The Mets blew out the Phillies on Wednesday afternoon 7-0 to earn three-game sweep. Here are my takeaways from the win…
It was the Noah Syndergaard/Lucas Duda show.
The two of them simply dominated the Phillies today. Duda hit two long home runs to centerfield, Syndergaard pitched seven shutout innings and went 3-for-3 with a homer himself.
Duda is just scorching hot at the moment, and the power is finally starting to come out of his bat. He’s 10-for-his-last-28 with five home runs and eight RBI over his last seven games. As good as he’s been all year, his swing appears to be shortening up which is helping him against the right-handed pitchers. Now that he’s starting to consistently hit righties, that along with his complete 180 against left-handed pitching has made Duda a more complete hitter and obviously a feared force in baseball right now.
As for Syndergaard, he was absolutely tremendous today, and that’s just about his performance on the mound. He came out throwing 100 mph but clearly backed off after that. He had that awesome curveball working for him today and had a good sinker going as well. He had pinpoint control of all of his pitches and didn’t walk a batter for the second start in a row.
He’s a wonderful and special talent, and what’s even more remarkable is he’s come up here, been efficient and has thrown strikes right from the beginning of his big league career. The amazing thing is, he’s still growing and developing as a pitcher – he’s only going to get better from here…
A big offensive outburst.
Duda and Syndergaard were not the only ones who contributed with the bat. Michael Cuddyer hit his second home run of the series drove in two to give him five RBI in the three-game series. Daniel Murphy had three more hits as well – he’s 13-for-his-last-25 at the plate.
It’s easy to draw conclusions about the Mets offense against the Phillies, considering Philadelphia is a second division club. But the difference in this series versus in their last series against Pittsburgh has been the approach at the plate. They did a much better job battling, fouling tough pitches off and getting themselves back into advantageous counts.
Perhaps they wouldn’t have pummeled the Pirates staff with this approach, but they might’ve been able to score more than four runs in three games over the weekend and been a little more competitive against them.
A much needed sweep.
The Mets did just about everything right in this series. The bullpen had one hiccup in an otherwise excellent series, they got outstanding starting pitching – they allowed five earned runs in 20 2/3 innings. They also hit, and hit in the clutch. The two out hitting was tremendous, they got some good situational hitting and hit for power for a change.
In the end, this is what a good team has to do against a second division team at home. They schooled the Phillies and racked up three wins in the process. Next up are the Marlins who continue to struggle – the Mets have to take care of business again…
Other notes from Wednesday:
The Mets 3-4-5 in the order went 8-for-12 with three home runs, five runs scored and five RBI on Wednesday.
Syndergaard is the first Met pitcher to homer since Jeremy Hefner in 2012.
The Mets have hit 41 home runs in 48 games this season – 25 of the 41 are solo home runs.
Juan Lagares went 0-for-5 – he is 11-for-68 since May 5, the day he collided with Cuddyer.
Cuddyer is 9-for-his-last-21 to improve his average to .262 for the year.
The Mets improved to 8-1 against the Phillies this year and swept them for the second time at Citi Field this season. Its the first time the Mets have swept the Phillies in their first two home series since 1986.
The Mets have won 20 of their last 25 games against Philadelphia.
To see all four of the Mets home runs on Wednesday, click here.
Just Mets 