Harper, Segura, Nola help Phillies stay hot with fourth straight win originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
Jean Segura continued to wear out New York Mets pitching, Bryce Harper added some shine to his MVP candidacy and Aaron Nola tasted victory for the first time in nearly two months as the Phillies kept on rolling with a 5-3 win at Citi Field in Queens on Saturday night.
The win was the Phillies’ fourth in a row. They entered play just two games behind division leader Atlanta in the NL East and 2 ½ out in the wild-card chase. The Braves were playing a late game in San Francisco.
The Phillies are 76-72 with 14 games to play. They will look to sweep the Mets behind Kyle Gibson on Sunday night before returning home to open the final homestand of the season Monday night against Baltimore.
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The Phils got several clutch performances in their important win over the Mets on Saturday night.
Segura belted a pair of solo home runs, one in the first inning and one in the third, against Mets’ starter Carlos Carrasco to stake the Phillies to a 2-0 lead. Segura is hitting .324 (79 for 244) with 10 homers and 32 RBIs in 61 career games against the Mets.
Harper continued make his run at the NL MVP award with a two-run double in the bottom of the seventh inning. The hit gave the Phils a 5-1 lead and left Harper with 27 RBIs in his last 24 games and 79 for the season. He leads the majors with a 1.058 OPS.
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Perhaps the most encouraging contribution of the night came from Nola, who pitched 5 2/3 innings of one-run ball, walked one and struck out nine to earn his first win since July 25.
Nola had been 0-2 with a 5.10 ERA in nine starts since his last win. The team was just 3-6 in those games.
Nola’s September struggles are well-documented. Over the last three seasons, he has made 15 starts in the month of September. This was just the team’s fourth win in those games and it was a big one.
Perhaps the outing will provide Nola with some momentum over the final two weeks of the season. He has two starts remaining.
