Major League Baseball
NY Mets 5, Philadelphia 4
When: 7:05 PM ET, Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Where: Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Temperature: 74°
Umpires: Home - Hunter Wendelstedt, 1B - Andy Fletcher, 2B - Alan Porter, 3B - Joe West
Attendance: 28272

PHILADELPHIA -- After a long road to recovery from Tommy John surgery that forced him to miss two seasons, New York Mets pitcher Zack Wheeler finally got a little validation Wednesday night in the form of his first win since 2014.

"It's a big weight off my shoulders," Wheeler said.

And he had just enough help from his offense to earn it.

Michael Conforto homered and scored three runs, Yoenis Cespedes drove in a pair of runs, and New York held on for a 5-4 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Mets (6-3) won their fourth consecutive game in completing a three-game sweep over the Phillies.

Wheeler (1-1) stymied Philadelphia batters for much of the night. The right-hander surrendered two hits through his first five innings as his offense built a 5-0 lead on Phillies starter Vince Velasquez (0-2).

The Phillies (3-6) chased Wheeler from the game in the sixth after Brock Stassi and Cesar Hernandez hit back-to-back, one-out singles to put runners at first and second with one away. Wheeler was able to strike out Howie Kendrick for the second out, but Odubel Herrera drew a four-pitch walk, prompting Mets manager Terry Collins to come get Wheeler in favor of Hansel Robles to face slugger Maikel Franco.

Franco took Robles' first-pitch fastball to the deepest part of the ballpark in center field for a grand slam to get the Phillies within one run.

It was Franco's second homer in as many nights.

Wheeler was charged with three earned runs in 5 2/3 innings. He struck out four and walked one.

"I was very happy and very impressed with the way he threw the ball tonight," Collins said. "Fortunately we hung on and got him a win. He deserved it."

"I had better command," Wheeler said when comparing this start to his 2017 debut Friday against the Miami Marlins in New York. "I lost it a little bit there at the end but it was definitely a better outing and something to sort of look back on and remember."

Mets relievers Jerry Blevins and Fernando Salas got them to the ninth inning, where Addison Reed notched his third save filling in as closer for the suspended Jeurys Familia.

"When we found out we might lose Jeurys, we talked about the back end of our bullpen still being pretty good," Collins said. "And it is still pretty good."

Velasquez encountered similar troubles as he had in his season debut Friday. His strikeout numbers were there, but his pitch count was too high and mistakes too many. He unraveled a bit in the fifth inning with his team already trailing 2-0.

Velasquez started the fifth inning by hitting Travis d'Arnaud and walking Wheeler and Conforto to load the bases for Asdrubal Cabrera, who hit a two-run single. Cespedes followed with a sacrifice fly for a 5-0 lead.

"He's just not hitting location consistently," Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said. "When he can do that, he's going to be really good. You can look at the strikeout totals, they're outstanding. However, you have to locate."

The Mets didn't hesitate to jump on Velasquez. Conforto's leadoff single wouldn't go to waste as Cespedes roped a one-out, line-drive double down the left field line that scored Conforto easily.

Two innings later, Velasquez let a 1-2 fastball catch too much of the plate, and Conforto belted it deep into the left-center-field seats.

"Yeah that's really not a part of my repertoire," Velasquez said, "A back door two-seam (fastball) to try to freeze him and I'm not known for that. Again, I'm trying to do stuff that's out of my repertoire. I don't know why."

NOTES: The Mets have hit a home run in eight consecutive games and have 12 home runs in their last four games. They have 10 home runs in three road games after hitting a franchise-record 106 homers on the road last year. ... After optioning LHP Adam Morgan to Triple-A Lehigh Valley after a blowout loss Tuesday, the Phillies made a corresponding move Wednesday, recalling RHP Luis Garcia. ... An MRI on Philadelphia RHP Clay Buchholz showed a partial tear of the right flexor pronator mass. Buchholz will seek a second opinion from Dr. James Andrews next week.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
NY Mets   Philadelphia
Zack Wheeler Player Vince Velasquez
Win W/L Loss
5.2 IP 5.0
4 Strikeouts 7
4 Hits 5
4.76 ERA 9.00
Hitting
NY Mets   Philadelphia
Michael Conforto Player Maikel Franco
2 Hits 2
1 RBI 4
1 HR 1
5 TB 5
.500 Avg .500
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
NY Mets 6 1 10 .200 10 13 5 5 0 0
Philadelphia 6 1 10 .188 8 7 4 2 0 0