Howard, Franco lead Phillies to 4-2 win over Mets

He can still clear the fences, though.

Zach Eflin secured a quality start in Sunday’s loss to the Mets, yielding three runs on five hits over six innings.

The Mets lost for the fourth time in five games. It was the 13th homer of the season and the 370th of his career for Howard, who moved into a tie with Gil Hodges for 77th on the all-time list.

Asked about his chugging all the way around the bases, deGrom smiled and said, “That’s what I was thinking”.

“Definitely fun and hopefully I have many more”, he said. “Cabrera’s [homer] was big and Jose’s was big, so that is something, when you get them, they win a lot of games for you”. “I wanted to try”.

“There was all that concern about his velocity early, but he’s just gotten a little stronger and stronger”, manager Terry Collins said.

Juan Lagares hit an RBI triple in the second inning to give the Mets a 1-0 lead, and Granderson hit a solo home run in the third inning to make it 2-0. “It really did”, Collins said.

New York Mets’ Travis d’Arnaud, left, slides safety back to second base under the tag from P …

With one out in the seventh and the score tied at 2-2, Peter Bourjos reached on a throwing error by NY shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. He walked and struck out two hitters.

“I had all the time, ” said Cabrera, who has four errors this season. Ruiz had led off the inning with a double, and advanced to third on an infield out. Coming back to my first win, it was kind of the same thing where I was able to find a groove and just keep going. Conforto was demoted on June 25 after hitting.148 after May 1.

NY took a 2-1 lead in the fourth on d’Arnaud’s sacrifice fly before the Phillies tied it in the fifth on Asche’s groundout that scored pitcher Jerad Eickhoff.

Eflin was far from flawless on this day, allowing three runs on five hits, walking and striking out two batters each over the course of six innings. The right-hander singled and doubled to help his own cause.

“He’s ready to go”, Mackanin said. “Too many baserunners for my liking, but he got us into the seventh inning, so he did a good job that way”. This series brings together familiar faces with Phillies rookie OF Tyler Goeddel and his older brother Erik, a Mets reliever. He has a 1.92 ERA in his past nine starts. He took Matt Harvey’s spot in the rotation this month when the former ace was diagnosed with thoracic outlet syndrome.

“I felt good, ” Verrett said.

With his glove, deGrom took away a bunt hit from Cody Asche, bounding off the mound to field the ball cleanly before making an accurate throw while falling away from his target.

NOTES: Mets OF Yoenis Cespedes, who missed the three previous games with a strained right quadriceps muscle, was again held out of the starting lineup. Overall, his ERA has dropped from 3.07 to 2.38 since May 21.