Andrew Painter carried a two-run lead into the fifth inning Saturday, then watched it disappear over the wall at Citi Field. Francisco Alvarez’s three-run homer turned the game, and the Phillies never found their footing again in a 10-3 loss to the Mets with just seven games remaining on the regular-season schedule.
Philadelphia has dropped 10 of its last 16 games, a rough stretch at the wrong end of September. The club left New York a half-game behind the Cubs and Padres for the National League’s top two Wild Card positions, though it still holds a 4 1/2-game cushion over Arizona for the final playoff berth.
A fifth-inning turn
- The Phillies built a 3-1 advantage before Painter began the bottom of the fifth by walking Marcus Semien.
- Brett Baty followed with a single, putting two Mets aboard for Alvarez.
- Alvarez got a 1-1 fastball on the outer part of the plate and drove it the other way for a three-run shot, sending New York ahead 4-3.
- Painter opened the sixth by striking out Bo Bichette, but interim manager Don Mattingly went to the bullpen for left-hander Brooks Raley against left-handed hitters Carson Benge and A.J. Ewing.
- Raley walked Benge, allowed Ewing’s single, then issued another walk to Semien to fill the bases.
- Baty lined a ball that dropped in center field after rookie Justin Crawford had trouble reading its path. Benge scored for a 5-3 Mets lead.
- Chase Shugart later walked Ronny Mauricio with one out, forcing home another run. Mauricio had not drawn a walk in 53 plate appearances this season.
- New York put the game away in the eighth against Orion Kerkering, who surrendered four runs amid four hits, two walks, a hit batter and a wild pitch.
The bullpen concern
Painters’s line was hardly clean, but the rookie has generally given Philadelphia a chance since returning to the rotation on July 31. He owns a 3.88 ERA across 10 starts in that span. Saturday’s turning point came after the Mets reached him in the fifth, then kept adding on against a bullpen that has become increasingly thin.
Raley was acquired from the Mets ahead of the Aug. 3 Trade Deadline precisely for moments such as the sixth inning: left-handed hitters due up, a tight game, and a starter nearing the end of his afternoon. Instead, he failed to record an out. In 15 appearances for Philadelphia, Raley has allowed 10 earned runs in 10 1/3 innings, good for an 8.71 ERA.
The other Deadline bullpen addition, Caleb Killian, made four appearances before suffering a strained left oblique. He is not expected back this season unless Philadelphia makes a lengthy postseason run.
Mattingly’s relief options are also narrowed by Jonathan Bowlan’s mild right groin strain. Shugart has become one of the more trusted available right-handers, behind Jhoan Duran and Alex McFarlane, but Saturday showed how little margin remains when the bullpen cannot stop an inning before it grows.
Seven games to straighten it out
The standings still give the Phillies room to breathe. Arizona would need a strong closing run, and Philadelphia would need to keep stumbling, for the final Wild Card spot to become a genuine emergency. But the higher seeds are slipping away, and the difference matters: the Phillies entered the day chasing the better two Wild Card slots, not merely trying to hang on to the last one.
At this stage, the concern is less about a single Alvarez swing than the pattern surrounding it. A promising young starter could not finish the fifth, a matchup bullpen piece could not get an out, and an eighth inning got away from Kerkering. The clubhouse has seven games left to make those September losses look like a skid rather than a warning.
