NEW YORK – There were no late-inning heroics, no furious comebacks, no eye-popping defensive plays for the Phillies on Saturday. Their four-game winning streak, built on much of the above, came to an end in a 6-2 loss to the New York Mets at Citi Field. It all fell apart for the Phillies in the sixth inning when the Mets sent nine men to plate and scored four times to erase a 2-0 deficit. Bryce Harper was in the middle of it all most of the day. He clubbed a two-run homer in the top of the third inning to put the Phils ahead. Alan Rangel, filling the fifth spot in the starting rotation as a bulk reliever, entered the game in the second inning and did a creditable job protecting the lead through five. The sixth inning began with Harper reaching base on a single, only to be thrown out trying to stretch it into a double. In the bottom of the inning, Rangel allowed two one-out singles – one was a soft liner to right that may have been catchable had Gabriel Rincones been more aggressive — before Francisco Lindor smashed a ball past Harper at first base. Harper dived for the 102.4 mph bullet, but it got by him and rolled all the way into the right-field corner for a two-run, game-tying triple. Before the inning was over, Jonathan Bowlan replaced Rangel and gave up a two-run single up the middle through a drawn-in infield to make it 4-2. The Mets padded their lead with two more runs against lefty reliever Kyle Backhus in the seventh. The bottom of the sixth was the decisive frame. Had Rincones been able to make a play on Juan Soto’s soft liner to right and Harper been able to make a play on Lindor’s hard-hit ball – it went under his out-stretched glove – the Phillies could have gotten out of the inning unscathed. Instead, the Mets came alive, tagged on two more runs in the seventh and won going away. Jesus Luzardo will get the ball as the Phillies look to bounce back and win the series on Sunday afternoon. (More coming…) ...read more read less