Mark Vientos, Pete Alonso, Brandon Nimmo, and Francisco Alvarez all hit home runs off Taijuan Walker, helping the New York Mets score 10 runs in three straight games for the first time in their 63-season history. They won 10-6 against the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night.
Philadelphia, which is six games ahead of second-place New York in the NL East, missed its second chance to clinch a playoff spot after losing to Milwaukee on Wednesday.
The Phillies can secure a playoff berth with one win against the Mets in their four-game series and can clinch their first division title since 2011 with two wins this week.
New York has now won four games in a row and 16 out of their last 20, keeping a two-game lead over Atlanta for the final wild-card spot in the National League.
“We know we’re good,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re capable of having games like that.”
Rookie Luisangel Acuña, brother of Atlanta star Ronald Acuña Jr., drove in the 10th run with an RBI triple in the seventh inning off José Alvarado. The Mets are now 61-33 after a rough start of 24-35, following wins of 10-1 and 10-0 against Washington.
“It’s pretty amazing that the Mets have played over 10,000 games and we’re the first ones to do this,” Nimmo said, rounding up. “That’s pretty special.”
Mets star shortstop Francisco Lindor missed his fourth consecutive game due to a sore back.
Luis Severino (11-6) allowed three runs and five hits over six innings, striking out seven and walking two.
Walker (3-7) was making his first start since August 28 after three appearances in the bullpen. He gave up a career-high four home runs, along with eight runs, eight hits, three walks, and hit a batter in 3 1/3 innings.
“It just didn’t work out,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said. “My fault.” Walker’s ERA increased to 6.91, and he reached his 1,000th strikeout during this outing.
