Phillies flattened by Mets in final game of series, 6-0

NEW YORK — Initially, it seemed like the Phillies and Mets were headed for another pitchers’ duel on Sunday afternoon. Mets starter Chris Bassitt entered the game with a 1.79 ERA over his last seven games. Phillies starter Zack Wheeler had only allowed two earned runs over 13 innings in the month of August. But it didn’t play out that way.

Wheeler allowed nine hits, six earned runs and one walk over six innings in the Phillies’ 6-0 loss, their second straight shutout loss after they won the first game of the series 2-1 on Friday. Many of the Mets’ hits were hard hits — Wheeler allowed four that clocked in over 100 mph. It was the first time the Mets have scored more than four runs in a game off Wheeler, who played for the Mets from 2013-19, since he signed with the Phillies.

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“It was tough,” Wheeler said. “Today was one of the better days that I felt this season, stuff wise and how I felt on the mound. So, it was a frustrating day for me. Just a lot of soft hits. A few hard-hit balls, but mostly just some soft hits that found the right spots. And that’s what made it a little bit more frustrating today.”

Bassitt kept the Phillies on their toes, mixing in all six of his pitches and only allowing four hits and two walks through five innings. The Phillies had a chance to do some damage in the fifth, when they loaded the bases with a fielding error, a double and a walk with two outs. But Alec Bohm lined out to second base to end the inning.

The Phillies also were frustrated by the Mets’ bullpen. They rallied in the ninth inning, loading the bases off Joely Rodriguez with two outs, but Mets manager Buck Showalter called on Adam Ottavino, who struck out Bohm to end the game. The Phillies went 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.

“Yeah, we had some trouble scoring runs in this series, obviously,” said interim manager Rob Thomson. “Part of that is due to good pitching. Part of it is also due to the fact that when the runs are premium, sometimes you try to do too much. And I saw a lot of that today.”

The Phillies struck out 11 times on Sunday. They take a record of 63-51 to Cincinnati for a three-game set that begins Monday.

Corey Knebel entered the game in relief of Wheeler in the seventh inning. He immediately had trouble locating his pitches — of the 14 pitches he threw, only five were strikes — and exited the game with an athletic trainer after striking out Starling Marte.

With the exception of one disastrous outing in Atlanta on Aug. 2, when he gave up five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, Knebel hasn’t allowed an earned run since June 19.

After the game, Thomson said Knebel had a lat muscle strain. He was scheduled for an MRI Monday in Philadelphia. Thomson said that relievers Sam Coonrod, who has been on a rehab assignment, and Mark Appel could be possibilities to replace him.

Things started to unravel for the Phillies in the fourth inning. Pete Alonso got on base with a double, and with two outs, Mark Canha drove him in with a single to right field. After that, Luis Guillorme hit a single to score Canha, and Jeff McNeil walked to put runners on first and second. James McCann blooped a single to center field to score McNeil and Guillorme.

Second baseman Jean Segura pursued McCann’s two-run single but hesitated and didn’t reach it in time. Center fielder Brandon Marsh tried to scoop it up off the grass behind Segura but missed and ran back to grab the ball. A faulty throw to home plate bounced off J.T. Realmuto’s mitt, allowing those two runs to score. It wasn’t a pretty sequence.

Aside from Alonso’s double, these were mostly bloop hits. But they were hit in the right spots, and thanks to some bad luck and poor defense, those hits tacked four runs on the board for the Mets. Daniel Vogelbach’s solo home run in the sixth inning completed the scoring.