Phillies again lose lead and game

When Darin Ruf looked up to get ready for Hansel Robles' first pitch, it was already en route to home plate. Umpire Dan Bellino called timeout and ruled the pitch would not count, but the Phillies dugout was already incensed.

Larry Bowa was at the heart of the benches-clearing commotion in the seventh inning of the Phillies' 6-5 loss to the first-place New York Mets on Tuesday night at Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies bench coach was ejected by Bellino, who warned both teams. Robles, the Phillies thought, had done the same thing the night before on a two-strike pitch to Cameron Rupp.

Jeff Francoeur, who did not appear in the game, was the first to pop out of the dugout to show his displeasure.

"Let the . . . guy step in the box. That's all I ask," Francoeur said after the game. "We saw [closer Jeurys] Familia in the ninth inning quick-pitch, but the [batter] was ready. . . . LaTroy [Hawkins] did it to me earlier this year in Toronto.

"That's my whole thing. Let the guy get in the box. He's not even in the box. Ruffy had one foot in the box and was getting the other one and he starts pitching. That's chicken-. That's what it is."

Bowa had left by the time reporters arrived in the clubhouse after the game.

"I saw a quick-pitch pitch, and Larry went like Larry is," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "He's pretty intense."

Mets catcher Travis d'Arnaud told reporters that Robles should not have thrown the pitch when Ruf's head was down. As Robles went through his windup, d'Arnaud put his right hand up as if to tell his pitcher to slow down.

"I just know the guy's head was down," d'Arnaud said. "I think the rule is you can't throw it until at least they're looking at him. So I was telling him to wait. He threw it. You never know what could happen in that situation when you're looking down and something like that happens. So they were just trying to protect each other."

The incident was all the talk after the Mets' seventh consecutive win against the Phillies, who again failed to maintain a lead. Jeanmar Gomez was the night's struggling reliever: The typically steady righthander walked in the tying run and allowed two more.

The loss was the Phillies' 10th in 11 games this season against the Mets, who are a season-high 13 games above .500. This is the Phils' first seven-game losing streak against the Mets since 1971-72, when they lost 10 straight. New York's lead atop the National League East remained at 51/2 games, as the Washington Nationals beat the San Diego Padres.

Familia converted a four-out save. He entered in the eighth with baserunners on first and second and induced a Carlos Ruiz groundout. The Phillies went down 1-2-3 in the ninth. They struck out a season-worst 16 times in the game.

A night after becoming the franchise-record-setting eighth Mets player to homer in a game in a 16-7 win, Yoenis Cespedes continued his team's power barrage on the eighth pitch of Tuesday's game. He deposited Jerome Williams' belt-high cutter into the Phillies bullpen to give New York a 2-0 lead.

After Mets starter Noah Syndergaard ripped a run-scoring double down the right-field line in the second inning, the Phillies used a four-run fourth to take the lead.

Freddy Galvis turned on a 97 m.p.h. Syndergaard fastball for a two-run homer, and Ryan Howard went the opposite way with a 98 m.p.h. heater. For Howard, it was his second consecutive night with a home run.

Williams was charged with five runs, four earned, over 51/3 innings. The journeyman righthander threw up zeros in the third, fourth, and fifth before running into trouble in the sixth. He exited with runners on the corners and only one out, and Gomez allowed both inherited runners to score.

Gomez, who quietly put together a great first four months of the season, continued his recent struggles. He walked Michael Conforto on four pitches to load the bases and missed on a full-count sinker to d'Arnaud to give the Mets the tying run. Michael Cuddyer followed with a pinch-hit single to center field to give New York a two-run lead.

"I brought him in for his sinker," interim manager Pete Mackanin said of Gomez. "We needed a double play, and he's got a good sinker and gets a lot of ground balls. Lately, he hasn't been able to keep his sinker down. He's elevating the sinker. He had both of those guys with two strikes on them, and he just couldn't put them away."

@jakemkaplan