The sooner 2023 is a distant memory, the better for the Mets.
But Saturday night may have provided some encouragement for next season, as Tylor Megill followed David Peterson’s Thursday night outing with a strong one of his own in the first game, a 4-3 win, and Francisco Alvarez homered twice and finished with a career-high six RBIs in the nightcap, an 11-4 victory, as the Mets swept the twin bill against the Phillies at Citi Field.
Sure, the playoff-bound Phillies have nothing to play for, since they are locked into the top wild-card spot in the National League and the Mets’ postseason hopes are long gone and the only math that matters to them is their position in MLB’s draft lottery, but the Mets will take any silver lining they can get.
And in the Game 1 win, that was Megill, who threw a career-high 7 ⅓ innings and held Philadelphia scoreless into the eighth.
He also featured a split-fingered fastball for the first time after toying with it since spring training after the Mets signed Kodai Senga, whose ghost fork has dominated the majors.
“You watch him go out there and throw it, they know it’s coming and the swings he has [against it], why not try to implement that?” Megill said. “I’ve got the fingers [for it] that are spread out. It feels natural to me.”
Megill joked they called his pitch the American Spork, “the off-brand version” and is hoping to add it to his repertoire next season.
In the second game, Alvarez snapped an 0-for-23 skid with a two-run homer in the second and added a grand slam in the third, both off Phillies’ starter Michael Plassmeyer in his major-league debut, for his first multi-homer game. He has 25 home runs on the season.
Pete Alonso got a scare in the second inning of the first game when he got drilled in the helmet by a pitch from Philadelphia’s Taijuan Walker in the bottom of the second.
The 84-mph cutter broke the flap off of Alonso’s helmet and he stayed in the game. He was the DH in the nightcap.
It was the 21st time Alonso had been hit by a pitch this season, the second-most in the majors behind only Seattle’s Ty France, who’s been drilled 34 times.
