The Philadelphia Phillies bullpen spoils an otherwise good opening week

Cespedes and Asdrubal Cabrera hit back-to-back homers in the fourth inning against Phillies reliever Adam Morgan. The last time the fellow Venezuelans had faced each other was last September at Citi Field when Cabrera launched a game-winning home run into the NY night and celebrated with a two-handed bat flip before taking his celebratory trip around the bases.

To add insult to injury, the New York Mets continued their two-year-long home run derby at the Phillies home ballpark on Tuesday.

Lucas Duda hit two homers and a double for the Mets, who slugged seven home runs and outhit Philadelphia 20-8.

Yoenis Cespedes might as well have been hitting tee shots from home plate with his driver Tuesday night.

Cespedes entered Tuesday with just one homer in 26 at-bats in this young season, but the All-Star has always pounded Philadelphia pitching and swatted homers at Citizens Bank Park. And in the eighth, catcher Travis d’Arnaud lined a two-run shot to the opposite field. The Phillies had no game plan for Cespedes, or if they did, it was executed more poorly than the Battle of the Little Bighorn. In Cespedes’ next at-bat, Morgan threw a fastball down the middle, and Cespedes again did not miss and hit a towering bomb into the seats in left field for a 9-1 lead.

It took two starts for the first Clay Buchholz injury to happen with the Phillies. Cabrera fell a triple shy of the cycle. To put that into perspective, the entire team had hit eight home runs this season coming into the game.

Even if it appeared to Mets fans a year ago that Bruce couldn’t hit with runners in scoring position – a myth that was debunked earlier with a showing of his.323 average in such chances – Granderson produced with a literally historic level of incompetence in similar situations. Instead, the ball tipped off his buddy’s hand and hit him just above his left eyebrow.

Dylan Bundy (1-1) gave up three runs in 6 1/3 innings, falling to 1-3 with a 6.86 ERA in his four career starts against Boston.

Even though Ramos maintains that the pitch was a mere accident – because no one would ever admit that they intentionally would hit somebody – the history is still there.

NY (4-3) won the opener in this set last night, 4-3. Cespedes said teammates Jose Reyes joked with him that any player can hit two home runs, and Reyes exploded in excitement after the third bomb. “The ballpark helps, and I think the weather helps”, Cespedes said through an interpreter. It’s OK, though. We’re going to do the heavy lifting for you each morning and find the things you need to see from within the SB Nation baseball network, as well as from elsewhere. And it certainly didn’t look like he found it in his first outing of the regular season against the Reds where he allowed four runs in just five innings.

As the offense rolled, Harvey too had a strong night before having to leave the game with his tight hamstring following a play at first base in the sixth inning. They have won 28 of 40 games against the Phillies since the start of the 2015 season and when this one was over, manager Pete Mackanin was succinct.