The Phillies Season Will Be Considered A Success By Ruining the Mets Playoff Hopes
As a diehard, I hate and will always hate the Mets. The backseat the Phillies have taken in the NL East over the last few seasons to them and the Nationals has been a miserable development. It’s exceptionally brutal when I have to see their vagabond fans on our home turf. Attendance, which hit an all time low last season for Citizens Bank Park, will only be slightly up this season. Averaging just 23,000 a game, The Phillies will fall way short of the 2m mark for attendance this season, their second year in a row and only the 3rd time since the 2002 season. The team plays inconsistent baseball, the household names are gone and while everything is going according to plan in the front office, the fans apparently could care less. But hey, at least we aren’t the first place Cleveland Indians whose attendance is astonishingly pathetic considering their successes.
With a week and some change left in the season, the Phillies will play the Mets 7 times over their last 10 games. 4 on the road and 3 to end the season at CBP. The Mets are currently tied for the Wild Card lead in the NL with the Cardinals and Giants. Unlucky for the Cardinals, they begin a season series with the Cubs at Wrigley this afternoon. Also, unlucky for them, they have to face Jon Lester and Jake Arietta who have a combined 2.46 ERA and 30 K’s vs. the Cardinals this season.
The Giants are 23-39 in the second half and are in the midst of an historic collapse. They begin a series in San Diego tonight, with Colorado on deck. Two teams who are just itching to knock out them out of any contention.
Now the Phillies NEED to make a statement tonight. 2 series wins in a row, including lighting up one of the best pitchers in baseball last night, Chris Sale. The Mets on the other hand looked broken last night after that heroic catch by Ender Inciarte to complete the Braves 3 game sweep. With Jacob Degrom joining Matt Harvey on the sidelines, the Mets need to pray Steven Matz inspires something into this team. Having been on the DL for over a month with bone spurs, Matz will be surprisingly facing off against the Phillies for the first time in his career. He will have some work to do with a Phillies team that is sporting an MLB best 2.55 ERA by its starters in September.
Phillies starters have allowed 3 ER or fewer in 18 straight starts, their longest streak since 1989. It's the longest active streak in MLB. pic.twitter.com/jhIzaWrVGn
— Phillies (@Phillies) September 22, 2016
Not to mention they have 4 infielders with 20+ home runs for the first time in franchise history. Odubel Herrera is swinging the hottest bat in baseball with a .522 avg over his past 7 including 6 multi-hit games while Tommy Joseph is slugging a cool .905 in that same stretch.
It starts with Adam Morgan tonight who has been somewhat salvaging a disaster of a season over his last few starts. Let’s save what is left of this baseball season. Time to turn on the heat boys and reignite some sort of rivalry. Go Phils.