Flushing, NY (Sports Network) – Jose Reyes went 4-for-5 and Josh Thole drove in three runs, helping the New York Mets beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 9-5, in the finale of a three-game series at Citi Field.
Daniel Murphy collected three hits and one RBI for the Mets, who snapped a three-game losing streak and won for just the second time in eight games.
New York starter Jon Niese (4-5) gave up one unearned run, five hits and four walks while recording six strikeouts in 6 1/3 innings.
“Our offense got timely hits and a lot of hits,” Niese said.
Philadelphia’s Vance Worley (2-1) endured the worst outing of his young career. The 23-year-old right-hander was tagged for eight runs — five earned — on 12 hits over three innings.
“I felt good. The last couple of bullpen (sessions) went well. Everything was working in the bullpen. Just got [on the mound] and it wasn’t there,” Worley said.
The Phillies were trying to match their longest winning streak of the season at five games and complete their first sweep of the Mets in Flushing since September 14-16, 2007 at Shea Stadium.
New York built a considerable lead for Niese, scoring four runs in both of the first two innings off Worley, who tossed six innings of shutout ball against the Mets in his first start of the season on April 29.
Reyes led off the opening frame with a triple that skipped past sliding left fielder Raul Ibanez and scored on a groundout by Justin Turner. Jason Bay and Murphy stroked consecutive two-out singles to put men on the corners, and a misplay by Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins on a ball hit by Angel Pagan allowed Bay to score. Thole and Ruben Tejada then hit back-to-back RBI singles.
All four runs in the second were scored after Worley retired the first two batters. Murphy and Pagan singled home a teammate, then both crossed the plate on Thole’s double to right field.
With the help of a Reyes error, the Phillies were able to load the bases with one out in the third, but Niese limited the damage to an RBI single by Placido Polanco.
Reyes put the Mets up 9-1 with a two-out, RBI triple off Kyle Kendrick in the fifth.
New York reliever Taylor Buchholz yielded three runs in the eighth. Ibanez led off with his sixth home run of the month, a blast to the right-field seats. Ben Francisco followed with a single and scored on Dane Sardinha’s two-out double. A run-scoring single by pinch-hitter Domonic Brown closed the gap to 9-4 then Jimmy Rollins kept the inning alive with a single off Pedro Beato. However, he was thrown out trying to turn it into a double, ending the rally.
Francisco added an RBI double with two outs in the ninth.
Reyes recorded his sixth straight multi-hit game…Worley had allowed three earned runs or less in each of his first five career major league starts…The Mets pounded out a season-high 17 hits, the most allowed by Philadelphia this year.