PHILADELPHIA – David Wright's return sparked a home run derby.
Wright hit an upper-deck homer on his first major league swing in 133 days, Wilmer Flores went deep twice and the New York Mets set a franchise record with eight homers Monday night in a 16-7 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
Yoenis Cespedes, Juan Lagares, Travis d'Arnaud, Daniel Murphy and Michael Cuddyer also connected for Mets, who padded their lead to a season-best 5½ games over second-place Washington in the NL East.
"An unbelievable team win," Wright said. "When you're thinking about coming back, and I had a lot of time to think about it, you think of different scenarios, and you think of your first at-bat and what it's going to feel like, and try to keep your emotions in check. It couldn't have been any better for me, personally."
New York set a franchise record with 15 extra-base hits, and the teams tied an NL record with 11 combined homers.
"I have not experienced something like that," Mets manager Terry Collins said.
The Mets slugged their way back from a 7-2 deficit after Jacob deGrom's shortest career outing. The 2014 NL Rookie of the Year lasted 2â…” innings and allowed a career-high seven runs on eight hits. His ERA rose from 1.98 to 2.29.
"Every once in a while you run into these lopsided games, but this was disappointing," Phillies interim manager Pete Mackanin said. "Jumping on deGrom for seven runs was special. Seven runs, 11 hits, you should win most games like that."
Ryan Howard and Domonic Brown each hit a three-run homer before the Mets chased starter Adam Morgan and rallied against Hector Neris.
Wright got a standing ovation from Mets fans at Citizens Bank Park when he ran onto the field, a louder ovation when he came to the plate and more cheers when he homered on a 1-1 pitch leading off the second inning. He went 2-for-5 and scored three runs but made two errors at third base.
