Mets score club-record 24 runs in rout of Phils

PHILADELPHIA -- The Mets, of course, are not this good of an offensive team, because no one is this good of an offensive team.
Yet the Mets believe they are better -- perhaps significantly better -- than what they showed over the first four and a half months of this season, resting near the bottom of the National League in most major offensive categories. They continued the process of regressing those numbers to the mean with a 24-4 blowout of the Phillies on Thursday, in Game 1 of a doubleheader at Citizens Bank Park.
The Mets became the first team to score a combined 40 runs over two games since the Red Sox in 1953, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, and the first National League club to score 15 or more in consecutive games since the New York Giants in 1933. Their 20-run margin of victory was the largest in team history, coming 31 years to the day after the Mets set their previous record for runs in a game.

"I think the guys had a little fun there," manager Mickey Callaway said.
The offense was more than enough for Mets starter Corey Oswalt, who allowed four runs in six innings to pick up the victory.
It was more than enough for anyone, really. A night after the Mets plated nine runs in an inning in a 16-5 drubbing of the Orioles, José Bautista hit a grand slam off Mark Leiter Jr. to highlight a 10-run fifth against the Phillies. Bautista later added a bases-loaded walk and an RBI double to finish with a career-high seven RBIs, doing some of his damage off the duo of position players the Phillies asked to pitch.

The Mets also received four hits from Kevin Plawecki and Amed Rosario, who crushed the game's first pitch for a homer, and three-hit days from Austin Jackson, Wilmer Flores, Michael Conforto and Bautista. Even reliever Jerry Blevins came away with his first career hit and RBI.

"The good teams have that diversity, they're able to have three or four guys who can pop the ball out of the ballpark, have a couple that can get on base and slap the ball the other way," Callaway said. "Especially against a good pitcher, that's probably the way to go. I like to see it."

MOMENT THAT MATTERED
Historic inning: The Mets' 10-run fifth marked their first time scoring double-digit runs in an inning since plating a franchise-best 12 in the third on April 29, 2016. The rally began with consecutive hits from Conforto and Todd Frazier, a run-scoring balk and a Bautista RBI single. That chased Phillies starter Ranger Suárez, but Leiter fared no better, allowing seven unearned runs. Four of them came home on Bautista's slam, which capped the scoring in the inning. Bautista became the first player in Mets history to drive home seven runs in a game he did not start.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
Because Callaway did not want to pile on runs in the eighth inning of a blowout, he sent Blevins to the plate instead of a pinch-hitter against position player Scott Kingery. Previously 0-for-3 in his career, the longtime reliever laced a single back up the middle for his first career hit.
"There's nothing better," Blevins said. "It's something you dream about when you're a kid. When I tell the story, it will be, 'I turned around 95 [mph].'"

FROM THE TRAINER'S ROOM
Mets outfielder Brandon Nimmo departed the game in the third inning after a Suarez fastball struck him on the left hand, trickling into fair territory for a groundout that snapped a streak of 10 consecutive plate appearances reaching base safely. Crumpled on the ground in pain for several moments, Nimmo later underwent X-rays, which were negative. He is day to day. More >

HE SAID IT
"Hitting's so much fun. Practicing pitching gets a little tedious sometimes, but when you get to hit? Everybody enjoys hitting." -- Blevins