NL East rivals will begin a big three-game series on Friday night when the Philadelphia Phillies battle the New York Mets at Citi Field. Philadelphia currently owns an NL Wild Card spot at 62-49 after taking two of three from the Miami Marlins, missing out on a sweep with a 3-0 defeat on Thursday as a -156 favorite. New York capped a sweep of the Cincinnati Reds with a 10-2 triumph on Wednesday to hit as a huge -312 favorite while extending their NL East advantage to 7.0 games at 73-39.
This has been a one-sided matchup in 2022, with the Mets holding a 9-3 head-to-head advantage.
The Phillies were on a role heading into Thursday's finale with the Marlins as a seven-game surge propelled them into playoff position, but the offense couldn't keep it going in a shutout loss. While the Phillies had plenty of traffic on the bases, they couldn't make it count due to going 0-7 with runners in scoring position including failing to score in the ninth despite loading the bases with nobody out.
Kyle Gibson took the loss, allowing three runs (two earned) on six hits and two walks over six innings, striking out three. Rookie Bryson Stott had the only multi-hit game for the Phillies.
“It's always good to play good teams,” interim manager Rob Thomson said to MLB.com about facing the Mets. “And we're playing really well right now in all phases of the game. So it should be a good series. I'm looking forward to it.”
Philadelp hia is up a good amount on the money line for the season with its fantastic run over the past few weeks while going 59-52 on the run line. Overs are 55-50-6 for the Phillies after all three games against the Marlins went under the betting total.
That was an uncharacteristic performance from a Philadelphia offense that ranks sixth in baseball at 4.76 runs per game on a strong .738 team OPS. The pitching also been better than most expected with a 3.78 combined ERA including a mark of 3.99 out of the bullpen.
Rhys Hoskins is having a strong campaign at the plate with an .881 OPS, 24 homers and 54 RBI. J.T. Realmuto is one of baseball's best catchers, racking up 3.7 WAR with 13 homers, 13 steals and 55 driven in.
Ranger Suarez is set to make his 20th start of the season, having gone 8-5 with a 3.68 ERA over 100.1 innings in a solid campaign so far. The 26-year-old beat the Washington Nationals on Saturday, al lowing three runs on seven hits and two walks over 5.1 innings, striking out five.
Slugger Kyle Schwarber suffered a mild calf injury on Thursday and is day-to-day, while the Phillies are without superstar Bryce Harper as he recovers from thumb surgery. The rotation is missing Zach Eflin (knee soreness), James McArthur (stress reaction in elbow) and Hans Crouse (biceps tendinitis). Relievers Sam Coonrod (strained shoulder) and Damon Jones (shoulder impingement) are out.