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Lifeless Phillies Swept by Mets Amid Questions of Pitching Tips and Tells
By Sean Barnard
Published:
The Mets have absolutely owned the Phillies of late, completing a Wednesday night sweep with another trouncing to cut the division lead to four games.
Same New York team that bounced the Phillies from the postseason last year and then dropped almost a billion dollars on Juan Soto in free agency. Beyond any talent comparison or matchup breakdown, the Mets are in the Phillies’ heads. Citi Field has been hailed as the “House of Horrors” and it’s as though the basic fundamentals of baseball are zapped from the entire roster when they play in the building.
The Mets have beaten the Phils 10 times in a row at Citi Field dating back to last season and are 7-2 against the Phillies straight up this year. Entering Wednesday night, New York was averaging 5.8 runs per game and batting .374 with runners in scoring position. They had tallied 28 extra base hits with an outright .839 OPS when facing the Phillies in New York. Over the same timeframe, the Phils are averaging 2.6 runs per game, have tallied 12 extra base hits, and are hitting just .214 with runners in scoring position and posting a .562 OPS.
But could there be more to the story than just one NL East rival outplaying the other by a massive margin? Bryce Harper told reporters he believed the Mets had a tip on Cristopher Sanchez after he allowed an uncharacteristic eight hits and five earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched in the series opener:
The Athletic’s Jayson Stark recently hopped on 97.5 The Fanatic and was asked about the Phillies struggles against this specific opponent. He also seemed to believe the Mets have some sort of tell on the pitching staff. Stark pointed out how Jeff Hoffman’s ERA jumped to 40.50 in the playoffs last year with the Mets batting .429 against him after posting a 2.17 ERA across the regular season. Matt Strahm and Orion Kerkering posted a combined 7.20 ERA in the series after posting a 1.87 and 2.29 ERA in the regular season:
The last time the Phillies won a game at Citi Field, the Eagles were 1-1 and heading into Week 3 of the regular season. New York also has 44-24 record at home this season and is 28-37 when playing on the road.
There is a fine line between gamesmanship and cheating in baseball. Active players stealing signs during game play is complete fair game. But if the effort extends beyond this, especially if any technology is involved, the conversation gets tricky.
My first reaction to this quote Jayson Stark quote was, ‘Why are the Phillies always the team getting the short end of the stick when it comes to pitch tipping?‘ It was not that long ago when Jesus Luzardo looked like his season was completely altered due to tipping pitches. He also is the only player you can see any sort of semi-obvious mechanical difference. Luzardo looks to have cleaned up his issues with most of them stemming from his direct delivery pathway.
But there is no logical way that every player on the pitching staff deals with these same issues. If these tells are so obvious that the Mets and other teams are able to pick up on it, then how is there no one in the Phillies scouting department or coaching staff who has picked up on it? It feels like several people are saying as much as they can without truly saying what they mean.
Sure, maybe the Phillies just hit a cold streak against a team that had lost 16 of their past 23 games entering the series. Maybe the Phillies are just entirely in their own heads about the same team that sent them packing last postseason and paid a price for it.
To a certain point, it doesn’t even matter. The Phillies still hold a four-game lead for the NL East and control their own destiny with four more games remaining against the Mets. We just saw the best version of this Phillies team when they swept the Seattle Mariners and showed an impressive response to Zack Wheeler’s injury news. But the gap between when this team is at its best and when they are at their worst its far wider than should be the case for a legitimate contender.
A lifeless sweep against the Mets should and must serve as another wake-up call to the Phillies. They closed out the series being shut out while tallying just five total hits in the 6-0 loss. It also is worth noting that the Mets pitcher, Nolan McLean, was making just the third start of his MLB career in the matchup. The result itself was less problematic than the lifeless feeling throughout the matchup. If this team wants to continue to be looked at as a World Series threat, they must carry themselves like it at a far more regular rate.
Luckily for the Phillies, they face this Mets team again starting on September 8th. It should especially be looked at as a sigh of relief that they will be in Citizens Bank Park for this matchup and will have a chance to put the divisional race completely out of reach. It should not take reminders like this, but the Phillies must pick themselves up and play with a bit more of a baseline of competency for the final 29 games. Kicking a team like the Mets while they are down would also be preferable.
In the meantime, someone should be checking key members of the Mets for a wire, keeping eyes on all trashcans, and maybe tapping into the PitchCom feed to make sure the Citi Field House of Horrors doesn’t have a few extra tricks up its sleeve.
Sean Barnard has covered the Philadelphia 76ers and general Philly Sports for over six years in a variety of roles and for multiple outlets. Currently works as a Content Writer for DraftKings Network, Sixers/NBA Insider for Philadelphia's Fox Sports the Gambler, and co-host of Sixers & Phillies Digest on Youtube. Forever Trusting the Process.