Y’all gon’ make me lose my cool: Phillies 2, Mets 1

I mentioned in my series preview that the old saying “familiarity breeds contempt” might apply to the Phillies and Mets who are now playing their third series of the still-young season. Based on the events of Friday night, that definitely seemed to be the case. The dugouts emptied on two separate occasions as the Phillies squeaked by with a 2-1 win.

The Phillies’ offense, already weakened by the absences of Bryce Harper and Didi Gregorius, was struck with another blow when J.T. Realmuto was a late scratch due to hand soreness. The resulting lineup was unimposing, and sure enough, scoring runs was a struggle.

For the third time this season, the Phillies did little against Mets starter Marcus Stroman. They managed just three hits in the game, and had trouble even getting the ball out of the infield. Thankfully, the Mets were in a generous mood and decided to gift the Phillies a couple of runs, when catcher James McCann couldn’t field this third strike.

Since scoring a lot of runs wasn’t an option, the Phillies’ pitching would have to keep the Mets’ offense in check. Starter Chase Anderson was much improved over recent outings, and even made it into the sixth inning. Unfortunately, he allowed the leadoff batter in the sixth to reach base, and was promptly relieved by Jojo Romero. Romero allowed the runner to score, but was able to escape further damage via a James McCann (not a good night for the not #BCIB) double play.

The game remained uneventful until the eighth inning when Jose Alvarado struck out Dominic Smith, and things suddenly got heated.

It’s believed that the incident stemmed from an interaction between the two the last time these teams played. Emotions were still high the following half inning when Miguel Castro threw a ball well inside to Rhys Hoskins. Once again, some unpleasantries were exchanged.

Eventually things calmed down, and with Hector Neris unavailable, Sam Coonrod was called upon to close things out in the ninth. Despite walking Brandon Nimmo (ugh) with two outs, Coonrod was indeed able to secure the victory.

The Phillies might not have deserved to win on Friday, but coming one day after they lost a game they probably shouldn’t have, I’m certainly not going to complain. After the game, fill-in manager Rob Thompson said the situation between the teams was over, and wouldn’t carry over. With two games left in the series, we’ll soon find out how true that is.