If it could go wrong for the Phillies in Queens, it did. Potholes, pitfalls, pratfalls — all of them found their way into this three-game set against the Mets. What began as a chance for revenge, a little NLDS payback, ended as a reminder that this Phillies team still has some serious holes — and now, a little scar tissue too.
They arrived at Citi Field seeking redemption. They left with a sweep. And with every inning, the gap between these two clubs felt less like a blip and more like a storyline.
On Wednesday afternoon, with ace Zack Wheeler toeing the rubber and a series salvage on the line, the script felt familiar. Fall behind early. Fight back. Come up short. Again. The Phillies tied it in the fourth. They briefly led in the 10th. They lost anyway — 4-3, on a walk-off single by Starling Marte that capped the Mets' sweep in appropriately gut-punch fashion.
They’re now 13-12, five games behind the division-leading Mets — who, by the way, they won’t see again until the third week of June. That’s 54 days from now, not that anyone’s counting. Plenty of time to climb — or fall further.
Let’s talk about the offense. Or what’s left of it.
The Phillies have been held scoreless in 26 of their last 30 innings. Bryce Harper went 1-for-11 in the series. Trea Turner? 1-for-12. Across three games, they managed three extra-base hits — one per day, like a vitamin, except these didn’t really help.
Even Wednesday’s loss came gift-wrapped with frustration. The Phillies put 16 hard-hit balls in play (exit velo of 95mph or greater). Only six resulted in hits. The runs they did scrape together came on two-out singles in the fourth. They nearly got another in the eighth, but Nick Castellanos was thrown out at the plate by Juan Soto on a rope from right field — a 9-2 play that felt like it belonged in an April highlight reel… unless you’re from Philly.
And after José Alvarado gave them two heroic innings to get it to extras, the Phillies did what they’ve done too often lately — let it slip. They loaded the bases in the 10th, managed only one run, and handed the ball to Jordan Romano for the save. It didn’t happen.
Romano surrendered a one-out, game-tying double to Pete Alonso. Then, after striking out Mark Vientos, he gave up a bloop to center by Marte that felt like it hung in the air for a week before landing like a stone in shallow grass. Ballgame. Sweep. Exit stage left.
So here they are. A game above .500, a little bruised, and heading to Wrigley Field for a three-game set against the best team in the NL Central — the Cubs, who happen to lead the National League in runs scored by a wide margin. (Twenty-six runs. But who’s counting?)
They’ll finally catch a breather Thursday — their first off day since April 7 — before stepping into what might be another buzzsaw.
They won’t face the Mets again for almost two months. By then, everything could look different. But right now? One team’s soaring. The other’s searching. And you don’t need a standings page to see which is which.
Quotable
“I’d rather you guys say it’s a little early [instead of late]. I don’t like that, just because we should be wanting to play good baseball all year long -- from April all the way to November. Obviously, that’s not going to happen. You’re going to go through ups and downs and you try to stay as even keel as you can. But we’re a good team in here and we expect to win. Winning takes care of it all. Winning takes care of mindset and everything else. We’ve just got to be better.” - Bryce Harper following Wednesday's loss, per MLB.com.
