Griffin Canning solid again, Pete Alonso keeps raking as Mets take series from Phillies

Abbey Mastracco, New York Daily News on Apr 22, 2025

Published in Baseball

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NEW YORK — The Mets didn’t do much against the first three pitchers they faced, but they did just enough to maintain an edge and blow the game open with a two-out rally in the bottom of the seventh.

Pete Alonso and Luis Torrens combined for three runs in the seventh to help the Mets defeat the Philadelphia Phillies, 5-1, on Tuesday night at Citi Field, extending the win streak to six games. With the win, the Mets took the first series of the season from their NL East rivals, running their division lead to four games.

They moved to 17-7 on the season, matching the San Diego Padres for the league’s best record.

It wasn’t always pretty or eventful. The Mets went 2 for 4 with runners in scoring position and stranded six until the seventh. Griffin Canning faced a good amount of traffic. Still, the bullpen protected a one-run lead for four innings until the seventh, when an error by Tanner Banks and quick baserunning by Francisco Lindor spurred a rally.

Up 2-1, Lindor hit a ground ball to the left of the mound and Banks air-mailed it over Bryce Harper’s head at first. Lindor rounded and made it to second. A ground ball by Juan Soto put him on third and brought up the red-hot Alonso with two outs. The Phillies went to the bullpen for right-hander Orion Kerkering. Alonso lined a 1-1 sinker to the left-field corner, scoring Lindor easily for his 25th RBI, tying him with Aaron Judge for the league lead. His 10th double of the season, Alonso is also tied for the league lead in two-baggers.

Mark Vientos then walked and a wild pitch moved over the runners. Pinch-hitter Jesse Winker was intentionally walked to load the bases. The Phillies wanted to get to the catcher, who had gone 0 for 3 on the night to that point. But Torrens has been one of the Mets’ best hitters this month and he didn’t disappoint, hitting a two-run single to give the Mets some much-needed breathing room.

Canning was far from efficient, using 40 pitches to get through the first two innings. It was a grind of an outing and a slog of a game for all involved, but in the end, the right-hander was able to limit the damage of the seven hits and one walk, holding the Phillies to only one run over five innings in the win (3-1).

At 63 pitches through four innings it looked as though Canning might have a short night. Even in the fifth he had to use 21 to get around a single and a walk, but with two outs and runners on second and third, he struck out Nick Castellanos to get out of the jam with the Mets’ 2-1 lead intact.

The Mets scored twice against Cristopher Sanchez (2-1) before the left-hander was removed from the game with forearm soreness. His velocity was down on his sinker, his key pitch, but up slightly on his other two pitches. Vientos drove in one in the first inning and Lindor drove in one in the second.

Right-hander Joe Ross filled in admirably, tossing three shutout innings for Philadelphia (13-11), and Jordan Romano logged one.

Huascar Brazobán, A.J. Minter and Ryne Stanek held the Phillies scoreless for three innings, getting the ball to right-hander Jose Butto with a four-run lead.

The Mets continue to find ways to get it done night after night.