The New York Mets picked up where they left off last season, riding the long ball to a win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park on Monday night.
Jay Bruce hit two home runs, including a tie-breaking two-run shot with two outs in the eighth inning as the Mets beat the Phils, 4-3, in the teams' first meeting of 2017.
The Phils had the winning run at the plate with one out in the ninth inning, but Cesar Hernandez flied out to center and Howie Kendrick took a called third strike.
The Mets are 27-12 against the Phillies since the start of the 2015 season.
The Mets hit 34 homers in 19 games against the Phillies last season, including 18 in nine games at Citizens Bank Park.
Starting pitching report
Jerad Eickhoff had his second strong outing of the young season. He went seven innings and gave up just two runs, one coming on a solo homer by Bruce in the fourth.
MLB
Eickhoff gave up just two runs over 6 2/3 innings in his first start last week in Cincinnati.
Eickhoff held the Mets to three hits. He walked four (one intentional) and one of those walks became a run. He struck out seven, several with a sharp curveball.
Mets right-hander Jacob deGrom gave up two runs in the first inning and nothing else the remainder of his six innings. deGrom has made eight starts in his career against the Phillies. The Mets have won all eight.
Bullpen report
Joely Rodriguez entered a tie ballgame with two outs and a runner on base in the top of the eighth and promptly gave up the tie-breaking two-run homer to Bruce.
Asdrubal Cabrera was on base for Bruce's go-ahead homer. He had drawn a one-out walk against Edubray Ramos. Last season, on Sept. 22 in New York, Cabrera hit a three-run walk-off homer against Ramos and punctuated the winning drive with a huge two-handed bat flip/celebration. Ramos apparently has a good memory. His first pitch to Cabrera was a 96-mph fastball that flew over Cabrera's head. Cabrera took exception and started to the mound. Ramos was ready to rumble, but catcher Cameron Rupp blocked Cabrera's path. The benches did not empty, but Phillies manager Pete Mackanin was ejected.
Ramos took the loss.
Addison Reed survived a homer by Brock Stassi in the ninth and picked up the save.
At the plate
The Phils scored twice in the first inning on three straight hits and a bases-loaded walk.
They did not score again until Stassi homered leading off the bottom of the ninth. It was his first big-league hit. In the first inning, Stassi grounded into a 1-2-3 double play with the bases loaded.
Nine of the Phillies' 10 hits were singles.
Bruce hit just .219 with eight homers in 50 games with the Mets last season. He has four homers in seven games this season. Bruce also drew a walk to lead off the seventh and came around to score the tying run against Eickhoff in that inning.
In the field
The Phillies played errorless ball for the first six games of the season. The streak ended in the top of the seventh when Hernandez and Rupp were both charged with errors.
On the bases
A base running mistake by Howie Kendrick ended the bottom of the seventh.
There's been a change
Jeanmar Gomez is out as closer. Joaquin Benoit is in (see story).
Up next
The series continues on Tuesday night. Clay Buchholz (0-0, 7.20) makes his second start for the Phillies. Matt Harvey (1-0, 2.70) pitches for the Mets.