Ramos continues surge, leads Mets past Phillies

Wilson Ramos continued his late-season surge by tying a career-high with four hits Saturday afternoon for the New York Mets, who gained ground in the National League wild-card race with a 6-3 win over the host Philadelphia Phillies. The Mets, who lost the final six games of a nine-game homestand that ended Thursday, have won the first two games of a three-game series against the Phillies to move within four games of the Chicago Cubs in the race for the second NL wild card. The Cubs fell to the Milwaukee Brewers, 2-0.

The Phillies dropped 3 1/2 games behind the Cubs. The four-hit game was the eighth in the big leagues for Ramos and his third this month. Ramos, in the midst of a career-high 24-game hitting streak, hit .434 in August to raise his overall average from .255 to .299.

Ramos wasted no time extending his streak Saturday when he laced an RBI single off former teammate Jason Vargas (6-7) to put the Mets up 1-0. The 32-year-old catcher also factored into rallies in the third, fifth and ninth. In the third, Ramos singled immediately before Michael Conforto's RBI double gave the Mets the lead for good at 2-1. Ramos hit a leadoff single in a three-run fifth that included back-to-back RBI doubles by Todd Frazier and Joe Panik. And in the ninth, Ramos doubled and scored the final run on Frazier's single.

Frazier's two RBIs gave him eight in the series. He entered Friday with just nine RBIs this month. Steven Matz (9-8) earned the win after allowing three runs (two earned) on seven hits and one walk while striking out six over five-plus innings. Seth Lugo, the Mets' fifth pitcher, tossed two scoreless innings to record his fourth save.

Bryce Harper had two RBIs, via a first-inning groundout, and a leadoff homer in the sixth, for the Phillies. Andrew Knapp drew a pinch-hit, bases-loaded walk later in the sixth. Harper, Jean Segura, Scott Kingery, and Cesar Hernandez each had two hits. Vargas, starting against the Mets for the first time since New York dealt him to the Phillies on July 29, gave up five runs on nine hits and three walks while striking out two over four-plus innings.

--Field Level Media

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