By Nick Mandarano, Sports Talk Philly staff writer 
Final: New York 5, Philadelphia 4 ❖
NEW YORK, NY — Vince Velasquez pitched 5.2 innings of shutout baseball before Jay Bruce went deep to finally put the Mets on the board. Today's outing was undoubtedly the best for Velasquez in 2017, but yet again the bullpen couldn't perform well enough to secure the victory.
Bruce, who had five RBIs and three extra-base hits today including two home runs, homered in the bottom of the eighth inning against Philadelphia reliever Edubray Ramos to give the Mets a late lead, to which they'd hold on.
The Phillies will face the Mets again tomorrow in the rubber match in an attempt to avoid losing their third straight series in this young season.
WP: Hansel Robles (3-0, 3.00 ERA) ❖ LP: Edubray Ramos (0-2, 4.91 ERA) ❖ SV: Addison Reed (4)
Hub: Game Summary ❖ Starting Pitchers ❖ At the Plate ❖ Bullpen ❖ What's Next
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| PHI | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 8 | 1 |
| NYM | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 2 | x | 5 | 8 | 1 |
Aaron Altherr opened up the scoring in today's game by scoring on a groundout by Maikel Franco in the fourth inning. Vince Velasquez helped his own cause in the top of the fifth by singling home Cameron Rupp to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jay Bruce put the Mets on the board with a three-run home run to seize the lead.
Michael Saunders tied the game at 3-3 with a single that scored Altherr in the eighth inning. In the bottom half of the inning, Bruce struck again with his second home run of the game, this time for three runs.
The Phillies were able to strike for one more run in the ninth inning. Freddy Galvis tripled with one out before scoring on a sacrifice fly to center field off the bat of Daniel Nava.
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vince Velasquez | 6.0 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7.20 |
| Robert Gsellman | 7.0 | 6 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 7 | 0 | 5.09 |
Phillies
- Michael Saunders: 2-3, RBI .271 AVG
- Freddy Galvis: 2-4, 3B, R, .216 AVG
- Aaron Altherr: 1-3, 2R, 2B, .313 AVG
Mets
- Jay Bruce: 3-4, 2 HR, 2B, 2 R, 5 RBI, .309 AVG
- Yoenis Cespedes: 1-3, 2 R, BB, .255 AVG
- Asdrubal Cabrera: 1-3, BB, R, .270 AVG
Phillies
- Luis Garcia: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 0.00 ERA
- Edubray Ramos: 1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 1 HR, 4.91 ERA
Mets
- Jerry Blevins: 0.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 0.00 ERA
- Hansel Robles: 0.1 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 SO, 0 HR, 3.00 ERA
- Addison Reed: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 SO, 0 HR, 3.72 ERA
What's Next
- Thursday, April 20, 2017: at New York Mets, 7:10 p.m.
- Citi Field
- RHP Aaron Nola (1-0, 3.27 ERA) vs. RHP Noah Syndergaard (1-0, 0.95 ERA)
- TV: CSN, MLBN; Radio: SportsRadio 94 WIP
