Mets send Howie Rose off with a clunker at Citi Field

Phillies 7 Mets 2 (Citi Field, Flushing, NY)

Mets record: 71-85

Mets streak: Lost 1

WP - Christopher Sanchez (18-6)

LP - Jonah Tong (2-2)

Seat on the Korner: Howie Rose

We select a Star of the Game and virtually invite him to take his Seat on the Korner — just as Ralph Kiner did on WOR-TV Channel 9 during the early days of the New York Mets.

Continuing the tradition of Rheingold Beer sponsoring Kiner’s Korner, this season every seat is proudly presented by The Main Event Restaurant & Sports Bar.

With locations in Plainview and Farmingdale, The Main Event features 80+ HD TVs, fresh daily seafood, and Black Angus certified steaks—so you never have to choose between great food and the big game.

For all of those precautions that the Mets took for Howie Rose's final game being rained out, they wound up playing through the raindrops on Sunday, making Howie's actual final game on its regularly scheduled date. The ceremony to mark Howie's final game has been postponed until early next season, because Rose and his family deserve to party on a sunny day, not today's slop that the Mets lost to the Phillies in this afternoon. See ya next year, Howie ... one last time.

Need to Know

• The Mets finished the season with a home record of 36-45. That's the worst home record since 2013 when they went 33-48 at Citi Field.

• Jonah Tong gave up four runs in 4 and 2/3's on five hits and four walks while striking out five. His ERA on the season rose to 4.21/

• Six different Mets got hits today, including A.J. Ewing who didn't start the game but still went 2-for-2.

• Jack Weisenburger, Jefry Yan, and Adam Warren all had scoreless outings out of the bullpen.

• Christopher Sanchez gave up two runs in 6 and 1/3 innings, giving up six hits and striking out six. The Phillies bullpen, much maligned in recent weeks, pitched 2 and 2/3's scoreless innings to finish off the game.

• Luis Arraez drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly in the first and a single in the third.

Turning Point

It's easy to forget that the Mets actually scored a couple of runs in this game, and that they closed the gap to 4-2 in the 7th. Against the Phillies bullpen, the Mets had a great chance to erase the deficit and bury the Phillies in the wild card race. But Jordan Crawford got the big hit in the 8th: a bases loaded triple off Kodai Senga (who only pitched a third of an inning while giving up those three runs) to put the game away.

Three Keys

A Rose by Any Other Name

After the game, the Mets all took the field to salute Howie Rose, and the Mets radio booth, including Rose, acknowledged the team's gesture on the air ...

And here are Howie's final, final words as a paid employee on terrestrial radio:

Presence

Luis Arraez may have driven in two runs, but Kyle Schwarber was the one that affected the game the most by just standing there. Jonah Tong walked Schwarber twice, and if you look at the pitch map, Tong didn't come particularly close. That's what happens when you have a young pitcher who doesn't want the N.L. home run leader to hit one to the upper deck. It's understandable, and it's something that Tong must reconcile in his mind if he wants to be a top flight pitcher: don't ... pitch ... scared.

P.S. Schwarber walked four times today. The Mets wanted no part of his smoke today.

300 ... in Texas, Maybe?

Francisco Lindor missed his final chance of the season to hit his 300th career home run at Citi Field. He has now gone 67 at-bats without a home run, which spans 15 full games.

With this being Howie Rose's last game on the mic, let's go back to happier times when Howie called a pretty big home run by Lindor in the playoffs ...