The Phillies didn’t need a win Wednesday night to validate who they are.
They’ve spent the summer proving they belong among baseball’s elite, a team that looks built for October. But what they could’ve used — what their fans could’ve used — was a reminder that Citi Field isn’t cursed ground, that Queens isn’t some recurring nightmare dressed in blue and orange. Instead, what they got was another ghost story in a ballpark that refuses to let them go.
The final score was Mets 6, Phillies 0.
That makes it 10 consecutive losses at Citi Field, and a staggering 6-24 record in their last 30 trips here. More damaging than the streak itself, a divisional lead that looked comfortable just three days ago has already shrunk. What was seven is now four.
And the cruel twist? It wasn’t some Hall of Fame ace doing the damage. It wasn’t Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, or even one of the Mets’ regulars at the top of their rotation. It was Nolan McLean — a rookie making only his third major-league start. He turned eight innings into a showcase of precision and poise, the kind of night Mets fans will talk about for years. Ninety-two pitches. Four hits. No walks. Six strikeouts. A whole lot of helpless swings.
And the cruel twist? It wasn’t some Hall of Fame ace doing the damage. It wasn’t Max Scherzer, Jacob deGrom, or even one of the Mets’ regulars at the top of their rotation. It was Nolan McLean — a rookie making only his third major-league start. He turned eight innings into a showcase of precision and poise, the kind of night Mets fans will talk about for years. Ninety-two pitches. Four hits. No walks. Six strikeouts. A whole lot of helpless swings.
The Phillies, who came into the game with the second-best batting average in the majors, were reduced to spectators. Alec Bohm singled in the second inning, but that disappeared on the very next pitch in a double play. Bryce Harper’s single in the seventh barely registered.
Their best shot came in the eighth, when Bohm and Max Kepler opened with singles, putting two men on with nobody out. That was the chance. That was the moment. But then Castellanos flew out. Stott flew out. Bader dribbled one back to the mound. Threat over. Rally gone. Citi Field still the same old house of horrors.
All of which left Taijuan Walker with no room for error, and he found it anyway. He opened with two scoreless innings, but when the Mets strung together five straight hits to open the third, the game tilted quickly. Three runs scored before Walker wriggled out of it with a strikeout and a double play. Mark Vientos tacked on an RBI single in the fifth and later a two-run homer in the seventh off Tanner Banks, and that was it. The Mets had the cushion they needed. McLean made sure they never gave it back.
So here the Phillies sit, swept out of Queens, their lead trimmed, their bats silenced by a pitcher still learning his way around the majors. This was supposed to be a late-August formality, just another series in a long season. Instead, it has shifted the landscape. In less than two weeks, the Mets will come to Philadelphia for a four-game series that suddenly feels like it could tilt the entire race. That series wasn’t supposed to matter. Now, it might matter more than anything.
All of which left Taijuan Walker with no room for error, and he found it anyway. He opened with two scoreless innings, but when the Mets strung together five straight hits to open the third, the game tilted quickly. Three runs scored before Walker wriggled out of it with a strikeout and a double play. Mark Vientos tacked on an RBI single in the fifth and later a two-run homer in the seventh off Tanner Banks, and that was it. The Mets had the cushion they needed. McLean made sure they never gave it back.
So here the Phillies sit, swept out of Queens, their lead trimmed, their bats silenced by a pitcher still learning his way around the majors. This was supposed to be a late-August formality, just another series in a long season. Instead, it has shifted the landscape. In less than two weeks, the Mets will come to Philadelphia for a four-game series that suddenly feels like it could tilt the entire race. That series wasn’t supposed to matter. Now, it might matter more than anything.
What if this had been October? What if this wasn’t a random Wednesday in August, but a crisp night at the start of the Division Series? What if it was Nolan McLean standing on the mound in Game 1, and this Phillies lineup, loaded with stars, spent eight innings swinging at shadows? What if this wasn’t just another trip to Citi Field but the start of a postseason where the Mets — of all teams — stood in the way of everything this Phillies team has been building toward? That’s the part that lingers, the part that gnaws. Because if it felt this frustrating in August, imagine the weight of it in October.
So the streak in Queens marches on. The rookie has his history. And the Phillies pack up and head home, still haunted by the same old Citi Field ghost that never seems to leave the bus.
So the streak in Queens marches on. The rookie has his history. And the Phillies pack up and head home, still haunted by the same old Citi Field ghost that never seems to leave the bus.
Quotable
“Who likes to lose? No one likes to lose. But there’s nothing that can really faze us. We’ve been swept before this year. We bounced back. We’ve got to do the same thing. I’m not worried about it." - Kyle Schwarber, per MLB.comLoading Phillies schedule...
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