PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Howard homered and Maikel Franco singled home the tiebreaking run in the seventh inning to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 4-2 victory over the New York Mets on Saturday night.
Carlos Ruiz doubled and had two hits for the fourth-place Phillies, who have won 11 of 15.
Jose Reyes and Travis d’Arnaud drove in the runs for the Mets, who have dropped four of five since All-Star slugger Yoenis Cespedes was injured.
New York failed to homer for just the second time in the last 14 games. The Mets entered having hit 14 homers in four games at Citizens Bank Park this season and 33 long balls over the last two years at Philadelphia’s home park.
The Mets appeared primed to take the lead in the top of the seventh, but pinch-hitter Kelly Johnson flied out to short left field with runners on second and third and one out before left fielder Cody Asche made an excellent sliding catch for the final out on Asdrubal Cabrera’s sinking liner with the bases loaded.
Philadelphia capitalized on Cabrera’s throwing error at shortstop in the bottom half for the go-ahead run. Cabrera threw wide of first baseman James Loney, allowing speedy Peter Bourjos to reach with one out. Bourjos went to second on Asche’s walk against Jerry Blevins (3-1) and scored on Franco’s single to left.
Bourjos has reached base safely in 23 straight games.
The Phillies tacked on a run in the eighth when Ruiz led off with a double, went to third on a groundout and scored on Erik Goeddel’s wild pitch.
Edubray Ramos (1-0) worked a hitless inning for his first major league win. Jeanmar Gomez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth for his 25th save in 27 chances.
Howard put Philadelphia in front 1-0 by leading off the second with a 428-foot drive to right-centre off Mets starter Logan Verrett. It was the 370th homer for the Phillies slugger, who moved into a tie with Gil Hodges for 77th on the career list.
The Mets tied it in the third on Reyes’ sacrifice fly that scored Juan Lagares.
New York took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly before the Phillies tied it in the fifth on Asche’s groundout that scored pitcher Jerad Eickhoff.
Eickhoff allowed two runs and five hits with three strikeouts and one walk in six-plus innings. The right-hander singled and doubled to help his own cause.
Verrett, making his seventh start in 25 appearances this season, gave up two runs and eight hits with four strikeouts and one walk in six innings. The right-hander is 1-4 with a 5.20 ERA as a starter this season. He took Matt Harvey’s spot in the rotation this month when the former ace was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome.
TRAINER’S ROOM
Cespedes missed his fourth straight game due to a strained right quadriceps.
UP NEXT
The teams wrap up their three-game series Sunday when Mets RHP Jacob deGrom (5-4, 2.61 ERA) opposes RHP Zach Eflin (2-2, 4.08). In six career starts against Philadelphia, deGrom is 3-0 with a 3.03 ERA.
