Gamethread 8/6: Mets at Phillies

The Mets and Phillies meet tonight to decide who will be in first place when we wake up Saturday morning. It’s been a long strange journey to get to this point, as the Mets have played pretty poorly as of late, while the Phillies have won five straight games to get within ¹⁄₂ game of the Mets. Tonight, they meet at the start of Alumni Weekend in Philadelphia, meaning there will be an extra buzz in the ballpark.

Here are the lineups. For the Phillies:

The initial, more visceral reaction to this lineup was the lack of Rhys Hoskins, but the pregame explanation of his injury woes (his groin has a boo-boo) means he’ll have to limited to pinch hitting duties at best.

For the Mets:

The Mets send Marcus Stroman to the hill in the hopes that he can continue his 2021 success against the Phillies in his start tonight.

Let’s talk about it.