Mets Continue Incredible Mastery Of Phillies In Philly
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- Kelly Shoppach is fitting in nicely with his new team.
Ike Davis hit a tiebreaking double during a four-run 10th inning, Shoppach had a two-run homer and the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies 9-5 Tuesday night for their third straight victory.
Shoppach hit a tying double in the eighth and then connected off B.J. Rosenberg (0-2) to finish a triple shy of the cycle. Mike Baxter also hit a two-run shot for the Mets, who are 6-1 in Philadelphia this season.
"I knew it when I hit it," Shoppach said of his second homer in 22 at-bats with New York. "Coming to a league where I don't have the luxury of having faced many of the pitchers, I can just look for something to hit."
The Mets acquired the backup catcher from Boston two weeks ago.
"He's handled the pitching staff very well," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "There's things he does behind the plate I like a lot. And you saw when he hits them, they go a long way."
It was the first time in 10 games New York scored more than three runs.
Ryan Howard hit a grand slam and Chase Utley had a solo shot for the Phillies, who had won four straight.
The Phillies probably aren't going to win their sixth straight NL East title, but they're clinging to extremely slim postseason hopes. They remained 10 games behind St. Louis in the race for the second wild-card spot. The Cardinals were 9 1/2 out at this point last year, but they rallied to earn a wild-card berth and went on to beat the Phillies and win the World Series.
"It wasn't a fun one," Rosenberg said. "For whatever reason, I didn't quite feel like myself. Everything was up. It's pretty simple, you make really bad pitches to good hitters and you're going to get in trouble. All I can do is try and bounce back."
Bobby Parnell (4-3) tossed two scoreless innings for the win.
Neither starting pitcher fared well. Vance Worley allowed four runs and nine hits in 4 1-3 innings to remain winless in his last five starts for the Phillies.
New York's Chris Young gave up five runs and four hits in 5 1-3 innings.
"I had trouble finding my rhythm in the first inning," Young said. "I dug us a hole and the guys picked me up."
Utley ripped his ninth homer out to right to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead in the fifth, ending Young's night.
The Mets rallied in the eighth, an inning that's plagued Philadelphia all season. David Wright worked a leadoff walk against Josh Lindblom. Antonio Bastardo entered and retired the next two batters before allowing Shoppach's RBI double.
Helped by Young's control problems, the Phillies loaded the bases without a hit in the first. Jimmy Rollins walked, Kevin Frandsen was hit by a pitch and Utley walked after hitting a few deep fouls. That brought up Howard, who drove one out to deep right-center to extend his franchise record to 11 career slams.
But the Mets chipped away. Baxter connected in the fourth to get New York within a run on his second career homer.
They chased Worley and tied it in the fifth. Ruben Tejada led off with a ground-rule double. He advanced on Daniel Murphy's single and scored on Wright's sacrifice fly that made it 4-all.
The Mets hit three straight singles on the first five pitches to start the game. Wright drove in Tejada on his grounder to left. Tejada was initially called out by plate umpire Mike Estabrook on a strong throw home by Domonic Brown, but Estabrook changed the call after realizing catcher Erik Kratz dropped the ball and picked it up barehanded.
The Mets won their first two series in Philadelphia this season, including a three-game sweep in May. A packed house usually greets the Mets and many blue-shirted fans make the trip down the New Jersey turnpike. But with these two teams likely going nowhere, that atmosphere was missing. The crowd of 41,227 was the smallest at Citizens Bank Park this season.
NOTES: Rollins hosted the Uganda Little League team. Rollins visited Uganda in January and helped train the local team for their participation in the Little League World Series. ... Hector Luna had Philadelphia's only other slam this year. ... Worley is 0-3 with a 6.75 ERA in his last five starts. ... Murphy was 4 for 44 with no extra-base hits in that span coming in. He went 3 for 5. ... Tejada ended an 0-for-10 slump with his leadoff hit. ... Cole Hamels (14-6, 2.99 ERA) tries to win his fourth straight decision Wednesday night. Matt Harvey (2-3, 2.75) starts for the Mets.
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