More Mets Please?

Is anything as a Phils fan more fun (short of playoff baseball) than the mastery the team has shown over the Mets recently?  Particularly the dramatic fashion almost all of the wins have taken.  It's been a blast to watch the two play recently.

The result:  the Phillies are 12-6 against the Mets.  That equates to a .667 winning percentage, compared to a .519 winning percentage (68-63) against the rest of the Phils' opponents.

How have the Phils done it?  Hitting dramatics aside, it's been the pitching.  This first chart shows the Phils' hitting performance this year against the Mets compared to the rest of their opponents.

The Phils have hit slightly more home runs per game and struck out a bit less, but all other offensive indicators are down against the Mets. Their .761 OPS is still better than league-average, but it's a far cry from the .816 they post against other teams. This makes sense though, as the Mets have good pitching.

How about the Phils pitching? Here's how the team has fared against the Mets compared to other opponents:

This is the big difference. The Mets' offense has struggled against the Phillies' otherwise-atrocious pitching staff. Against other opponents, the Phils have one of the worst staffs in the NL; against the Mets, it's one of the best. Other than striking out fewer hitters relative to walks, the Phils staff has improved in all metrics against the Mets.

Given the Phillies record against the Mets, this shouldn't be a big surprise. With a modicum of decent pitching to go along with their dominant hitting, the Phillies are an almost unstoppable team. They just need that modicum of decency to show up against other teams, particularly in the remaining 13 games.