PHILADELPHIA — The Mets kept up their power surge and won the series, but they lost the game. Or, more to the point, they’ll feel they gave this one away.
Despite hitting two more home runs, the Mets couldn’t hold a lead or buy a run when it mattered, losing to the Phillies 5-4 in 11 innings Wednesday night.
“You get a little greedy. You win the first two you want to win the third, that’s for sure,’’ David Wright said. “Series wins is the name of the game. At least we can take that out of here. But you win the first two you get greedy and want to take that third. Obviously we had our opportunities: They got the hits when it counted.’’
That’s something the Mets surely didn’t do. They got back-to-back homers from Yoenis Cespedes and Lucas Duda in the fifth, but the Cespedes fanned in a bad at-bat to strand Curtis Granderson on second in the top of the 11th. Hansel Robles (0-1) took the loss in the bottom of the frame in front of 20,057 at Citizens Bank Park.
In the bottom of the 11th, Robles allowed Freddy Galvis’ leadoff double to right, then uncorked a wild pitch to put the shortstop on third with nobody out. Speedy Peter Bourjos beat out a two-out infield hit — despite David Wright’s strong throw from deep behind third — to score Galvis with the winning run.
“I should’ve caught it,’’ said catcher Travis d’Arnaud of the wild pitch. “There would’ve been a man on first and second and we would’ve had a better chance to win.’’
They would have had a better chance with some clutch hitting. Or even situational hitting. They struck out a season-high 17 times, left a dozen runners on base and went just 2-of-14 with men in scoring position, dropping them to .179 for the season.
“When you have got a power-laden team that looks to pull the ball and you have guys who have got good breaking stuff, we just pulled off a little bit,’’ manager Terry Collins said.
“Obviously when you leave guys out there, that hurts, for sure,” Wright said. “But it’s something we can get better at. Again, even with that we put ourselves in position to win the game, just couldn’t finish it out. When you get a one-run lead against these guys and you have the ability to put them away in this ballpark, you need every run you can get.’’
The Mets have clubbed a team-record 19 home runs in their last six games, after hitting just two in a 3-5 start. But they entered Wednesday having scored 56.6 percent of their runs via the long ball, the most homer-reliant team in the NL and second only to Baltimore. It’s fun, but it can’t last.
“I don’t think that’s something that’s sustainable over the course of a long season, scoring the majority of your runs off home runs,’’ Wright said. “The teams that seem to be more consistent — at least in my opinion — are ones that have the type of offense [that manufactures runs], not the home run-happy offense.”
They had their chances. Bartolo Colon (six innings, four hits, three runs) saw the bullpen blow a 4-3 lead and took a no-decision.
After Curtis Granderson worked a leadoff walk in the 11th he took second on a fly ball by Wright, who was 0-for-6 with four strikeouts but just missed a go-ahead homer by a few feet in center. Michael Conforto got caught looking on a full-count sinker, and Cespedes — when a bloop to right would do — took two huge cuts on a pair of sliders and fanned trying to yank one out of the park.
“As we all know power hitters are going to strike out, because they swing hard,’’ Collins said before the game. “Right now he’s just getting a little too aggressive at certain times. But you see the damage when he makes contact.”
That was one of those times, and the Mets paid for it.