NEW YORK — The New York Mets earned one of the weirdest wins in franchise history Tuesday night. The sight of David Wright walking around the home clubhouse afterward provided evidence the victory might not be as costly as it was wacky.
A night that began with standing ovations for right-hander Matt Harvey in his first start at Citi Field since undergoing Tommy John surgery ended with the last man on the bench, backup catcher Anthony Recker, playing third base in place of Wright as the depleted Mets eked out a 6-5 win over the Philadelphia Phillies.
“This is as eventful of a game as I’ve ever seen,” Mets left fielder Michael Cuddyer said. “It had a little bit of everything.”
Including, in some semblance of order: Harvey striking out the side as a late-arriving crowd of 39,489 stood and roared throughout the first inning, an injury scare that forced Cuddyer out of the game six innings before Wright exited, a manager’s challenge that the Mets weren’t allowed to submit after umpires spent almost four minutes deciding it wasn’t filed in time, a burgeoning beanball war between the two longtime rivals and a catcher’s interference call on the Mets’ Travis d’Arnaud that manager Terry Collins argued about until he was ejected.
“A great thing about this game is that you take the field and sometimes things happen that you’ve never seen,” Wright said with a grin. “This whole game, there were a lot of things I’d never seen before.”
That Wright was smiling and speaking about his hamstring injury — which he suffered just before he slid into second on a stolen base in the eighth inning — was an indication he might not be as seriously hurt as first appeared.
About 20 minutes before Wright walked to his locker with his hamstring tightly wrapped, Collins referred to Wright’s injury as “a major problem.”
“I just know the guy,” Collins said. “If it wasn’t major, David Wright wouldn’t open his mouth. He would come in tomorrow, do his stuff, throw six Ace bandages on it, go play. I’m not sure that happens tomorrow.”
Wright said he is scheduled to undergo an MRI Wednesday morning. He hinted that a disabled list stint was a legitimate possibility but said he doesn’t think he’s as badly injured as he was in August 2013, when he pulled his hamstring legging out an infield hit and missed almost seven weeks.
“If tomorrow I wake up and I’m not feeling what I’m feeling now, then that’ll be good news,” Wright said. “But the last thing I want to do is go out there and do what I did a couple years ago, where I feel something, you don’t say anything, you try to play through it and you end up missing a significant amount of time rather than something that’s relatively shorter.”
Nobody in the Mets locker room knows more about significant injuries than Harvey, who pitched at Citi Field on Tuesday for the first time in 596 days. Harvey improved to 2-0 this season after allowing three runs on five hits while walking none and striking out eight over six innings.
“I think I obviously came out pretty strong and I think as the game went on, pitches were kind of creeping over the middle,” Harvey said. “Today was a couple bad pitches that caught too much of the plate and they were able to get the best of it.”
Harvey had to wriggle out of trouble in the third, when he appeared to hit Phillies shortstop Freddy Galvis with a pitch with two outs. Replays showed the pitch likely didn’t hit Galvis, but the umpires determined Harvey and d’Arnaud were already in position when Collins issued a challenge.
Phillies second baseman Chase Utley, who homered off Harvey in the first, followed with an RBI single to cut the Mets’ lead to 4-2. Two innings later, with the Mets clinging to a 4-3 lead following a solo homer by third baseman Cody Asche, Harvey plunked Utley in between the numbers on his back in what appeared to be retaliation for Phillies right-hander David Buchanan hitting shortstop Wilmer Flores and Cuddyer with pitches in the second inning.
Flores stayed in the game while Cuddyer left with what was diagnosed as a left hand contusion. X-rays were negative and he said he hopes to play Wednesday.
Four pitches after Harvey hit Utley, Howard was awarded first base when home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez ruled d’Arnaud’s glove interfered with Howard’s bat. Both d’Arnaud and Collins argued the bat never touched the glove and Collins was eventually tossed.
Harvey escaped the jam by retiring catcher Carlos Ruiz on a pop-up. Things were relatively normal until Wright’s injury forced the slow-footed Recker to pinch-run for Wright before heading over to third base for first time in his life.
“Today was fun,” Wright said. “It just sucks it had to end the way it did for me, personally.”
First baseman Lucas Duda gave the Mets the lead for good with a three-run double in the second inning. Duda, Wright, d’Arnaud and right fielder Curtis Granderson all had two hits apiece while second baseman Daniel Murphy homered leading off the seventh.
Right-hander Jeurys Familia, the Mets’ fifth pitcher, earned his third save in as many days despite allowing a homer to right fielder Jeff Francouer in the ninth.
Utley also homered in the eighth for the Phillies.
Buchanan took the loss after giving up five runs on nine hits and two walks while striking out three over 5 2/3 innings.
“Our bullpen did a pretty good job, but we came up a little short,” Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. “But we showed fight right down to the end.”
NOTES: A pair of injured Mets, RHP Vic Black and RHP Bobby Parnell, began rehab assignments with Class A St. Lucie on Tuesday. … Mets LHP Jerry Blevins was unavailable Tuesday after throwing 26 pitches over the previous two days. … Phillies LF Ben Revere was dropped to eighth in the order after hitting just .143 in his first 28 at-bats. He had not batted lower than first in the order since last July 13. … Phillies LHP Cesar Alvarez cleared waivers Monday and was assigned to Triple-A Lehigh Valley. He was designated for assignment on Saturday.