The Mets earned their second series win of the season and their first series sweep as they won all three games of their series against the Phillies at Citi Field this week.
It’s the first time the Mets have swept a series against the Phillies at home since May, 2010. It’s the first time they’ve swept a series against the Phillies in either location since September, 2013.
The Mets have won 25 of their last 34 games against the Phillies, dating back to June 21, 2013.
Here’s a look at the series sweep for the Mets statistically:
- The Mets hit three home runs in the three-game series after only hitting one in their first five games of the season.
- The Mets were only 7-for-41 with runners in scoring position in these three games, leaving 33 runners on-base.
- Lucas Duda had a big series – he went 5-for-14 with 5 RBI in the three games, hitting a homer and scoring two runs.
- Travis d’Arnaud also fared well against the Phillies this week – he went 4-for-9 with a home run and two RBI.
- Curtis Granderson reached base seven times and scored two runs in this series – he went 4-for-10 with three walks in the three games.
- Juan Lagares’ bat began to heat up in this series, as he had at least one hit in each of the three games against the Phillies. He went 4-for-11 with a walk and 2 runs scored.
- The Mets had 11 extra-base hits in the three games and outscored the Phillies 14-6.
- The Mets had five 2-out RBI during the series.
- The Mets drew 14 walks and only struck out 12 times in the three games.
- The Mets starters had a 1.93 ERA, the bullpen a 2.16 ERA against the Phillies in the three games.
- The starting pitching walked three batters in 18 2/3 innings in this series – the bullpen walked four batters in 7 1/3 innings.
- Mets starting pitching issued first pitch strikes to 51 of the 82 batters they faced against the Phillies.
- According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the ninth time the Mets swept their first home series of the year, but only the third time the series was three or more games. The other two occurrences (2005 vs. Houston and 2012 vs. Atlanta).
The starting pitching went deep and continued to throw strikes.
The Mets starters were far from perfect in this series. Each had to battle with command issues in their respective outings. But their ability to throw strikes and not walk batters helped them to manage their games and pitch six innings or more in each of these games. It’s been a recurring theme for this team over the first nine games of the year regardless of the opponent, and a big reason why they’ve won six of their first nine games of the year.
The Mets bats may be waking up.
The Mets weren’t going to hit .150 for the year. They faced some very tough pitching in four of the first six games against the Nationals and Braves, yet matched them pound-for-pound or exceed them on the mound in most of those games. It was the defense which shot the Mets in the one game they really should’ve won.
They faced some second-tier pitching this week in their home ballpark and while they were a little sluggish with men on base, they started looking like the offensive club which was on display during spring training, at least in the final two games of the series.
I expect this offense to be somewhere in between what went on over the first week of the season and what they showed over the last two nights. The difference will be how they execute the little things, their pitching and defense, and buttoning all of that up to win those low-scoring tight games. They have work to do defensively for sure, but they’ve proven if they hit just enough, they’re going to win a lot of baseball games in 2015 with this dominant starting pitching.
Curtis Granderson is heating up.
After a cold start to this series and starting his season 1-for-18, Granderson had four hits over his last two games and used the approach he had during spring training by going the other way. The thing is, he had only fanned three times and was hitting the ball hard during his 1-for-18 skid – he just wasn’t find any holes. The fact he was getting on-base and the team was mostly winning during his skid helped mitigate things while he waited for things to average out for him, and it seems that has begun to happen over the last two games.
Yes, it’s the Phillies, but they can’t be taken for granted.
The Phillies didn’t do very much well in this series, and didn’t have much of a chance right from the beginning in this series. Their GM, Ruben Amaro Jr., used the term, “rebuilding” when he described his team during the Winter Meetings in San Diego in December. As Terry Collins said during his post game interview, it’s important the Mets pounce on teams who are struggling, and the Mets did exactly that this week. It won’t always be peaches and cream when these opportunities arise, and once upon a time the tables were turned in these series, but it was good to see the Mets execute pretty much everything well, as they needed to.
Just Mets 