The Mets played another dreadful game against a division rival, this time losing to the Philadelphia Phillies, 10-2, on Friday night. New York is now one game behind the Phillies for the NL East lead.
Here are the takeaways…
-In just his second career start in the majors, Blade Tidwell faced off against two-time Cy Young award runner-up Zack Wheeler and did well — matching the former Met by going the first three innings without allowing a run. During that stretch, the 24-year-old gave up just two hits and two walks while striking out three to keep it a scoreless game.
Things got messy for Tidwell to start the fourth after singles by Nick Castellanos and JT Realmuto sandwiched a strikeout to put runners on first and second with one out. Following a mound visit by pitching coach Jeremy Hefner, Tidwell lost Bryson Stott to a walk with all four balls not even close. With the bases loaded, New York kept the rookie in for one more batter and the righty got the ground ball he was looking for for a potential inning-ending double play, but the Mets couldn’t turn two on the high chopper to third base which resulted in the game’s first run.
Tidwell’s night was done after that after throwing 74 pitches (43 strikes). Despite not being able to give New York more length, the youngster’s second major league start went far better than his first back on May 4 when he allowed six earned runs on nine hits (also in 3.2 innings) against the St. Louis Cardinals.
After Tidwell’s exit, the Phillies scored another run in the fourth on Brandon Marsh‘s RBI single. The run was charged to Tidwell whose final line looked like: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 4 K. His ERA went from 14.73 to 9.82 through 7.1 innings.
-On the other side, Wheeler wasn’t at his sharpest over his five innings of work, but he kept runs off the board against his former club and struck out eight, including Juan Soto as the tying run with a runner on second base to end his outing.
-With Wheeler out of the game, the Mets went to work immediately on the Phillies’ bullpen, namely another former Met in Taijuan Walker. Pete Alonso greeted his former teammate with a solo shot to dead center leading off the inning that cut New York’s deficit in half. Jeff McNeil erased it entirely with a solo jack three pitches later as the Mets went back-to-back to tie the game.
-That’s where the game stood until the bottom of the seventh inning. Reed Garrett entered to keep things where they were as he’s done so well and so often this season, but it turned into a disaster for the reliever. The right-hander allowed back-to-back doubles that gave Philadelphia the lead, walked a batter and then served up a run-scoring single before exiting without recording an out.
Both of Garrett’s baserunners came into score against Justin Garza who had a rough inning of his own which included a double, single and a walk. All told, the Phillies scored six runs in the inning — four charged to Garrett and two to Garza — as the Mets have made it a habit of allowing crooked innings lately. Garrett’s season ERA almost doubled from 1.23 to 2.45 after his outing.
For good measure, Philadelphia tacked on two more in the eighth on Castellanos’ two-run homer off Garza who was tasked to finish the game.
-Offensively, the Mets had seven hits and scored just the two runs. During their seven-game losing streak, the offense has gone ice cold, scoring 16 runs during that span and just seven runs over their last four games — all against NL East opponents.
–Francisco Lindor went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts and hasn’t had a hit in his last 18 at-bats (five games) which has seen his average drop to .264.
Game MVP: Nick Castellanos
He finished 3-for-5 with three RBI and three runs scored.
Highlights
After Carlos Mendoza came out to argue, umpires came together and overturned home plate umpire Jonathan Parra’s call of a Francisco Lindor strikeout
(via @AppleTV) pic.twitter.com/uXgIasvbKI
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 20, 2025
Blade Tidwell strikes out Trea Turner in the midst of a 1-2-3 first!
(via @AppleTV) pic.twitter.com/NAo6nLlS8t
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 20, 2025
Francisco Lindor with the barehand
(via @AppleTV) pic.twitter.com/WtmBRrYavg
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 21, 2025
Pete Alonso gets the Mets on the board with a homer to start the 6th!
(via @AppleTV) pic.twitter.com/lHdUDyG5NN
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 21, 2025
Jeff McNeil goes back-to-back with Pete Alonso and the game is tied!
(via @AppleTV) pic.twitter.com/fvyQsC6lgW
— SNY (@SNYtv) June 21, 2025
What’s next
The Mets and Phillies play the second game of a three-game series on Saturday night with first pitch scheduled for 7:15 p.m. on FOX.
RHP Griffin Canning (6-3, 3.80 ERA) will face RHP Mick Abel (2-0, 2.21 ERA).
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