended Colon's scoreless innings streak at 16 1-3. Revere scored on Jeurys Familia's wild pitch in the eighth to cut it to 5-2.
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