Deja vu in Queens — Phillies offense shut down by Mets

Back in October of 2024, the National League East champion Phillies’ season ended in two wretched losses at Citi Field.

Those defeats came with subpar offense and even more sinister relief pitching.

It has been more of the same through 23 games in 2025.

The Phillies fell to the Mets, 5-4, in their first meeting of the season on a cold night in Queens. They registered seven hits Monday night, four of them came in the ninth.

At the very least, they got the Mets to burn Edwin Diaz, and Bryson Stott made it interesting with a three-run blast. But, it was too little, too late, as Trea Turner and Bryce Harper both went down swinging.

The Phillies only set themselves up with two real chances before the ninth.

In the top of the third against Tylor Megill, Bryson Stott blooped a base hit into center, Turner followed it with his second walk of the game, and Harper walked, as well, bringing Kyle Schwarber up to the plate with two outs. Schwarber did not work a competitive at-bat. He swung and missed on a low and away changeup, which was out of the zone to strand the bases loaded.

Later on in the sixth, Harper walked just prior to Megill being pulled from the ballgame. Reed Garrett came in and allowed a two-out single to Max Kepler, which brought J.T. Realmuto to the plate, who also worked a putrid at-bat, swinging at pitches twice well outside that he had no chance of reaching, striking out to end the inning. Realmuto is 3-18 with runners in scoring position this season, which is a .167 average.

Megill got the Phils to swing and miss 14 times in 5.1 innings, allowing one hit, tying his career-high of 10 strikeouts on 92 pitches. His ERA is now 1.09 this season.

Aaron Nola got the ball for the Phillies, who is now 0-5 this season. But unlike the other four, this was not on him. While he gave up the two early home runs to Francisco Lindor and Jesse Winker, he settled in.

Following Juan Soto‘s near three-run homer that was just foul, Nola gave up three hits and no runs from the third to sixth innings. He was sitting at 89 pitches through six, allowing two runs, and locking in his 150th career quality start.

He went back out for the seventh for the first time this season, got Luis Torrens to ground out, then allowed a single to Luisangel Acuna and walked Brett Baty, before being pulled for Jose Ruiz, who allowed a 412-foot three-run homer to Lindor, his second of the night, to make it 5-0.

Ruiz served Lindor a 95.3 mph, four-seam fastball right down the middle. Definition of a cookie. I am no expert, but it was not a good pitch.

Two of those runs were charged to Nola, who finished with a final line of 6.1 innings, seven hits, four earned runs, two walks, and six strikeouts on 101 pitches. His ERA now sits at 6.43, and it is hard to put this loss on him when he got absolutely no run support, which is a common theme this season.

When Nola is in the game, the Phillies have scored one, one, zero, four, and zero runs this season.

Last season in October against New York, the Phillies did not get run support for their starters, and when they were pulled, the bullpen fell flat. Monday night’s movie was eerily similar.

The Phils look to even the series at one a piece Tuesday night with Cristopher Sanchez on the mound, while the Mets will send Griffin Canning to the bump.

---

Use code PHILLYSPORTSREPORT for $20 off your first SeatGeek order

Click here to save 10% on any order at FOCO