September 1st 2015 -- Phillies 14, Mets 8

Tuesday night in Flushing the Phillies beat up on Jon Niese and the Met bullpen as they win their first game in 8 tries this year at Citi Field with a 14-8 rout of the Mets. Niese got hit hard for his 3^rd straight game giving up a 5 spot in the top of the 3^rd on 4 hits.  Darnell Sweeney had an RBI single, an RBI single by Jeff Francoeur and a 3 run homer by Darin Ruf, his 7^th on the year and it was 5-0 Phils. In the top of the 5^th Ruf hit an RBI single to make it 6-0 and close the book on Niese. The Mets seemed on the verge of another high powered rally in the bottom of the 5^th as they scored 4 times.  Kelly Johnson had an RBI single. Curtis Granderson brought a run home with a fielder’s choice.  Yoenis Cespedes then clubbed a 2 run homer, his 9^th as a Met and 27 over all to make it 6-4.  In the top of the 6^th the wheels came off the wagon, as they say, as the Phillies roughed up Bobby Parnell, Eric O’Flaherty and Carlos Torres for 8 runs. Sweeney had a 2 run double, Ruf added two more RBI with a single Andres Blanco had a 2 run double and scored on a throwing error by Tejada.  The Mets added a single runs in the 6^th on a fielder’s choice by Travis d’Arnaud, 7th on a RBI single by Daniel Murphy in the 8^th on a RBI single by Wilmer Flores and in the 9th with a sac-fly by Conforto.  Niese lasted 5 innings allowing 7 hits 6 runs (all earned) walking 2 and striking out 2. He nails the loss falling to 8-10. Addison Reed made his Met debut in the 8^th and tossed a scoreless frame. Ruf had a huge day going 3 for 5 with 2 runs scored, the homer, double and 6 RBI.  Sweeney went 2 for 5 with 3 RBI. For the Mets Cespedes went 2 for 4 with the homer and a triple as he snapped a 0-16 streak, Michael Conforto and David Wright both went 2 for 4. With the loss the Mets fall to 13-2 against the Phillies this year. They are 73-59 overall and 44-24 at Citi Field. The Mets lead in the NL east drops to 6 games. That of course can swing a half game either way pending the outcome of the Nats game in St. Louis.  Wednesday night it’s game three of the series. Matt Harvey (11-7 2.48) goes for the Mets. Rookie Aaron Nola (5-1 3.26) goes for Philadelphia.