deGrom Starts Strong, Struggles Late; Mets Outlast Phillies in 14 Innings 5-4

Jacob deGrom was sensational again today, but unable to get his first career major league victory. After hitting some trouble in the seventh, deGrom left the game as the winning pitcher, but the Mets weren’t able to finish the deal for him. For the second straight night, the Mets and Phillies played free baseball, with the Mets winning the game in the 14th.

Game Highlights:

Bobby Abreu’s bat continues to be hot, as the 40-year-old got the Mets onto the board first with a two out RBI single. Lucas Duda got into the action with a two out hit of his own, a two out double that plated another Mets run.

Ruben Tejada’s bat continues to shine, as Tejada hit his first home run since August of 2012. The home-run, Tejada’s third of his career, gave the Mets a 3-0 lead in the 4th.

In the 6th inning, Tejada’s bat showed up again. A two strike, two out single by Tejada added an insurance run for the Mets, making it 4-0.

With a chance to blow the game open, Chris Young struck out with the bases loaded. The Mets are without a hit in their last 14 at-bats with the bases loaded and are 6 for 49 with the bases loaded in 2o14.

deGrom hit trouble in the 7th. A leadoff single by Jimmy Rollins and then a walk by Chase Utley brought Ryan Howard to the plate. Howard promptly dumped a deGrom slider into the seats in left field to pull the Phillies within one.

A Ben Revere triple with one out in the eighth put the tying run 90 feet away. Scott Rice was brought into the game and after walking Chase Utley, struck out Ryan Howard to end the rally.

Marlon Byrd led off the ninth hitting the first pitch thrown by Jeurys Familia into the corner that bounced into the stands for a ground rule double. An RBI single by Dominic Brown allowed the Phillies to tie the game.

Ben Revere led off the 10th with a single, then stole second to put the winning run in score position with no outs. Jimmy Rollins drew a walk and the Phillies had two one and no out with Chase Utley coming to the plate. Familia got Utley to pop up to Chris Young. Ryan Howard hit a easy double play ball to Murphy, who instead of throwing to Tejada went to tag Rollins and Rollins was able to keep Murphy from turning two. Familia was able to strike out Byrd and kept the game going.

David Wright put the Mets in front in the 14th with a RBI single that was laced into left field scored Ruben Tejada.

The Phillies got the first two runners on base in the bottom half of the 14th. The next batter Ben Revere attempting to bunt the runners over, struck out for the first out of the inning. Jimmy Rollins lined out to Curtis Granderson for the second out. Carlos Torres struck out Utley to finish the game off.

Other Notes:

Jacob deGrom started off the game retiring the first 11 Phillies to come to bat and then continued to cruise from there until the seventh. The final line for deGrom was six and one-third innings, with a career high eleven strikeouts, three hits, three earned runs and one walk. deGrom got off to a hot start and seemed to be in complete control. He ran into some trouble in the 7th but still looked good.

Credit where credit is due, Ruben Tejada had a big day at the plate. He doesn’t need to do that everyday, but he needs to trend in the right direction. Today was a step in the right direction for Tejada.

For as much concern as Mets fans have had over playing Bobby Abreu, Abreu’s bat has spoken for him. No one minds Abreu playing if his continues swinging a hot bat. Just don’t know how long the lightning will stay in the bottle.

Interesting bullpen decisions once again today by Terry Collins. In what seemingly looked like a perfect situation to get Jenrry Mejia in the game to get a save, Collins went to Familia. There are those that will say that Mejia would have pitched in three straight games, but if he wants to be the future closer of this club that’s going to be part of the gig. Collins then left Familia in for the 10th and the broadcast booth talked about the lack of options that the Mets had in terms of relief pitching.

The Mets have played seven games that have gone longer than four hours, tied for the most in the majors.

Next Up:

The Mets and Phillies continue their five game series tomorrow with two lefties going as Jon Niese takes the hill for Mets, while Cole Hamels goes for the Phillies.