Mets Put the K in WeaK

Phillies 9 Mets 3 (Citizens Bank Park, Philadelphia, PA)

Mets record: 76-69

Mets streak: Lost 4

L10 3-7

WP - Ranger Suarez (12-6)

LP - Sean Manaea (1-3)

Seat on the Korner: Ranger Suarez

We select the star of the game and virtually invite him to a Seat on the Korner, just as Ralph Kiner used to do for his studio postgame show on WOR-channel 9 broadcasts in the early decades of the Mets.

For the third night in a row, the seat on the Korner belongs to the opposing starting pitcher. This time, it's Ranger Suarez's turn to receive the honor. The Phillies 2024 All-Star southpaw mowed down the Mets allowing just one hit in 6 innings while striking out a career-high 12. The only inning in which he faced any challenge was the 5th, which started with a Brandon Nimmo single followed by a Starling Marte double play. Francisco Alvarez and Jeff McNeil then had back-to-back walks, but nothing came of it as Jose Siri struck out to end the semi-threat.

Need to Know

• The Phillies now lead the NL East by 9 games with 17 games remaining

• The Mets are in the final leg of a 10-game trip (3-4 so far: 2-1 vs. DET, 1-2 vs. CIN, 0-2 vs PHIL).

• Following tomorrow's series-ending game in Philadelphia, the Mets will return home to Queens for their final regular season homestand of 2025 with 3 games each against the Texas Rangers, San Diego Padres, and Washington Nationals.

• Not everything was a loss for the Mets tonight. Juan Soto's steal of third in the 8th inning was his 30th stolen base of the season, making him the 5th Mets player to have a 30 home run/30 stolen base season (joining Darryl Strawberry, Howard Johnson, David Wright, and Francisco Lindor).

• Soto has now reached base safely in 18 straight games, and 35 of his last 36 games.

• Mark Vientos' 7th-inning home run broke up the Mets 15 inning scoreless streak.

• Since joining the Phillies, former Mets outfielder Harrison Bader is batting .333 with 4 home runs, 13 RBIs, and a .931 OPS in 33 games. Against the Mets, Bader is now batting .526 with 2 home runs and 4 RBIs, as a member of the Phillies.

• Prior to the game, the Mets activated outfielder Jose Siri who had been on the IL with a fractured tibia since mid-April. Siri hit his second double of the season in the 8th inning.

• Also prior to the game, the Mets designated Wander Suero for assignment, optioned Jared Young to Triple-A Syracuse, and announced that Justin Garza had cleared waives and been assigned to outright to Syracuse.

Turning Point

While the Mets bats were mostly silent all night, a 3-run lead in Citizens Bank Park is never totally safe. So with Phillies leading 4-1 in the 7th inning, they were looking to add some insurance runs and deflate what little life the Mets might have been showing. With one out, Bryson Stott hit a somewhat routine ground ball to third and hustled hard down the line to beat it out. The next batter, Otto Kemp, flied out to left. Former Mets outfielder and newest Mets killer, Harrison Bader, then his a single to right to extend the inning and give Kyle Schwarber another opportunity to hit his 50th home run of the season. Schwarber came through, the Phillies increased their lead to 7-1, and the Mets last few drops of steam evaporated.

Schwarber is the second Phillies player to hit at least 50 home runs in a season. Ryan Howard was the other when he 58 in 2006. He is also the only player in baseball history to have a 4-home run game and a 50-home run season in the same year.

Three Keys

Man Oh Man Oh Manaea

Sean Manaea's rough stretch continued tonight, as he gave up 4 runs on 5 hits (including 2 solo home runs) in 5 innings. He has now allowed at least 4 earned runs in 6 of his last 7 starts.

While this was one of Manaea's better games since the end of July, the bar is remarkably low. Since a disastrous start against Cleveland in early August, the Mets lefty is 0-2 with a gruesome 7.82 ERA. Despite his recent struggles, however, Manaea is not at risk of losing his spot in the rotation, according to Mets manager Carlos Mendoza.

0-for-Lindor

Despite only getting a single against Phillies starter Ranger Suarez, the Mets were able to put up something of a fight against the Phillies bullpen, and by the end of the game, every Mets batter except for one had at least one hit. The lone hitless batter was leadoff hitter, Francisco Lindor. In all, Lindor went 0-5 with a game-ending strikeout. Over the last 3 games, Lindor is 0-12 with a walk and 3 strikeouts.

Hagenman the Mop-up Man

After 4 straight appearances without giving up a run, Mets rookie reliever Justin Hagenman ran into some trouble tonight. He was initially brought in to start the 6th inning in hopes he could provide some length and keep the Mets in the game. He only accomplished half of that, as he remained in the game through the 8th to mop up his own mess, having given up an additional 5 runs, essentially putting any Mets potential comeback efforts to bed.