The Mets continued their home and home series against the Philadelphia Phillies with a mini two-game set in Philadelphia after losing both games at Citi Field in New York.
As a reminder, driving this strange home and home series is the London Series that will be taking place between the two teams on June 8th and June 9th. Each team will have a “home game” there so this series has been modified to adjust for that.
Here is a modified rundown of the Mets vs. Phillies, Citizen Bank Park two-game edition. It was not a good series for the Mets, who did take the final game while making it way too interesting, and they will now travel to Miami in 4th place with a 20-23 record, to take on the last-place Marlins.
Game 1: Phillies 10, Mets 5
Philadelphia dominated this matchup by the end, as Bryce Harper made his presence know and Ranger Suarez continued his great start to the season for Philadelphia.
The good news is that the Mets were not at risk for being no-hit as was the case in the second game at Citi Field. The only thing potentially uglier than the Mets play in this game was the weather. It was dismal to start the game until it cleared up towards the end.
The Mets were actually ahead in this game by a score of 2-1 entering the 5th inning. That was when the wheels fell off for NY starter Joey Lucchesi who was called up from Triple A to replace Adrian Houser. Lucchesi gave up a bases loaded walk to tie the game at 2-2, followed by an RBI single by J.T. Realmuto, and a 2-run RBI double by Harper.
Philadelphia would eventually take a 10-2 lead before the Mets picked up 3 garbage time runs through the 8th and 9th innings.
J.D. Martinez homered for the Mets with a solo shot in the 8th. That was his second home run on the season. Mark Vientos, a recent callup in place of Joey Wendle (who was DFA’d), had 2 hits and an RBI. Over a small sample size of 11 at-bats, he is slashing .455/.455/.818 with 1 HR, 3 RBI and an OPS of 1.273 through this game. With Wendle DFA’d, Vientos should see more time sharing 3B with Brett Baty and Baty has been taking grounders at the middle infield positions to help out there.
In his first start of the season, Lucchesi surrendered 5 runs on 5 hits with 4 walks in only 4.1 innings, good for a 10.38 ERA. Grant Hartwig and Adrian Houser (the originally scheduled starter, scratched after warming up in the bullpen during Game 2 at Citi Field) went the rest of the way with neither being very impressive.
For the Phillies, Harper returned after missing the prior game with a migraine and gave the Mets quite a headache. He was 3 for 5 with a HR, double and 3 RBI’s. Pitcher Ranger Suarez continued the dominating start to his season, going only 5 innings but picking up his 8th win to move to 8-0 with an ERA of 1.37. In his 5 innings he gave up 2 runs (none earned) on 4 hits and 2 walks with 3 strikeouts.
Game 2: Mets 6, Phillies 5 (11 innings)
In a game that should have been over in 9 innings, Edwin Díaz blew his third save of this season. While it’s still early in the season and Diaz is coming back after missing all of 2023, this is a major concern for a closer who signed the biggest contract in MLB history for a reliever. The game went to extra innings tied 4-4.
Following a scoreless tenth inning, the Mets plated 2 in the top of the 11th on a J.D. Martinez RBI single, followed by Martinez scoring on a wild pitch. Jake Diekman entered in the bottom of the 11th and with one out, Pete Alonso misplayed a groundball which allowed Brandon Marsh to reach base. Diekman walked the next batter setting up Bryson Stott with the bases loaded and one out. A fielder’s choice made it 6-5 with 2 out before Kyle Schwarber struck out to end it.
Pete Alonso started the scoring with a solo homer in the top of the 1st, his 10th of the season. Starling Marte and Harrison Bader (who entered as a pinch runner in the 6th inning) were the only Mets who had multiple hits, with 2 each. Bader had a game-tying RBI in the 8th and a double in the 11th.
The starter for the Mets, Jose Quintana, needed a strong start to quiet the critics. While it wasn’t stellar, it was certainly respectable. He went 5.1 innings, giving up 2 runs on 4 hits while striking out 4 and not walking any. His ERA stands at 5.21 for the season with a record of 1-4. He was followed by 5 different relief pitchers, putting another strain on the bullpen which has been an issue through the season.
For the Phillies, former Met Taijuan Walker made the start but was removed after 3.1 innings due to injury after a Marte line drive got him in the foot.
Krom’s Korner
If Mets owner Steve Cohen has seemingly given up on this season, why shouldn’t the Mets players or fans?
While it’s great that Cohen interacts with fans and followers of the team on X/Twitter, sometimes that can backfire and we saw one of those instances this week. In response to a post on X about blowing the team up given the sluggish start, Cohen responded “All in the future, not much we can do until trade deadline.” Not a good look for the richest owner in MLB to make a statement like this when the team has the league’s highest payroll, and fans are paying a lot to attend games plus a few hundred dollars more for parking, souvenirs and concessions.
To keep things in perspective, 2024 wasn’t supposed to be a World Series-contending season for the Mets. This was reaffirmed with the team starting 0-5 but then everyone saw glimmers of hope as they went on a run where they were 12-3 including winning 6 games in a row. To punt on the season this early, during a pivotal time where it’s important to prove to Pete Alonso that this a place he wants to be long-term, is tough. Now the conversation is shifting to if the Mets should be looking to trade Alonso based on Cohen’s comments being interpreted as the Mets being sellers at the trade deadline.
With Cohen deleting the post after sending it, the damage was already done and the deletion made things look worse. The owner looked to walk back the statements afterward, telling Andy Martino of SNY that he understands that fans are frustrated and he still wants to make the playoffs.
Players and the manager are unfortunate victims in this situation too. These statements will be brought up to them, and they’ll have to answer questions on it instead of focusing on the task at hand (winning baseball games).
Unfortunately, Cohen’s “clarification” may be too little too late. If the owner might be punting on the team for this season, might the players and the fans follow suit?
Upcoming: Trip to Miami to Take on the Marlins
After the series against the Phillies, the Mets travel to Miami to take on the last-place Miami Marlins. The Marlins enter the series with a record of 13-32. Miami is squarely in rebuilding mode, and traded the 2023 NL batting champion Luis Arraez to San Diego in exchange for prospects.
The Mets are scheduled to start rookie Christian Scott in the series opener. It will be Scott’s third career start, and ironically his second in his home state of Florida following his MLB debut in Tampa.
Game 2’s scheduled starter is Luis Severino. Sevy has quickly endeared himself to the Flushing Faithful and seems to enjoy pitching for the Mets. His situation will be one to watch if he continues pitching well and if the Mets fall out of contention around the trade deadline. He is a good fit for this team and I hope he can stick around.
Game 3 will likely see Sean Manaea take the hill for the Mets in the series finale. Manaea has had an up and down year as most Mets have, and his records stands at 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA.
The Mets will be looking to right the ship and start a new winning streak in South Florida.
Written by: Jason Krom
Stats by espn.com
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