Phillies rally past Mets, 5-3, after Jacob deGrom’s early exit

Jacob deGrom had thrown just 77 pitches Monday night, but that didn’t stop the bullpen door from swinging open in the bottom of the seventh inning.

The Phillies reached base four times against deGrom, who dominated them for the first six innings of a 5-3 Phillies’ win. But that didn’t stop Mets reliever Miguel Castro from moving through the door, running across the outfield at Citizens Bank Park, and taking deGrom’s place atop the mound.

At last, the Phillies — hopeless against one of baseball’s elite arms — finally had a glimmer of hope. And two innings later they had their fourth straight win.

The Phillies scored five times in the eighth inning as the Mets bullpen imploded after deGrom’s exit.

Bryce Harper was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded and J.T. Realmuto singled in a run to left field. Two runs scored on a grounder by Alec Bohm after third baseman Luis Guillorme misfired his throw home and Didi Gregorius capped the rally with a sacrifice fly.

The Phillies were besieged last season by their own blundering bullpen. Monday night, they watched another team gasp when the bullpen door opened.

“We were happy as a team, of course, getting one of the best pitchers in the entire world out of the game,” Harper said. “...DeGrom is going to be that guy. The guy who goes in there and throws the way he does. He has no emotion. He just goes out there and pitches and does his thing. We were happy to get to that bullpen and had a chance once he got out of there.”

Monday night was the Mets’ first game of the season as their opening series in Washington was postponed by the Nationals’ COVID-19 outbreak. DeGrom, scheduled to pitch last Thursday, had not pitched in 10 days. So the Mets did not want to push him Monday past the sixth inning.

For the Phillies, it was a relief.

“Our guys didn’t saying anything,” Phillies manager Joe Girardi said. “But obviously when you pull a guy like deGrom, the at-bats are so tough against him maybe you relax a little more.”

Brad Miller started the eighth-inning rally with a one-out single off right-hander Trevor May and Andrew McCutchen followed with a walk. Rhys Hoskins singled to bring up Harper, leading the Mets to counter with left-hander Aaron Loup. His second pitch hit Harper and the game was tied.

The Phillies gave each fan a white T-shirt Monday when they entered the ballpark and the fans waved the shirts like rally towels while the Mets fumbled the lead. The ballpark, with fans back inside after last season was played in front of empty seats, was energized.

“It’s crazy and I think it’s even different because the fans are here too and they’re going back and forth all night,” Girardi said. “Guys got excited. This was an exciting ball game.”

The Phillies have started the season with four straight wins against divisional opponents, but it’s still too early to draw sweeping conclusions about this Phillies team.

But it’s not too early to tell that there’s a pulse this season at the park and it’s not just because the fans are back.

The bullpen continues to look improved from last year’s dreck as four relievers combined Monday for 5 2/3 innings. The lineup is deeper and the starting pitching - despite Matt Moore’s early exit on Monday - has been strong. At the very least, this Phillies team has proven that it can compete with the best of the division.

“We’re kind of the underdog right now,” Harper said. “We just want to keep going, keep doing our thing, and keep playing Philly baseball.”

Brandon Kintzler, Sam Coonrod, and Connor Brogdon combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Jose Alvarado made it interesting in the ninth, but still earned the save while Hector Neris rested. The bullpen was put into action early, but kept the Phillies in striking distance for when deGrom was lifted.

Moore, in his first start in the majors in two years, lasted just 3 1/3 innings. The left-hander stranded the bases loaded in the third inning, but needed 31 pitches to record three outs. The exhausting inning seemed to carry into the fourth as Moore walked the first two batters.

James McCann roped an RBI single to left, but Moore may have been able to finish the inning had Adam Haseley not misplayed Brandon Nimmo’s fly ball to center in the next at-bat.

Haseley broke for the fence, before realizing the ball was headed for shallow center. It was too late. Nimmo’s fly dropped for a single instead of the second out. The runners advanced and deGrom drove in a run with a broken-bat single to left. That was it for Moore, who allowed two runs.

The Phillies used their six weeks of spring training to stage a center-field competition, but the performances this spring were underwhelming. Haseley overcame a groin injury early in camp to enter the season as the starter in center. He went 0-for-3 on Monday night.

“When I tell you it was tricky, I was actually fielding bunts down the third-base line,” Girardi said of Haseley’s misplay. “The wind was howling from left to right and the wind was blowing in my face when I was fielding the bunts at third base...It was swirling in the stadium and it was an interesting night for the outfielders.”

Removing deGrom with 77 pitches may not have been such a crucial decision had the Mets scored more than two runs in the fourth inning. The pitcher’s RBI single loaded the bases with just one out and forced the Phillies to lift Moore for reliever Brandon Kintzler.

Kintzler, a 36-year-old righthander, was Miami’s closer last season but found himself Monday pitching in the fourth inning. The Phillies plan to drop him this season in spots like this, hoping he can extinguish rallies and keep the game close.

Kintzler threw four pitches, forced Kevin Pillar to ground into a double play, and the inning was over. It was the “biggest situation of the game,” Girardi said. The Phillies looked hopeless against deGrom, but they were still down just two runs. And soon the bullpen door would open.

“I can’t say enough about what Kintzler did when he came in an got that double play. That game could have gotten away from us,” Girardi said. “It was really important because we’re going to have to win some games like this. This is a tough division. I think there’s going to be a lot of tight ballgames because there’s so much good pitching. Our bullpen has been really, really good so far and we’ve got to keep it rolling.”

» READ MORE: Hector Neris doesn’t want a COVID-19 vaccine and the Phillies could be challenged to meet the vaccination threshold