PHILADELPHIA – Baby steps were necessary for the Mets after weeks of crawling on their bellies with faces in the mud.
Buck Showalter’s crew hadn’t as much as won a series or consecutive games since completing a sweep of these Phillies on June 1, so finishing business Sunday and ending both streaks was close to paramount for the Mets.
But a day after using his highest-leverage relievers, Showalter wasn’t about to ask for more from David Robertson, Adam Ottavino and Brooks Raley.
Instead, Jeff Brigham was left on the mound to finish an eighth-inning implosion that buried the Mets in a 7-6 loss at Citizens Bank Park.
Josh Walker and Brigham combined to allow four runs in the eighth — an inning in which the Phillies managed only one hit.
The rookie Walker loaded the bases before Brigham entered and got Alec Bohm to hit a grounder to Brett Baty. But Jeff McNeil was pulled off second base on Baty’s throw, adding fuel to the inning.
A run scored on the play and Brandon Marsh’s ensuing walk pulled the Phillies within 6-5. Brigham struck out Kody Clemens, but then plunked consecutive batters, Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner, to give the Phillies a 7-6 lead.
The Mets never recovered in the ninth and lost for the 15th time in 20 games to match a season’s worst by falling seven below .500.
Carlos Carrasco was removed after four innings in which he allowed two earned runs on five hits with five strikeouts and two walks.
Showalter turned to the bullpen rather than gamble on the erratic Carrasco working through the Phillies’ lineup for the third time.
Turner’s first-inning homer gave the Phillies a 1-0 lead.
Carrasco threw a 93 mph fastball on the first pitch of the at-bat that Turner hammered over the center-field fence for his eighth homer of the season.
Pete Alonso’s two-run single put the Mets ahead 2-1 in the third against Zack Wheeler.
Baty and Omar Narvaez singled in succession to begin the inning. After Starling Marte was drilled by a pitch with one out, Alonso delivered a bloop that just eluded Turner’s outstretched glove in shallow left-center.
Marte had difficulty reading Edmundo Sosa’s fly to right in the bottom of the inning that turned into a leadoff triple.
After Schwarber walked, Turner stroked an RBI single that tied it 2-2.
Bryce Harper walked to load the bases with one out, but Carrasco escaped by striking out J.T. Realmuto and retiring Bryson Stott.
The Mets rallied with two outs in the fourth to go ahead 3-2 against Wheeler. After Baty singled and Narvaez walked, Brandon Nimmo delivered an RBI single for the lead.
Francisco Lindor’s homer leading off the fifth extended the Mets’ lead to 4-2.
The blast was Lindor’s third in seven games as a starter since the birth of his daughter Amapola Chloe.
But the Phillies countered in the bottom of the inning against Dominic Leone. Turner walked and stole second and third, scoring when Narvaez’s throw on the latter skipped past Baty at third base.
Narvaez walked leading off the sixth and after Nimmo hit a shot off the right-field fence for a long single, Marte’s RBI groundout gave the Mets a 5-3 lead.
Alonso led off the seventh with homer No. 24 this season.
The blast was Alonso’s second since returning from the injured list the previous Sunday, after he missed 10 days with a bone bruise and sprain to his left wrist.