Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Mets’ starting pitching has been the most disappointing part of their team so far this season. While many parts of the team have underperformed, a unit that was supposed to be one of the best in the league has been near the very bottom. However, against the Phillies, the Mets received three consecutive masterful pitching performances en route to a series sweep. This was the identity they thought they had built in the offseason and hope to build on going forward.

3 Up

Sensational Starting

It’s hard to choose between the Mets’ starting pitching performances in the series, as all three were fantastic. Ultimately, Kodai Senga takes the cake because he did not allow any runs. It started with the fact that he didn’t walk a batter despite entering the game with an average of over five free passes per nine innings. He threw his signature ghost fork 30 times, eliciting 18 swings with 12 misses, a 66.7% whiff rate. Senga continued his mastery of Citi Field.

Senga allowed just one baserunner on a single by Kody Clemens with one out in the third. He did get some help from his center fielder on a deep drive by Nick Castellanos that was caught by Brandon Nimmo at the fence. Other than that, though, Senga was masterful, lowering his ERA to 3.44 in the process (121 ERA+). If Senga can build on this start and keep his walk rate down, he has a chance to become a dominant starter, as most of his other rate statistics are above average.

Carlos Carrasco was tasked with following up Senga’s brilliance, and he didn’t disappoint. After a rough start to the year and a stint on the injured list, Carrasco was looking to build on his previous start against the Rockies at Coors Field. He certainly did so, going six strong innings while allowing just one run on six hits.

Carrasco allowed just one walk, which is also a big deal for him, with his walk rate standing in the 35th percentile among starters. The lone blip came when Edmundo Sosa took him deep in the top of the third inning, but he allowed just two other Phillies to reach second base. He also needed just 86 pitches to get through six, positioning himself to potentially go seven before Buck Showalter removed him.

In the finale, Max Scherzer gave up two runs (one earned) in the first inning after a single, walk, throwing error on a double steal attempt, and sacrifice fly. On the day, though, Scherzer settled down to go seven total innings of one-earned-run ball on five hits and one walk, striking out nine. 17 of his 101 pitches were at or above 94 mph, not quite his 24% rate from last season but far better than the 10.5% rate he was sporting in his prior eight starts.

Scherzer once again looked like the future Hall of Famer, making four consecutive Scherzer-like starts. The talk of his demise appears premature, as Mets’ broadcasters Gary Cohen and Keith Hernandez noted with amusement. In those four outings, Scherzer has a 1.08 ERA, allowing one earned run or fewer in all of them with a 28:4 K:BB ratio and just 16 hits allowed in 25 innings.

In the series, the Mets’ three starters combined for 20 innings pitched, allowing just 12 hits, two earned runs, and two walks while striking out 22 batters and posting an 0.90 ERA. Despite some scuffles in Colorado, the starters as a whole have started to provide more length; after going six or more innings just seven times in the first 43 games of the season, they have now posted nine out of the last 14 games. The Mets are 16-0 in games when their starter goes at least six, the longest such winning streak since the Astros’ 17 in 2021.

Bullpen Behind Them

If the starters were great in this series, the bullpen closed out three fairly close games in solid fashion. Adam Ottavino and David Robertson backed up Senga in the opener, aided by a caught stealing from Francisco Álvarez in the eighth and a 6-4-3 double play to end the game.

The next day, Brooks Raley got into some trouble in the seventh inning of a 4-1 game, allowing a pair of singles before getting a groundout from Trea Turner to end the threat. After he got one out in the eighth, Adam Ottavino entered and got two outs, something he has often struggled with on a second consecutive day. Robertson danced in and out of trouble in the ninth, as a single and a hit by pitch brought the tying run to the plate with just one out. However, Robertson struck out Sosa and Bryson Stott to end the threat and earn the save.

In the final game of the series, neither of the Mets’ best relievers was available, having pitched on back-to-back days. Jeff Brigham was called upon to get some big outs in the eighth inning with the score 4-2. Showalter showed that he still trusts Brigham despite the righty’s scuffles against the Rockies. Brigham rewarded that trust by pitching a clean inning.

In the ninth, Raley came out to face the lefty Bryce Harper and struck him out. However, he allowed a single to Castellanos, bringing up Kyle Schwarber as the potential tying run. Raley turned him away on strikes, as well, although the pitch appeared outside. The Phillies then pinch-hit righty Drew Ellis, and Showalter countered with Drew Smith, who has struggled lately. However, he induced an easy flyout to end the game and finish off the sweep.

