Get ready for the Phillies vs. Mets NLDS.
On Thursday night, the Mets made a dramatic comeback in the ninth inning in the decisive Game 3 of the wild-card round, defeating the Brewers 4-2 on Pete Alonso’s three-run home run, which otherwise would have been the final game. They beat the Brewers in a game that could have been better. Stand at bat with the team.
They’ve been on the road for about two weeks, playing five games in the past four days, and are just 24 hours away from facing the Phillies in Game 1 at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday at 4:08 p.m. There’s no choice but to turn it off.
Zack Wheeler will throw the ceremonial first pitch of the NLDS. The Mets appeared to be going with left-hander David Peterson, who started the final 11 games and posted a 2.41 ERA to lead the team to the playoffs, but he was needed for Thursday’s ninth inning of relief. It became. The end result could be a short rest for Tyler Megill and Luis Severino, or a bullpen game for the Mets. Peterson himself may still be playing, but it’s not such an obvious case right now. Severino, Sean Manaea and Jose Quintana started in the wild card round.
The Mets are a solid team with power, at-bat selection, and the ability to string together hits and fight back late in games. They did it all week, all month, and the entire second half. It’s a deep lineup with Francisco Lindor, Brandon Nimmo, Alonso, Mark Vientos, Jose Iglesias, Jesse Winker, Starling Marte, and JD Martinez. They don’t have the top-end pitching power of the Phillies, and their bullpen isn’t as deep or talented as Edwin Diaz, but they won’t be a player you can push around.
When the Phillies played in London the second week of June, the Mets were under .500 in eight games. Owner Steve Cohen answered questions over the weekend about Carlos Mendoza’s managerial abilities, the trade deadline, whether a rebuild is needed, and more. They had 28 wins and 36 losses when they left London, but 61 wins and 37 losses in the remaining games.
One of the ways the Phils match up well with the Mets is right-handed speed. All of the Mets’ threats other than Nimmo and Winker attack from the right side, and Lindor, a switch hitter, excels against left-handed pitchers. The Phillies could counter that with Wheeler, Aaron Nola, Jeff Hoffman, Carlos Estevez, Orion Kirkeling and left-hander Matt Stram.
This season, Wheeler had the second-lowest OPS (.434) by a right-handed pitcher behind only Max Scherzer, the best of any pitcher in the past 50 years. The right-handed batting average was .133 against Stram, .173 against Hoffman, .186 against Estevez, and .209 against Kerkeling.
Nola played against the Mets twice this season, earning a four-hit shutout in May and giving up six runs in five scoreless innings in September. He will start either Game 2 or Game 3, with Christopher Sanchez pitching the other.
The Mets’ current situation is reminiscent of the 2022 Phillies. His batting average was below .500 in June, with late surges interspersed with second-half comebacks and a multi-week road trip between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs. They have spent much of the last month refining their at-bats and reacting when opponents score.
They are a dangerous team, just like any other team we play this time of year. The Phillies won the season series 7-6, dropping three of the final four teams. In retrospect, simply splitting the late September series at Citi Field would have clearly made the Mets’ path to the playoffs more difficult and probably would have prevented them from making the playoffs altogether.
Instead, the Phillies will play their NLDS division rival for the third straight year in the postseason. The last two times they were the underdogs facing the Braves, who have won over 100 games and are considered the best in baseball. This time they are the ones being hunted.
There’s no more fun way to start the month fans have been waiting for all year.