PHILADELPHIA — The Mets spun the wheel of defeat Sunday and this time it landed on “bullpen.”
Buck Showalter avoided deploying his highest-leverage relievers in the eighth inning because of recent usage and watched a hard day’s work by his team dissolve in front of him, costing the Mets an opportunity to win a series for the first time since June 1.
Instead, Jeff Brigham was left to complete an implosion that buried the Mets in a 7-6 loss to the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.
The loss sank the Mets seven games below .500 to match a season’s worst.
Brigham and rookie Josh Walker (who allowed all three batters he faced to reach base) weren’t the only culprits: Brett Baty’s throwing error also fueled the Phillies’ four-run rally in the eighth.
“It’s frustrating for the players and everybody,” Showalter said after the Mets’ 15th loss in their last 20 games. “We shot every bullet we have just about … we scored some runs and had a chance to open some things up and didn’t.”
Showalter said David Robertson was available — after throwing only 13 pitches on Saturday — but the manager planned to save him for the ninth because he had reservations about untested Vinny Nittoli in that spot.
Brooks Raley (who had pitched two straight days) and Adam Ottavino (who threw 26 pitches Saturday) were unavailable.
Brigham faced the difficult task of trying to escape a bases-loaded jam with no outs in the bottom of the eighth after the lefty Walker walked Bryce Harper and Bryson Stott, bookended around J.T. Realmuto’s single.
“I was just going out there to compete my butt off and just try to put my best stuff out there and hope I could get it done and today I didn’t,” Brigham said.
Baty threw low to second base, pulling Jeff McNeil off the bag on Alec Bohm’s grounder, costing the Mets an out as the Phillies scored their first run of the inning.
“I just couldn’t get [the ball] out of my glove,” Baty said. “There’s really no excuse. That play needs to be made 10 times out of 10 and that cost us the game, cost us the series. It cost us a lot of momentum coming in from [Saturday].”
Brigham walked Brandon Marsh with the bases loaded before plunking Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner in succession for the Phillies’ third and fourth runs of the rally.
Carlos Carrasco was removed after four innings in which he allowed two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Showalter turned to the bullpen rather than gamble on the erratic Carrasco working through the Phillies’ lineup for the third time.
“He didn’t let things get away from him,” Showalter said.
Turner’s first-inning homer gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead. Carrasco threw a 93 mph fastball on the first pitch of the at-bat that Turner hammered over the center-field fence for his eighth homer of the season.
Pete Alonso’s two-run single put the Mets ahead 2-1 in the third against Zack Wheeler. Baty and Omar Narvaez singled in succession to begin the inning and after Starling Marte was drilled by a pitch with one out Alonso delivered with a bloop that just eluded Turner’s outstretched glove in shallow left-center.
Marte had difficulty reading Edmundo Sosa’s fly to right in the bottom of the inning that turned into a leadoff triple. After Schwarber walked, Turner stroked an RBI single that tied it 2-2. Harper walked to load the bases with one out, but Carrasco escaped by striking out Realmuto and retiring Stott.
The Mets rallied with two outs in the fourth to go ahead 3-2 against Wheeler. After Baty singled and Narvaez walked, Brandon Nimmo delivered an RBI single for the lead.
Francisco Lindor’s homer leading off the fifth extended the Mets’ lead to 4-2. But the Phillies countered in the bottom of the inning against Dominic Leone: Turner walked and stole second and third, scoring when Narvaez’s throw on the latter skipped past Baty at third base.
Narvaez walked leading off the sixth and after Nimmo hit a shot off the right-field fence for a long single, Marte’s RBI groundout gave the Mets a 5-3 lead. Alonso led off the seventh with homer No. 24 this season, giving the Mets the three-run lead they took into the eighth.
“We drove the ball well — we put up a ton of hits,” Alonso said. “But we fell short today as a team.”
