On Wednesday night, two familiar foes will face off as the Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets are set to do battle for the sixth time this season. These are two teams that will battle it out all year long to be at the helm of the National League East at the end of the season. The Phillies are have dropped three in a row, while the Mets are on a two-game win streak as we head into the final game of this series. The Mets have taken both of the games so far to clinch a series win, moving a game ahead of the Phillies atop the NL East standings. The Mets are favored to win by 1.5 runs.
Phillies Look to Stop the Slide
Philadelphia has lost three games in a row knocking them out of first place in the NL East just behind the Mets. The Phillies came into the game a single game up on the Mets but over the past two games that lead has been reversed. Jean Segura is the unlikely leader for the Phillies in batting average as he has batted .328 so far this year. Segura also has a .384 on-base percentage this season. Maikel Franco leads the team in home runs with six and also has 18 runs batted in.
The pitching for the Phillies has been a little less than stellar as they have an earned run average of 4.59. With a batting-average-against of .271, the Phillies are allowing a lot of hard contact, and the Mets haven’t done anything to buck that trend through the first two games of the series, especially with the Phillies batting .249 on their own.
Mets Look To Continue Winning
The Mets have been solid offensively thus far this season, and they are continuing that play into this series against the Phillies. As a team, the Mets are batting .262 this year and have scored 128 runs. An on-base percentage of .348 is really solid, and that is being reflected in the number of runs they have so far this season.
The strange thing is that they have a ton of really good pitching, but that has yet to be reflected statistically. On the year, the Mets have a 5.20 earned run average and have no quality starts. This is something to watch going forward because if the Mets pitching gets better, and their offensive output stays the same, they could be a really dangerous team.
Mets are Looking to Sweep
The Mets have taken the first two games of this series and are looking to complete the three-game sweep. They have a ton of momentum and would be a tough thing to bet against; however, they are playing the Phillies. This is a team with a lot of pitching and offensive firepower. Keep an eye on the Phillies and expect them to finally have their offense show up. Take the Phillies to beat the spread tonight.
