By RONALD BLUM AP Baseball Writer
NEW YORK (AP) — Sometimes the short, soft hits make the big difference.
His playing time limited this season, Starling Marte stepped to the plate with the chance to give the New York Mets a 4-3, 10-inning win Wednesday, a three-game sweep of the Philadelphia Phillies, an unbeaten homestand and a five-game NL East lead over their rival.
His bat shattered against Jordan Romano’s curveball.
“Like in 1,000 pieces,” Marte would later say through a translator.
He sprayed the ball 192 feet into center field. Cal Stevenson charged but could only get to it after three bounces.
“It’s the randomness of the game,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said.
Pete Alonso, who was on second base, slid across home plate headfirst ahead of the throw.
“That’s why you run like hell and slide just in case,” Alonso said.
After wasting an early two-run lead, the Mets extended their winning streak to seven and finished the second-longest unbeaten homestand in team history at 7-0. The Mets have the best record in the major leagues at 18-7 and are 12-1 at home for the first time.
“This is a really tight-knit group because there’s so many guys here from the year before where its like we have experience together, we have continuity,” Alonso said. “And then the guys that were added, just kind of — not just talent-wise, but personality- wise, they just kind of gelled right in. It’s like we’ve been playing together for years.”
Philadelphia (13-12) has lost four straight. Last October, the Mets beat the Phillies in a four-game NL Division Series.
“We have to be better,” Phillies star Bryce Harper said. “As a team we’ve got to really understand what we want to do, how we want to do it.”
There was a miniseries of drama, with a play at the plate, a balk that wasn’t, a 10th-inning, bases-loaded jam escape and an All-Star closer revealing one of his legs inexplicably was longer than the other.
Brett Baty, faced with possible demotion to the minors if Jeff McNeil is activated from the injured list Friday, put the Mets ahead in the second inning with his first home run since last May 25, a two-run drive off Zack Wheeler in the right field second deck.
Johan Rojas and Trea Turner tied the score in the fourth with RBI singles against David Peterson.
Juan Soto prevented the go-ahead run from scoring in the eighth inning. Nick Castellanos tried to score from second on Max Kepler’s two-out single that went off the glove of diving second baseman Luisangel Acuña and into right. Soto’s one-hop throw to rookie catcher Hayden Senger was slightly to the first-base side. Senger snagged the ball, lunged across the plate and tagged Castellanos, who slid feet first.
Senger had no idea where the runner was, then looked at his mitt after the tag to make sure the ball was there.
“He could have been halfway down the line, and I’d look like an idiot diving towards the plate,” Senger said.
Thomson called for a video review, but plate umpire Mark Wenger concluded the manager signaled past the 15-second limit.
Castellanos put the Phillies ahead 3-2 with a one-out RBI single in the 10th off All-Star closer Edwin Díaz, who left with a left hip cramp after his first pitch to J.T. Realmuto. Umpires at first signaled a balk for a third disengagement from the pitching rubber, then called off the penalty after deciding Díaz stepped off because he was hurt.
“My hip got locked up. So I started walking, tried to maybe loosen it up,” Díaz said.
Mets athletic training staff had worked on Díaz on Tuesday when the pitcher complained his right leg suddenly was longer than his left.
“That’s normal?” Díaz remembered asking the trainer. “He said, `No,’ so he fixed my hips right away.”
Thomson came onto the field trying to get the balk restored.
“That’s a play that I’ll have to remember to tell our pitchers: Step off third time,” he said. “Call the trainer. He’ll take you out. We’ll put somebody else in.”
Max Kranick (2-0), who had thrown 36 pitches in Monday’s series-opening 5-4 win, was summoned to take over with a 1-0 count, walked Realmuto with three straight balls and gave up Alec Bohm’s single that loaded the bases. Then he retired Bryson Stott and Kepler on short flyouts.
“Today was definitely a little bit different,” Kranick said.
Alonso retied the game with a one-out RBI double in the bottom half off Jordan Romano (0-1), his NL-best 26th RBI, Brandon Nimmo was intentionally walked, Mark Vientos struck out and Marte singled.
“Obviously with the circumstances that I’m currently in,” the 36-year-old, two-time All-Star said, “it feels really good to see the team smile and to come together in a win like that.”
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