Phillies-Mets NLDS Series Discussion

[Callison]

I've resigned myself to subway series.

In NY they call it the subway series - everyplace else they call it football season.

[Philsmania]

I've resigned myself to subway series.

In NY they call it the subway series - everyplace else they call it football season.

Yet, New Yawkers, in all of their 'we're-uh the centuh of the wuworld" myopia, all be like "Subway Series, Americuh is going luhve it!" And, yes, ratings outside of the NYC Metro will be in the toilet. "What's the mattuh with rest of Americuh? Whyuh don't the luhv us?"

Personally, I suspect MLB and Fox are crossing their fingers for Dodgers-Yankees so they can have the two biggest markets and an Ohtani-Judge showdown.

[DurhamBull]

FWIW, my friend who is a Yankees fan and follows baseball pretty closely feels like both Cleveland and Detroit can beat the Yankees. He doesn't think the Yanks will make it to the world series.

[el-pietro]

I was at game 4. The Phillies were eliminated within about 30 hours of my arrival in the US. .my main takeaways from that game were1) Citi Field is kinda tame even in a playoff game and 2) why would you swing at any non two strike pitch from Edwin Diaz. He didn't know where the zone was.

[Sabin]

Hope you made a good time of it despite the loss. I've always enjoyed New York.

[el-pietro]

I was back in Philly by 2.30 the same night.

[BostonRoss]

DS9 was the best.

[BostonRoss]

The Phillies were the only team with a bye not to advance.

[zambonir]

First time three teams have done it no? Definitely the first time a 1-2 in any league has.

[EastFallowfield]

Local Mets pundits partially blaming the longer layoff the Mets had and the Phils' inability to hit Senga (after the leadoff Schwarber homer) giving them false belief in his current effectiveness for their game 1 blowout loss. Glad we could help!

And of course this Jayson Stark tweet stung:

The Dodgers through 5 innings tonight:

Saw 85 pitches

Swung at a total of 6 out of the strike zone.

Was that an inning’s worth of chases by the Phillies against the Mets?

[flyers19rw]

It’s obvious that change has to happen here. Either the hitters change their approaches or the hitters need to be changed.

[Philsmania]

DS9 was the best.

Of all the ST series, DS9 had the best cast of characters. Every character, even just the recurring ones, got significant development.

[Philsmania]

The Phillies were the only team with a bye not to advance.

The wild card round was mostly upsets--three out of four series won by the lower seed--while the NLDS round was mostly chalk--three of four series won by the higher seed. If Devin Williams doesn't blow that save against the Mets in game three of that series, we would be talking about an all division-winner MLB final four.

[bkox]

Lots of people were calling for a complete overhaul of the Phillies pen after this series... but check out Cleveland. They may have had the best bullpen in MLB in 2024. And Clase had an all time great season for a reliever. But has a 10+ ERA in the post season. Multiple relievers blowing up.

[zambonir]

And it's still just small sample!

I think the difference is Cleveland's guys are wearing down, whereas our guys weren't sharp.

But an even bigger factor that the Athletic article discussed today is familiarity and repetition. In the playoffs and a long series, hitters get more familiar with the relievers, and also prepare for them much more intently (especially knowing they might see a bullpen every night for 5-6 innings instead of 3 or 4).

In the Phillies case, that was escalated by the fact that the series was against a division rival on the September schedule. We played the Mets 11 times in three weeks, and all three of those series were also de facto playoffs (for the Mets at least). The Phillies looked like they knew how to hit Diaz too.

I don't think anyone seriously thinks there needs to be a complete overhaul, other than overreacting in the moment. They just can't afford to keep/pay both Hofffman and Estevez. And they still desperately need a better version of Alvarado back. It seems beyond obvious that anyone they bring in to replace Hoffman or Estevez is no more guaranteed to be perfect than Kimbrel or Knebel or Alvarado or Seranthony was. Including Devin Williams and Tanner Scott.

[LoneStarPhan]

It is true that the Mets had multiple games to face the Phillies' bullpen, but then, the Phillies had the same games to gain familiarity with the Mets' relievers. It comes down to performing, and the Mets outperformed the Phillies, earning the chance to move on.