Bryce Harper-less Phillies silenced in 2-0 loss to the Mets

NEW YORK — Some things don’t change with a National League pennant. The Phillies still can’t beat the Mets.

With, or without, Bryce Harper.

The Phillies chose to go without Harper on Tuesday night. Never mind that they mustered one hit through eight innings. Or that they trailed by two runs in the ninth. Or that they have dropped five of the last eight games and 10 of the last 15.

Harper never left the bench in a 2-0 loss to the Mets — the first meeting of the season between the division rivals — that sank the Phillies to 25-29, equaling their record through 54 games last year.

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“We just wanted to give him a full day off — don’t swing the bat, don’t get ready,” manager Rob Thomson said, explaining why he didn’t call on Harper to bat for Kody Clemens or Dalton Guthrie in the ninth inning. “A lot of times when they’re pinch-hitting, they take a lot of swings, a lot of swings. We just wanted to give him a full day.”

Harper played 23 consecutive games, all as the designated hitter, in a span of 27 days since returning May 2 from Tommy John elbow surgery. The Phillies were off Monday, but Thomson said they wanted Harper to have a two-day break. They let him choose whether to sit out the last game in Atlanta or the first against the Mets. He picked the latter.

Thomson insisted that Harper is healthy, while conceding that he has felt “general soreness” in his elbow and his body. The Phillies believe it’s nothing more than playing every day again after not going through a spring training.

Surely, though, the manager must know that it’s not a great look for the team’s best player to be unavailable, even to pinch-hit, at a time when wins are at a premium — and against the rival Mets, who beat the Phillies in 15 of the last 20 matchups dating to last season.

“To keep him healthy, I’d rather not risk [injury] than the game,” Thomson said of Harper. “He’s fine. He’ll play [Wednesday].”

But that didn’t help the Phillies against Mets first-year starter Kodai Senga, who flummoxed them with his “ghost forkball.” Clemens’ single in the third inning marked their only hit until Josh Harrison’s one-out pinch single in the ninth against closer David Robertson, who then got Bryson Stott to ground into a game-ending double play.

The Phillies’ problems were familiar. They chased pitches out of the strike zone. Senga threw 100 pitches. The Phillies swung at 58, 43% of which were out of the strike zone, according to Statcast.

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As Nick Castellanos explained it, Senga’s fastball and forkball play off one another. He rides the fastball up in the zone, causing hitters to swing under it, and gets hitters to swing over his forkball if they’re anticipating the fastball.

Senga, a 30-year-old right-hander who spent his career in Japan until signing a five-year, $75 million contract with the Mets in the offseason, mixes in a cutter, a pitch that Castellanos hit to deep center field in the fourth inning. But Brandon Nimmo leaped at the wall to rob a likely home run.

Nimmo made another stellar catch in the seventh inning on a line drive in the gap by Trea Turner.

“That’s the way that it’s going for the Phils right now,” Castellanos said. “Just got to keep treading water, stay fighting. It’s a long season.”

Which was Thomson’s point in stapling Harper to the bench.

On the bright side, Ranger Suárez finally looked like himself.

Making his fourth start since coming back from a spring-training elbow injury, Suárez scattered five hits, walked two batters, and pitched into the seventh inning. One of his few mistakes: a solo homer by Francisco Lindor in the third inning.

Suárez’s biggest difference was consistently working ahead in the count. He exhibited better command, especially of his changeup. It was precisely what the Phillies wanted from their No. 3 starter, who entered with a 9.82 ERA.

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“I felt much, much better on the mound,” Suárez said through a team interpreter. “I felt like I was calmer than in my previous outings, and that helped me to get deeper in the game.”

Suárez cited a productive between-starts bullpen session in which he simulated a game.

“We worked through at-bats,” Suárez said. “If I fall [behind] in the count, what am I going to throw? If I’m ahead in the count, what am I going to throw? Little things like that to mix and match and see what happens.”

For the first time since July 17, 2016, the Phillies didn’t advance a runner to second base. It nearly happened, but the Mets got a call overturned and erased J.T. Realmuto’s steal of second after a leadoff walk in the eighth inning.

Thomson said Realmuto had a green light to run despite the two-run deficit because Mets reliever Adam Ottavino is slow to deliver the ball.

“Oh yeah,” Thomson said. “He’s 1.8 [seconds] to the plate. That should be a stolen base, and that keeps you out of a double-play ball and maybe puts some pressure on them. But he sped up just a little bit and threw him out. Catcher [Francisco Alvarez] made a good throw.”