Over his last nine starts heading into Friday night’s matchup versus the Philadelphia Phillies, New York Mets left-hander Steven Matz owned a 2.73 ERA with 50 strikeouts, 10 walks, and 1.04 WHIP.

His ERA and WHIP over that span ranked ninth among National League starters with over 50 innings pitched since July 1, and his 1.71 walks per nine and 0.85 home runs allowed per nine were good for fifth and 11th among the same group, respectively.

With the Mets kicking off a make-or-break ten-game homestand against their Wild Card neighbors, the Phils, they’d need their homegrown southpaw to step up once again.

Matz struck out Jean Segura swinging at a 94 MPH, high-zone sinker in a perfect first frame and worked around two walks and a Maikel Franco in a scoreless second, striking out Phillies right-hander, Zach Eflin, on a sinker to end the inning.

Segura doubled to start the third and Matz hit Bryce Harper on the hand (thankfully — Matz’ 93 MPH sinker was headed directly for Harper’s exposed mid-swing face), giving Philadelphia their first real opportunity of the evening.

Matz served the Phils’ first baseman four consecutive off-speed pitches (slider, slider, curve, curve) before getting Hoskins to attack a high-outside sinker, inducing an inning-ending, absolutely brilliant 6-4-3 double play courtesy of Amed Rosario and Robinson Cano to escape the two-on, one-out jam.

The Long Island-bred lefty worked a 1-2-3 inning in the fourth, getting three groundball outs via Scott Kingery, Cesar Hernandez, and Franco, but surrendered his first run of the game on back-to-back doubles from Segura and J.T. Realmuto in the fifth, cutting the Mets’ lead to 2-1.

Matz walked Hoskins to start the sixth (stole second later in the frame), struck out Kingery on a 1-2 changeup for his fourth punchout of the game, and got Hernandez to ground out, bringing a notorious Mets-killer in Franco at the plate with the tying run in scoring position.

Despite that, Matz played things perfectly, attacking with three consecutive high-zone pitches (sinker, slider, changeup) to get ahead 1-2 before dropping a 78 MPH curveball in that Franco (hat tip in order) went down and got for an RBI single into centerfield, scoring Hoskins and tying the game at two.

Jose Pirela singled to put runners at the corners, and that was the end of Matz’ evening. Luis Avilan walked pinch-hitter Phil Gosselin to load the bases but Brad Brach got Segura to fly out, finalizing Matz’ line at two runs allowed on six hits, striking out four and walking three over 5.2 innings pitched.

Over his 109 pitches (67 strikes), Matz racked up 13 swings-and-misses (seven on 27 changeups thrown), 19 called strikes (12 on 49 sinkers) and induced an average exit velocity of 87.8 MPH.

Steven Matz lowered his season ERA from 4.04 to 4.00 on Friday and has a 2.27 ERA with 35 strikeouts, 10 walks, and 1.09 WHIP over his last six outings (35.2 IP).