Have We Met Yet? — Series Preview: Phillies at Mets, May 13 – 16

Baseball’s best record Philadelphia Phillies head to Citi Field to battle the New York Mets in the first half of a four-game series, with the final two games at Citizens Bank Park. This is the first meeting between the teams this season, with the next in London, UK.

While the Phillies remain on the road coming off yet another series win, the Mets had quite the eventful weekend at home against Atlanta. One out away from being no-hit Saturday, J.D. Martinez hit a two-out home run to change nothing of the result (4-1 loss) and just save face. Brandon Nimmo then hit a walk-off 2-run ninth-inning homer Sunday to keep the Mets from getting swept in the three-game series. The Mets scored seven runs combined over the three-game series.

To compare weekends, the Phillies scored 8, 8, and 6 in their three games against the Miami Marlins while winning two of three. Twenty-two runs over three games is really nice. Hitting like that, combined with the (expected by now) great starting pitching the Phillies have shown, makes it pretty easy to see why they sport baseball’s best winning percentage almost two months in.

The New York Mets came into 2024 with a slightly different approach than in years past. Paying 57 million dollars to two guys no longer on your team (Verlander $31 million, Scherzer $26 million) may be a good reason to change philosophy. Part of that change in philosophy was to try and get production from young talent at certain positions. That has not happened though, the thumb injury to twenty-two-year-old C Francisco Alvarez certainly not helping.

With the two veteran faces of the lineup, Pete Alonso (on a one-year deal) and Francisco Lindor, hitting .223 and .214 respectively so far this season, it is no surprise that the Mets are in the middle of the MLB offensively. They have had to rely on a veteran lineup that could potentially be good yet could also be completely dismantled by August 1st. So far the results have not been great though they have gotten better over the last week. Out of the six hitters that would qualify, only one (S. Marte) is hitting over .240 on the season. Brett Baty is their only player under 25 with more than fifty-five at-bats (121 AB) and he is sporting a .240 AVG and .634 OPS to go with 5 XBH (two 2B 3 HR) 13 RBI and 31 Ks.

Despite being without the $57 Million men, the Mets pitching staff currently sit eleventh in baseball with a 3.72 ERA. Off-season addition Luis Severino and homegrown young arm Jose Butto both have an ERA of exactly 3 while off-season addition Sean Manaea has pitched to a 3.31 ERA over 35 innings.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have just kept doing what they’ve been doing all year; albeit from different contributors. One could argue Alec Bohm was arguably the hottest hitter in baseball for a chunk of the past month. His .263 average for the past week places him 8th on the Phillies over that span. 6 guys are hitting over .300, led by Bryson Stott‘s .538 AVG and 6 RBI. Nick Castellanos and Bryce Harper have both chipped in 5 RBI while Johan Rojas, Cristian Pache, and J.T. Realmuto have all contributed five hits. All of this after shortstop and 2-hole hitter Trea Turner was injured (successfully) stealing home from second against the Giants.

I mentioned the Phillies starting pitching and how good it has been this season. Tajuan Walker is currently the only starter with an ERA over 3.67. That is in three starts for him and in his first two, you can debate he pitched well enough before being left in too long. That is not a bad problem to have as a team and one the Phillies hope continues all season.