GDT 9/22/24 Philadelphia Phillies (Wheeler) @ New York Mets (Megill)

[Philsmania]

I turned it off after the 6th because I knew they were cooked.

The Phillies have played in ten straight Postseason-like games. Their record? 4-6. Color me not instilled with confidence for a long October run.

Frankly, this team looks like it did during that swoon in July and August. These hitters are tighter than a drum right now, trying to hit a five run homer with every swing. This magic number has become a monkey on their backs.

Oh, and these ESPN broadcasters might as well have done a "Lets go Mets" chant. Totally unobjective Mets homers.

[zambonir]

Still don't understand how they are post-season like. Or how 4-6 is that bad. We just went 3-4 against Mets except in the playoffs we'd have home field in that series and 4-3 is all you need.

These games are closer to meaningless than playoff like. And the team is clearly playing hard. It's exactly like July, in fact - even then they knew the playoff berth was always in the bag and it was hard to play at a high level, especially with injuries to boot. They are much sharper -with much better pitching - now.

2-5 in the last seven is not so great but those were all road games, 3-4 was probably the minimum expectation given we can't win every 5th day - another thing that is not at all playoff-like. I'll be disappointed if they don't take two from the Cubbies. And the Nats can spoil our shot at #1, but I'm not sure that really matters.

The curse and the beauty of modern baseball is how you play in any given week or two is not you play in the next week or two. I might even argue this is a great omen. Better than finishing hot and getting cold in mid-October like last year.

[Philsmania]

Still don't understand how they are post-season like.

Here's how: they were against teams going to October with managers who managed them like it was October going to the bullpen early and often.

[EastFallowfield]

Slight difference though, Phils weren't in that same mode. Unless we think we're going with a bad fifth starter a couple times in the playoffs, for example.

[VoteForKalas]

Disappointing loss especially in a typically excellent Wheeler start.

Time to get a win and clinch the division vs the Cubs. Get it done.

[zambonir]

Well, right, okay. That seems like great news then! Phillies were not managing or playing like the games were do-or-die, because they weren't. For the Mets, they were. On top of the fifth starter thing.

And going to the bullpen early wasn't really the difference in several of these games. Phillies lost two on this road trip where their own starter went seven (after previously going 34-0) while alllowing 1 run and 2 runs (they won the other, #34). The Mets starters went 6 and 7 in two of the games so you are really just talking about last night. And the Brewers are a team that does that in April as much as October.

Obviously the offense needs to be better. If you play a lot of 2-1 games or even a lot of one-run games it can go either way. We already know what Harper, Bohm, Turner, Castellanos and Schwarber look like when they are hot, and when they are cold. We'll see who shows up.

And hopefully they will both do better at home as usual and feel a bit more urgency now. I'm sure they are tired of waiting, and also hated having to celebrate the playoff berth (apparently mandated by MLB because there were shirts to wear). That couldn't have been psychologically useful for urgency/sharpness either, even if they didn't hit the bottles hard.

[EastFallowfield]

I’m at Citi Field again.

I went because I thought I would regret not being there for a clinch (it only took me 33 minutes to get home, getting there quite a lot longer, but that's how close I am) But my elder kid lives a similar drivetime from CBP and represented the family at the actual clinch. Of course as a parent you want your kids to have it better than you did....