The New York Mets lost to the Philadelphia Phillies, 4-2, on Friday night in the third game of their five-game series.

Noah Syndergaard (8-2, 3.46 ERA) faced off against National League Cy Young Award candidate and 2018 NL All-Star, Aaron Nola (13-3, 2.25 ERA).

Syndergaard didn’t appear to have his best stuff tonight and continued to allow baserunners to steal bags at will.

A few timely Philadelphia hits and a lack thereof from the Mets did New York in. Oh, and Aaron Nola absolutely dominated the Metsies’ lineup for seven extremely strong innings.

Pitching

Things didn’t get off on the right foot for Syndergaard. The 6’6″ right-hander allowed four straight hits to start the game, including an RBI double from Asdrubal Cabrera and a run-scoring single courtesy of Nick Williams.

The Phillies added another run on Carlos Santana‘s double-play groundout to take an early 3-0 lead.

Thor struck out the first two batters he faced in the second, allowed a single to Cesar Hernandez, but retired Rhys Hoskins on a groundball to third to end the frame.

Jeff McNeil made a nifty backhand play to nab a sharp Cabrera groundball to start the third. Syndergaard struck out Williams on a darting 82 MPH curve and worked around a two-out walk issued to Santana by inducing a soft Makiel Franco groundout.

Roman Quinn led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple to left field. Jorge Alfaro‘s base hit brought him home to give the Phils a 4-1 lead.

After Alfaro stole second, Jose Bautista, playing first base, made a strong throw to third on Nola’s sacrifice bunt attempt to nab Alfaro trying to advance. Syndergaard set down Hernandez, then struck out Hoskins looking at a 91 MPH slider.

Syndergaard retired Cabrera and Williams to start the fifth, allowed a bloop single to Santana, and got Franco to line out to shortstop.

Noah hit Alfaro with an 89 MPH changeup with one out in the sixth. The Phillies backstop then stole his second base of the evening and Philly’s fifth of the game.

Syndergaard struck out Nola on a 98 MPH sinker, then was immediately removed by manager Mickey Callaway.

Syndergaard’s final line was 5.2 innings pitched, allowing four earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts and two walks. His earned-run average for the season jumped up to 3.40. His 115 pitches (71 strikes) were his most in almost two years (stat via DiComo, MLB.com).

Daniel Zamora came in to make his MLB debut and struck out Hernandez on a 78 MPH slider. Five of the six pitches he threw to the second-baseman were sliders in the high-70’s.

Zamora came back out for the seventh and walked Hoskins to lead things off. He negated him with a 5-4-3 double play and struck out Williams on another nasty slider. Welcome to the show!

Robert Gsellman took the ball in the bottom of the eighth. He walked Santana to lead off the inning, then got Franco and Quinn to fly out and got Alfaro on a 4-3 groundout.

Offense

Nola struck out the side in the top of the first, setting down Amed Rosario, Jeff McNeil, and Austin Jackson on a nasty array of four-seamers, two-seamers, changeups, and diving curves.

Jose Bautista reached on a fielding error in the second but nothing came of it.

Nola struck out Syndergaard and Jack Reinheimer, making his first career start in left field, then retired Rosario on a soft liner to first to end the third.

McNeil notched the Mets first hit of the evening, a clean shot to center, to lead off the fourth. Jackson followed that up with a base hit to right, moving McNeil to third.

The scorching-hot Michael Conforto (.303/.387/.500 in August) struck out on a disgusting 81 MPH curve from Nola, but Todd Frazier was able to put his fly ball far enough into left-center to allow McNeil to tag up with the Mets first run of the evening.

Nola looked to have lost his control a bit in the fifth. Bautista got plunked to begin the frame and moved to second on a passed ball that looked an awful lot like a wild pitch.

Kevin Plawecki drew a six-pitch walk, then he fell behind 2-0 on Syndergaard before recovering to strike out his counterpart and then Reinheimer.

Nola started the rookie off with three consecutive curveballs before hitting him with a 94 MPH heater and two changeups; woof. He then got Rosario to ground out.

Austin Jackson stroked a one-out single in the top of the sixth, but both Conforto and Frazier went down on strikes, Nola’s ninth and tenth of the game, ending any threat.

The Mets went down in order again in the seventh with Aaron Nola continuing to dominate, notching his eleventh strikeout of the game (Wilmer Flores).

Victor Arano came on to pitch the eighth and struck out Reinheimer and Rosario before McNeil doubled on a wild, deflected double. He scored on Austin Jackson’s single in the next at-bat to cut the Phillies lead to 4-2.

With Jackson on second after advancing on the throw home, Michael Conforto struck out looking (on a very questionable called third strike) for the third time in the game, this time as the tying run.

Pat Neshek came on to pitch the ninth for the Phillies. He got Reyes to pop out then Bautista laced a single into left to bring the tying run to the plate. Plawecki struck out and Flores flew out to right.

On Deck

Jacob deGrom (7-7, 1.81 ERA) takes the hill against Jake Arrieta (9-7, 3.33 ERA) at 4:05 p.m. on Saturday. The game will be televised on WPIX and broadcast on 710 WOR.