The Phillies lost again

Final Score: Mets 8, Phillies 2

NEW YORK — To state the obvious, the Phillies are down bad. They have lost their eighth game of the season against the first-place New York Mets on Saturday night at Citi Field. They are now five games under .500 and 9.5 games out of first place in the NL East. We’ve seen a pretty epic collapse in the past from a Mets team with a comfortable lead in the division, but it’s hard to see a New York team this good succumbing to their flaws again, especially against this year’s Phillies team.

After taking three straight games against the Los Angeles Dodgers earlier this month, the Phillies have won a grand total of three games out of 13.

They’ll try to avoid the sweep tomorrow on Sunday Night Baseball, but does it really matter at this point?

Can’t get enough of Taijuan

Mets starter Taijuan Walker has made seven starts this season. Four of them have been against the Phillies. Weirdly enough, his team has lost every outing in which he has allowed zero earned runs against Philadelphia. His Mets team found a way to win his last time out against the Phillies after the 29-year-old surrendered six earned runs through four. That one featured the nightmarish ninth inning that doesn’t need to be mentioned again.

Anyway, Walker allowed two earned runs over five innings and earned himself the victory. They won’t be seeing him again until August.

Phillies-killer Jeff McNeil

What makes the Mets lineup so good is that someone as dangerous as Jeff McNeil is not the main attraction. He’s in the midst of a rebound year and he came up big for New York in the fourth inning. With a 2-2 count against Zach Eflin, McNeil launched a sinker into the right field corner to retake the lead for the Mets.

He now sports a .323 career batting average against the Phillies with six home runs and 25 RBIs.

It’s getting really ugly

For some reason, the top decision makers at MLB’s national television rights holders keep thinking it’s a good idea to put the Phillies in primetime for the entire country to see. The prevailing narrative around the baseball world is that the Phillies outfield defense stinks. It’s not like they’re wrong, but it would be lovely if the Phillies were able to at least quiet the naysayers for just one night.

That did not happen on Saturday.

Nick Castellanos did make a nice diving grab in right field in the first, but the play that everyone will talk about happened in the fifth. Francisco Lindor hit a fly ball to left that had a real chance to carry out. Schwarber and Herrera both pursued the ball and the two outfielders collided. The ball landed in between the two and Lindor advanced to third for a triple.

The game was 7-2 at the moment. Despite the Phillies scoring six runs in the sixth inning of the opening game of the series, the game felt out of reach.

Shibe Vintage Sports Notes

• Alonso now has 18 RBIs against the Phillies this year. That’s a higher RBI total than what Bohm (17), Realmuto (14) and Herrera (12) have through the entire season.
• The Mets have taken four consecutive series from the Phillies for the first time since 2016-17.
• Eflin has allowed more earned runs against the Mets this season (12) than he has against all other opponents combined (10).

Ticket IQ Next Game

• Sunday, May 29 vs. New York Mets at Citi Field
• 7:08 p.m. ET
• TV: ESPN
• Radio: Sportsradio 94 WIP

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