NY Mets: What stood out about Pete Alonso breaking team home run record
Pete Alonso proved himself to be the Mets franchise’s preeminent power hitter when he set the club record with his 253rd home run on Aug. 13, 2025.
PHILADELPHIA — The only positive for the Mets on Wednesday came away from the diamond at Citizens Bank Park and nearly 3,000 miles across the country in San Francisco.
On this day, the out-of-town scoreboard provided the lone refuge for the Mets as their disastrous trip to Philadelphia trudged on.
As the Mets were flattened by the Phillies again, this time in an 11-3 loss, they managed to maintain a two-game edge in the National League Wild Card race, with the Giants‘ run of success doused by the Diamondbacks.
Any pleasure earned by sweeping the Phillies across three games at home in late August has now been long wiped away with a five-game losing streak.
Then, they cut their NL East deficit down to four games. With Wednesday’s loss, the Mets have now dropped three of their last four series, going 4-9 during that stretch and seeing their deficit in the division balloon to 10 games.
“I don’t know how many times we get in streaks like this where nothing seems to be working for us, but again, you have to stay positive,” Carlos Mendoza said. “We’re still in control of the situation here, not ideal where we’re at compared to where the whole year’s been but one game at time, it starts on the mound and we go from there.”
It is the Mets’ third losing streak of at least five games this season and second in as many months. Before a seven-game drought in early August, the Mets held a half-game lead in the division.
“For some reason, it’s been a very wavy season,” Francisco Lindor said. “We’re still in a position that we can make the year look completely different and everyone here is pushing towards that, fight to try and get on that wave and ride it as long as we can.”
The Mets are drifting down a slide of futility as a once-five-game advantage in the Wild Card is splintering away.
Clay Holmes had Mets playing from behind
The Mets pitching staff needs to do more than bank on its young guard to produce.
Clay Holmes was the latest Mets starter to not get deep enough into his outing. It began with a calamitous first inning when Holmes allowed five of the first six batters to reach base.
J.T. Realmuto chipped in an RBI single to left field and Max Kepler was hit by a back-foot sweeper with the bases loaded to move the Phillies ahead 2-0.
“At that point, we’re playing from behind and these games mean a lot, so can’t really afford to have those mistakes there,” said Holmes, who allowed more than two earned runs for the first time in his last six starts.
Holmes managed to stop the damage there despite throwing 29 pitches in the inning. After working through the next three frames without any runs, the right-hander’s night ended in the fifth inning on an infield single and RBI double to Brandon Marsh, who scored on a single by Kepler.
Holmes finished with four earned runs allowed on six hits and three walks while striking out five across four innings. And the slow start fed an early chasm that put a steady pressure on the team’s offense.
Gregory Soto’s rough outing accentuates slide
Mendoza decided to deploy a postseason approach, turning to a rested bullpen to try and keep the game close for the final five innings.
They fared worse.
After Gregory Soto recorded all three outs in the fifth inning, he faced his own struggles in the sixth, allowing four earned runs on four hits and two hit batters.
The biggest blow came on a two-run single by Kepler to the wall in right field that moved the Phillies ahead 7-1.
“Trying to be aggressive there with all the lefties that they got and it just didn’t work today with Soto,” Mendoza said. “It seems like they were all over his fastball and I feel like that fastball was flat today and they took advantage.”
It continued from there, with Ryne Stanek allowing a solo home run to Bryce Harper in the seventh inning.
Ryan Helsley, who had appeared on the positive path with a scoreless eighth inning in a 1-0 loss on Monday, surrendered a home run to Kepler, who finished with five RBI. Helsley allowed another run after back-to-back singles. He has now given up multiple runs in six of his last 11 outings.
Cristopher Sanchez latest to hold Mets down
In the Mets’ sweep of the Phillies two weeks ago, left-hander Cristopher Sanchez was dealt one of his worst starts of his season, allowing six earned runs in 5⅓ innings.
But the Mets offense has slithered back toward the bottom.
In the first three innings, Juan Soto was the only Mets player to collect a hit. When they finally got some traction in the fourth, with Soto lacing a double off the top of the left-field wall and Pete Alonso and Starling Marte knocking back-to-back hits to plate the first run, Brandon Nimmo grounded into a double play in the next at-bat.
“When he needed to make a pitch there, he got a ground ball with (Nimmo),” Mendoza said. “He’s a tough arm and he got us once when he got in a rhythm after the first couple of innings.”
Sanchez finished with one earned run allowed on four hits and one walk while striking out six in six innings.
Soto was about the lone positive for the Mets offense, supplying three of the Mets’ nine hits including his 39th home run of the season — an eighth-inning solo shot with the Mets already trailing by eight runs.
It continued a recent troubling trend of the Mets being unable to hit top-end pitching.
Ranger Suarez struck out 12 across six scoreless innings on Tuesday. Aaron Nola tossed six scoreless innings on Monday and Hunter Greene struck out 12 and gave up one earned run in seven innings on Sunday.
“At this level, every night you gotta bring your A-game because you’re facing the best of the best and they got some really good ones there,” Mendoza said. “We got good hitters, but we gotta go out there and do it.”