The Philadelphia Phillies have fallen to second in the National League East and are three games behind the Atlanta Braves (as of Aug. 23). They had a five-game series against the New York Mets Aug. 16-19. The first game ended in a complete blowout as the Phillies lost 24-4. Under a new manager this year, Gabe Kapler, their record is better than last year, but chances of making it to the playoffs is still up in the air.
In the first game of the doubleheader Aug. 16, the Mets set a franchise record with 24 runs. This gave them a total of 40 runs combined with their previous game Aug. 15 against the Baltimore Orioles when they scored 16. No team has scored that many runs in two consecutive games since the Boston Red Sox in 1953.
After the first game, the Phillies came back to win the second game 9-6. Rhys Hoskins hit a three-run homer, his 25th home run this season. Trailing 9-4 going into the ninth inning, the Mets only put two runs on the board.
In the third game of the series Aug. 17, Aaron Nola was back at the pitcher’s mound. He struck out 11 Mets players in the seven innings he played. He allowed only one walk, one earned run and three hits. He’s shown a great amount of talent for his team this year, and hopefully there’s more to come. The Phillies took the third game 4-2.
The Mets came alive again in the fourth game of the series Aug. 18 as they won 3-1. Mets pitcher Jacob deGrom played the whole game striking out nine Phillies players and only allowing seven hits.
Jake Arrieta pitched the first six innings for the Phillies and managed to hold the Mets to only one run. But in the seventh inning, the Mets’ Jeff McNeil hit an RBI triple, and later in the inning, the Mets’ Devin Mesoraco hit a solo home run.
With both teams having won two games in this series, the final game was played Aug. 19. The Mets won 8-2.
The Phillies got a day off Aug. 20 before they began a three-game series against the Washington Nationals Aug. 21-23.
They lost the first two games to the Nationals, 10-4 and 8-7.
After scoring four runs in the sixth inning to put them ahead 4-1 in the first game Aug. 21, the Nationals came back with five runs in the sixth, a run in the seventh and then three more in the eighth to take the win.
In the second game, Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run that brought in two runs for the Nationals in the ninth inning that sealed the deal for the second game. This was the Phillies’ fourth loss in a row.
The third game was played Aug. 23. The Phillies won 2-0, but they remain second in the NL East. They will travel to play the Toronto Blue Jays Aug. 24-26 and then return home for a three-game series against the Nationals again Aug. 27-29.
Attendance has been low this year for the Phillies home games. To buy tickets, visit https://www.mlb.com/phillies/schedule/2018-08.