PHILADELPHIA — Jose Quintana turned the Citizens Bank bandbox into his personal sandbox Friday night with maybe the defining performance of his two-year Mets career.
Fortunate early that several hard-hit balls were right at defenders, the left-hander adjusted and pitched to weaker contact as the game progressed. He exited after seven shutout innings in the Mets’ 11-3 demolition of the Phillies.
The three-run homer was the key to the Mets’ offensive attack: Francisco Alvarez, Brandon Nimmo and Harrison Bader each hit one, but the party was tempered by Francisco Lindor leaving the game in the seventh inning with lower back soreness.
The star shortstop said he jammed the back rounding second base, after not sliding on a double, and will have to wait until Saturday before determining his readiness to return.
The Mets remained one game ahead of the Braves for the NL’s third wild-card by winning for the 12th time in 14 games.
Quintana, facing a star-studded lineup, allowed three hits and struck out four without walking a batter.
It was a third start in his last four that the left-hander worked at least into the seventh inning without surrendering an earned run.
Along the way, his ERA has dropped from 4.57 to 3.91.
“I am really proud of him, an unbelievable job,” Nimmo said. “Our starting pitchers are taking a lot of pride in going seven innings. This is really hard and it’s not as easy as they make it look.”
On this night, he retired 13 of the last 14 batters he faced — Kyle Schwarber was the only Phillies batter to reach base during that stretch with an infield single in the sixth.
“The last few games I have been ahead [in the count] most of the time and that is an adjustment I made,” Quintana said. “That is big, especially when you face a lineup like [the Phillies], you need to be ahead.”
Manager Carlos Mendoza credited Quintana for sticking to his plan and continuing to pitch to contact even after allowing six hard-hit balls in the first three innings.
“The key was staying on the attack,” Mendoza said. “The first three innings they were hitting bullets at people and he didn’t shy away from contact. He kept going after hitters and kept using all of his pitches in the zone and it was a pretty impressive outing.”
Alvarez and Nimmo each blasted a three-run homer during a fifth inning in which the Mets went from hitless against Aaron Nola to ahead 6-0.
Nola surrendered successive singles to Jose Iglesias and Tyrone Taylor leading off the inning before Alvarez launched a towering drive that struck the left-field foul pole.
The homer was the second in as many games for Alvarez, who has disappointed offensively since the All-Star break with a .480 OPS.
But the Mets were just getting warmed up.
After Bader struck out, Lindor and Mark Vientos each singled before Nimmo hit a shot into the right-field seats for his 19th homer of the season.
It was the last pitch thrown by Nola, who was removed with one out in the inning.
The Mets added to their lead in the sixth, with Lindor’s RBI double burying the Phillies in a 7-0 hole. Bader’s two-out double started the rally.
Bader launched a three-run homer in the eighth that turned the game into a complete runaway.
It got ugly enough that the Phillies inserted infielder Kody Clemens (son of Roger) to pitch the ninth. For the Mets’ final run, Pete Alonso — in the great tradition of Mike Piazza — took Clemens deep.
Alex Young surrendered a three-run homer to Brandon Marsh in the ninth that prevented the shutout.
“We know we’re a good team and there’s a lot of things that we’re doing well,” Mendoza said. “It starts with our starting pitchers. They continue to give us a chance.”
