NEW YORK — The Phillies were held to just three hits in suffering a 2-0 loss to the New York Mets on a wintery Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The loss dropped the Phils to 1-3 after four games. The Mets are 39-19 against the Phillies since the start of the 2015 season.
The Mets have opened the season at 3-1.
The game time temperature was 40 degrees — and dropping. It was not a good night to hit and the Phillies did not do much of it. All of their hits were singles; one was a bunt hit by Cesar Hernandez.
Matt Harvey pitched five innings of one-hit ball for the win. He walked one and struck out five. Lefty Jerry Blevins got a big out when he induced a pop-up from Odubel Herrera with two men on base to end the top of the sixth.
The Mets’ bullpen pitched four shutout innings. Seth Lugo had two of them and struck out four. Jeurys Familia survived a rocky ninth for the save. He allowed a leadoff walk to Aaron Altherr and a one-out single to Herrera before retiring Scott Kingery and Andrew Knapp to end the game.
MLB
The Phils were 0 for 7 with runners in scoring position.
The Mets scored both of their runs in the bottom of the sixth inning after starter Ben Lively hit Yoenis Cespedes with a pitch to open the frame. Lively induced a potential double-play groundball from the next hitter, Jay Bruce, but the Phillies were in a defensive shift and had to settle for a single out with Cespedes moving to second. Todd Frazier then followed with a one-out double, scoring Cespedes, and Travis d’Arnaud plated Frazier with a two-out single.
Lively went 5 2/3 innings, the longest by a Phillies’ starter in the young season. He allowed six hits and a walk and struck out five.
The first game of the series was postponed because of wintery weather. That allowed the Phillies to shuffle their rotation. They will send Aaron Nola to the mound Wednesday afternoon. Noah Syndergaard will pitch for the Mets.
Nick Pivetta will now pitch the home opener against Miami on Thursday. Vince Velasquez will pitch Saturday night and Jake Arrieta will debut on Sunday.