The Fox announcers had some shaky moments, but they were correct in saying that getting Wheeler out of the game trailing only by one seemed to energize the Mets. Jeff Hoffman has been as dependable a reliever as there is in baseball, but it wasn’t his day. He repeatedly got ahead of hitters but couldn’t put them away. The first three batters reached base via single, walk, single, and all of a sudden, the game was tied.
The Phillies next turned to their other ultra-reliable reliever in Matt Strahm. Just like Hoffman, he kept getting ahead of hitters. And sadly, just like Hoffman, he couldn’t finish them off. Brandon Nimmo singled to give the Mets a 2-1 lead, a Pete Alonso sacrifice fly made it 3-1, and a Jose Iglesias single ended Strahm’s day.
The next usually good reliever to enter the game and give up hits was Orion Kerkering. He was greeted with a single and sacrifice fly to make the lead 5-1 before the inning mercifully came to an end.
The Phillies bats woke up a bit in the eighth when Harper doubled and Castellanos singled, but an Alec Bohm groundout put an end to those comeback hopes.
The Mets tacked on another run against Tanner Banks in the ninth before the Phillies scored their second run of the game via a Kody Clemens double. While it was far too little too late for this game, the optimistic among us can hope that scoring another run might be a sign that the Phillies’ offense will perform better the rest of the series.
But optimism is tough to find after a game like this, and I won’t pretend that this was a good result. Since their return to the playoffs in 2022, the Phillies have won game one in every playoff series they’ve appeared in, and that’s a much preferable way to go about things, especially in a best-of-five series.
Even worse, they wasted a great start at home by their best pitcher, and the Mets have all the confidence in the world right now. They might even believe all that “team of destiny” garbage being spewed by the national media.
On the other hand, maybe all the declarations of the season being over can stop? Think back to game two of the 2023 NLCS. The Phillies won 10-0 and looked like they were going to storm all the way to a championship. Momentum is notoriously fickle, and the Phillies have two very good starters in Cristopher Sanchez and Aaron Nola due to start the next two days. It was a bad game, but if the Phillies’ hitters and bullpen can do what they’re capable of, it will ultimately be regarded as an unfortunate footnote.
Game two is Sunday at 4:08 PM.
Remember the good times? I’m talking about the first inning of the opening game of the NLDS series between the Phillies and Mets. Zack Wheeler blew through the first three Mets hitters and then Kyle Schwarber got the crowd into a frenzy with one of those leadoff home runs he likes to hit.
The rest of the game didn’t go as well. Sure, Wheeler continued to excel, but that only makes the complete no show by the offense that much worse. Schwarber’s home run accounted for the entirety of the Phillies’ run total until the ninth inning, giving the Mets a chance to mount a comeback against the Phillies’ bullpen. And come back they did, scoring five runs in the eighth inning, then tacking one more in the ninth for good measure. The result was a 6-2 Mets win that puts the Phillies in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable position in the best of five series.
The Mets used Kodai Senga to start the game, and while he’s a talented pitcher, he also threw a grand total of 5.1 innings in the 2024 regular season. But aside from a walk to Bryce Harper, the Phillies went down easily against him.
Senga was relieved by David Peterson. Peterson isn’t a scrub as he made 21 starts this season with a 2.90 ERA but the Phillies made him look like a star. It looked like the Phillies might get to him in the third when Schwarber singled and Harper drew another walk, but Nick Castellanos flied out to end the threat.
The fifth inning started out promisingly when Johan Rojas had an excellent at bat to bring up the top of the order. But Schwarber and Turner grounded out and fouled out, and Harper, apparently deciding he was done taking walks, swung and missed on three pitches out of the strike zone.
A one-run lead isn’t much to work with, but darned if Wheeler didn’t look like he’d make it hold up. The Mets couldn’t touch his fastball, repeatedly swinging and missing. He finished with seven shutout innings, striking out nine, in what will go down as one of the all-time greatest wasted pitching performances in team history.
The Phillies bullpen surrendered all 6 of the Mets' runs in Game 1 of the NLDS.
USA TODAY
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