Combined in the series, the relievers pitched seven innings, allowing no runs on five hits with one walk and 11 strikeouts. Obviously, it was a big deal that the starters gave the team length and shortened the workload for the bullpen, but the latter did their job.

Philly Killer

There’s something about Mark Canha and the Phillies. After powering a 10-9 comeback victory at Citizens Bank Park for the Mets last season, he drove in six of the team’s 10 total runs in this three-game set. After sitting in favor of Tommy Pham in the opener, Canha went 2-for-3 with a two-run homer and two-run single in the middle game for four RBIs on the night. He followed that up with a two-run homer and a walk in the final game, putting the Mets ahead for good in the fourth inning.

Canha has had his struggles this season, but he is starting to come on. He is hitting .325/.426/.550/.976 in his last 15 games and .368/.520/.684/1.204 in his last seven. In doing so, he has raised his season slash line from .217/.295/.357/.652 on May 11 to .245/.330/.406/.736. Though this hot stretch is unlikely to continue indefinitely, the Mets need Canha to continue getting on base and showcasing some pop in his bat going forward, something that Canha has been focused on since spring training.

Brad Penner-USA TODAY Sports

3 Down

Struggling to Get Hits

Pete Alonso went 1-for-11 in the series with one walk and three strikeouts. In the final game, after Jeff McNeil hit an RBI single in the third inning to cut the Phillies’ lead to 2-1, Alonso came up with runners on the corners and two out. He struck out swinging on four pitches to bail out Taijuan Walker, who had walked two in the inning and was struggling with his command.

Though none of the hitters besides Canha had a good series, Alonso is singled out because of his boom-or-bust mentality this season. 40% of his hits have been home runs, exceeding his career-high of 34.1% from his rookie season. That year, though, Alonso also had 30 doubles, or in 5% of his at-bats, compared to just 1.9% this season. He also had a .358 OBP that season compared to .333 this year, although the wOBA is similar (.384 vs. .376) and his xwOBA is higher this season (.380 vs. .418).

Alonso is getting some bad batted-ball luck, as his .211 BABIP is very low for any major leaguer. On the flip side, Alonso does have a .280 xBA despite a .238 batting average, which is another indicator of some bad luck. Perhaps his home run ratio will even out as the year goes on and some of those other high-xBA balls begin to fall.

Hitting Woes

As a team, the Mets went just 15-for-83 in the series, a .181 average. This despite facing three struggling Phillies starters, including Ranger Suárez, who entered the game having allowed seven earned runs in his first 11 2/3 innings of the season for a 9.82 ERA. They did get to Aaron Nola for four runs and sent Walker packing after four innings of three-run ball, but they failed to truly separate in any of the games despite sterling pitching.

Other than Alonso, the other culprits were Nimmo (1-for-11, three strikeouts), Francisco Lindor (1-for-10 with a solo homer in the opener), Brett Baty (1-for-7), Álvarez (0-for-7, three strikeouts), Daniel Vogelbach (0-for-4), and McNeil (2-for-10, one RBI). In other words, the Mets’ lineup is very lucky that their pitching dominated and that they ran into a scuffling Phillies team.

Showalter Doing No Favors

Showalter continues to do no favors to his kids with the way he’s using them, specifically Mark Vientos. It sometimes seems as if he is simply looking for a reason to vindicate his instincts to sit the rookies. Just as Baty and Álvarez started to hit well when they saw regular playing time, Vientos needs the chance to work through his struggles rather than sitting on the bench.

It’s not as if Vogelbach is doing anything in the spot, anyway; despite Showalter’s continued insistence on using him, the Mets’ left-handed DH has no extra-base hits in his last 19 games and continues to have one narrow skill alone, the base on balls. A player with no upside should not be allowed to work through his struggles over a young player with great power potential.

Just as non-rookies struggle at times and are not automatically benched by their managers, Vientos should be able to work things out. Why Vogelbach is receiving the latitude that he is not is purely a matter of bias at this point, not rational decision-making. It is likely affecting Vientos mentally because he knows that one bad game will likely beget even less playing time. Vientos called it an “adjustment” after the Mets win on Thursday.

For the Mets to succeed this season and beyond, they don’t need Vogelbach to stand with his bat on his shoulder. They need Vientos to find his power stroke in the majors. Showalter is hindering what chances there are that it can happen.

With Chris Bassitt and José Berríos scheduled to pitch in the first two games for Toronto over the weekend, it is likely that Vientos will not start again until Sunday.

The Mets are home to face the Blue Jays for a three-game set starting Friday night.