Phillies weekend series with Mets is bigger than it seems | Bob Ford

The Miami Marlins, those noted Phillies-killers, have become the first National League team mathematically eliminated from a possible berth in the postseason. Next up to receive the dreaded “x” next to their name in the standings, although a week or so behind, are the Pittsburgh Pirates.

On a feel-good night at the park Wednesday, the Phils closed out a series against those Pirates with an easy win. That’s how it was supposed to be this season. The Phillies didn’t sweep them, of course. That would be asking a lot. But two out of three isn’t bad, particularly by the Phils’ standards.

With this team, you take your bright spots where you find them. Rhys Hoskins broke out of his slump, at least for a night, and Vince Velasquez gave up only two earned runs, five fewer than his previous start, against Miami.

It would be nice to pronounce them healed after a laugher, but that’s not how baseball works. More likely, they will continue to flail through the schedule, alternating decent play with abysmal baseball in equal measure. And if you’re looking for a real measuring stick, the New York Mets might provide that this weekend.

It wasn’t that long ago that the Phils could at least count themselves as demonstrably better than the Mets in the NL East. Maybe their pitching let them down this season, and maybe their core contributors weren’t as productive as expected, but at least they had that much. The Braves and the Nationals will finish ahead of them, sure, but that was where they planted their staff in the ground. Make it the slogan for 2019: Still better than the Mets.

Well, not so fast.

In mid-July, the Mets were stumbling along at 40-51 and the hot-seat watch on manager Mickey Callaway was in full swing. At the same time, the Phillies were 47-44, drifting, certainly, but looking capable of coming out of the All-Star break and righting themselves. And very certainly looking better than the Mets.

Since then, however, New York has gone 27-14, while the Phillies have played just a shade above .500 ball. The Mets felt good enough about themselves to acquire starter Marcus Stroman at the trade deadline. The Phillies contented themselves with quieter transactions, including picking up a Mets discard in Jason Vargas.

It was possible that Stroman and Vargas would face each other on Sunday, but the Phils elected to flip Vargas and Zach Eflin in the final two games of the series. Vargas will start Saturday against Steven Matz, and Eflin on Sunday against Stroman.

In all probability, the move was made to give Eflin more rest, but there’s no denying that the optics of a live comparison of what the two teams did at the trade deadline – on national television, no less – might not have been all that good for the Phillies. If nothing else, the Phils are all about the optics.

The series begins Friday with Aaron Nola against Zach Wheeler. That means the Phils don’t have to see either Jacob deGrom or Noah Syndergaard in this series, but they will still have the pitching advantage at the outset of only the first game.

Every time Nola pitches, it feels like a must-win for the Phillies, simply because the rest of their rotation is such an unpredictable lot. They have lost two of his last four starts, however, and Friday’s game will be freighted with added importance because the Mets are suddenly on the rear bumper, not just for third place in the division but for standing in the wild-card race. Maybe the Phils are getting them at the right time. New York has lost five straight, but that has a way of turning around, too.

The most painful point of comparison regarding the Phillies and the Mets has been between first basemen Rhys Hoskins and rookie Pete Alonso. At the beginning of the season, most scouts felt they were just about even in talent and potential.

Alonso had a great NCAA career at Florida and zipped through the Mets’ farm system. Hoskins, two years older, got to the major leagues for 50 games in 2017 and has been here since.

Well, Alonso is sitting on 42 home runs, 101 runs batted in, and a .963 OPS, while Hoskins has struggled terribly in the last month and looks unlikely to approach his production numbers of a year ago.

He broke out against the Pirates on Wednesday night, with his first multi-hit game since July 24, so that was a good sign. Between those games, he batted .127 and his average dropped more than 30 points.

Almost as much as sneaking into the postseason, getting Hoskins on track by the end of the year is a major priority for the Phils. If he can’t be depended upon to pair his power with that of Bryce Harper for the future, some plans will go out the window.

Of course, a lot of plans already have. If the bottom were to fall out in the final month, some bodies would follow those hopes out the window, too.

The optimistic view is that the Phillies will be more than just that, and perhaps catch enough lightning to make the playoffs for the first time since 2011. The starting point for proving they can be better is showing they are still better than the Mets. Let’s see how that goes.