Series Preview: New York Mets Versus Philadelphia Phillies
The first place New York Mets will travel to Philadelphia and take on the Phillies in a four-game set. The New York Mets are hot as are their bats. The Philadelphia Phillies, on the other hand, have massive holes and below average production despite spending hundreds of millions of dollars on free agents in the off season.
The Mets are coming off a series split with the Atlanta Braves while the Phillies have lost two in a row, including four of their last five. Recently, the Phillies and Mets faced off with the Mets winning two of three games in New York.
Who’s Hot?
The Phillies do not have many hot hitters. The bats are as quiet as a morgue right now. The only regular starter having a solid week is Kyle Schwarber. Across 20 plate appearances, Schawber had five hits. Of those five hits, three were homeruns. No other Phillie had more than one homerun in the last week.
Strikeouts haunted this lineup over the last seven days. Nick Castellanos and Alec Bohm were responsible for 13 strikeouts across 31 plate appearances while Jean Segura, Rhys Hoskins, J.T. Realmuto and Bryce Harper each had six strikeouts. This strikeout rate, if sustained, will continue to be the kryptonite of the Philadelphia Phillies offense.
Surprisingly, Roman Quinn has been a solid bench bat despite a very small sample size. With only seven plate appearances, Quinn has two hits, a walk and three stolen bases. This is good production with speed for a Phillies bench that desperately needs a spark.
The New York Mets offense is rolling right now. Jeff McNeil leads the way with a .360/.470/.847 slash line in his last 27 plate appearances. Mark Canha is also hot at the plate with a superb slash line of .353/.333/.922 including one homerun and one double.
Despite the ball not finding open spots on the field, Brandon Nimmo continues to be an on base machine with five walks and five hits in his last 27 plate appearances.
Who’s Cold?
The entire Philadelphia Phillies offense is cold right now. With a combined team slash line of .205/.299/.701 over the last seven days, something needs to change immediately. The lack of production could put the Phillies in too big of a hole to climb out of in the competitive National League East.
New York Mets relief pitcher Trevor May was placed on the injured list recently. May struggled to start the year giving up earned runs in five out of eight relief appearances.
Pitching Probables
Thursday, May 5th
PHI – Aaron Nola (1-3, 3.90 ERA, 0.940 WHIP) // NYM – Taijuan Walker (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 0.571 WHIP)
Friday, May 6th
PHI – Kyle Gibson (2-1, 2.93 ERA, 1.084 WHIP) // NYM – Max Scherzer (4-0, 2.61 ERA, 0.806 WHIP)
Saturday, May 7th
PHI – Zach Eflin (1-2, 4.50 ERA, 1.292 WHIP) // NYM – Chris Bassit (3-2, 2.61 ERA, 0.935 WHIP)
Sunday, May 8th
PHI – Ranger Suarez (2-1, 4.63 ERA, 1.629 WHIP) // NYM – To Be Determined