Bryce Harper: Phillies ‘got to have a sense of urgency’ after sweep by Mets cuts NL East lead to four games

NEW YORK — Bryce Harper knows how this could’ve gone.

The Phillies could’ve come here, to this ballpark that’s felt to them more like a torture chamber, won a series against the Mets, stuffed the deed to the National League East in their luggage, and sped home down the Jersey Turnpike.

Instead, they got swept. Humbled, actually.

“That shouldn’t happen,” Harper said as the clubhouse emptied Wednesday night after the Phillies got muzzled, 6-0, by Mets rookie Nolan McLean. “We shouldn’t have come in here and had those types of games.”

» READ MORE: The Phillies and Mets had different approaches at the trade deadline. Whose moves will be enough?

So, the NL East is a race again. The Phillies got outscored 25-8 over the three games. They have lost 10 in a row at Citi Field, including the two playoff losses last year that are burned into their psyche.

Their seven-game lead over the Mets when the week began is down to only four. Oh, and they lost the season series to the Mets, the tiebreaker if they finished deadlocked for the division title.

But the sky isn’t actually falling. Not really. If the Phillies (76-57) go even 14-15 the rest of the way, the Mets (72-61) would need to go 18-11 to catch them. And the Mets haven’t had a 29-game stretch that good since May and June.

“It’s one series,” said manager Rob Thomson, whose job as the public face of the organization sometimes requires projecting positivity. “And I know it’s against the Mets. And admittedly so, we need to play better. But we will. We’ve got a good club, and that’s not going to change.”

Indeed, the true test of these Phillies will be not what happened over the last three games but rather how they respond to it, beginning Thursday night at home against the Atlanta Braves.

Harper knows that, too. As he sees it, that’s the lesson in what happened here this week.

“It’s [about] understanding that we have to have a sense of urgency as well, you know?” Harper said. “We can’t just say, ‘Hey, we’re four games up, and we’ve got a lead on them.’”

Say this, though: The Phillies might have awoken the Mets.

Entering the week, the Mets lost 37 of their previous 61 games, with starting pitching that consistently failed to get through five innings, a bullpen that looked gassed, and an offense that struggled more than it should against lefties, in particular.

» READ MORE: Inside Rob Thomson’s process to ‘mix and match’ playing time among the Phillies’ five outfielders

But there they were, stringing together five consecutive hits to open the third inning against Taijuan Walker, including back-to-back-to-back RBI singles by Francisco Lindor, Juan Soto, and Pete Alonso. And there was McLean, 24 years old and making his third major league start, allowing two hits through seven innings.

If you couldn’t already feel a tectonic shift beneath the feet of the NL East powers, well, the place shook in the eighth inning when 41,893 patrons roared after outfielders Soto and Brandon Nimmo made back-to-back throws to the plate to keep the Phillies from scoring on sacrifice flies.

“I don’t think it was pressing as much as not seeing [McLean] before,” Thomson said. “There are times I think that guys try to do too much. But I kind of chalked it up to just not seeing him.”

It wasn’t only McLean, though. Chew on these numbers from the series:

McLean pounded the strike zone with hard, heavy sinkers and sweeping sliders. He threw curveballs and changeups and four-seam fastballs. In preparation, the Phillies studied video of him in the minor leagues, even against their triple A club earlier this season. It didn’t help.

In the first inning, McLean retired Turner, Schwarber, and Harper on nine pitches. He had a seven-pitch second inning. He set down the side on six pitches in the sixth.

It was almost too easy.

» READ MORE: Kyle Schwarber has a strong MVP case. History shows being a DH will likely cost him.

“Good heater, obviously that slider and changeup really plays well,” Harper said. “He’s going to have a long career, and we’ve going to face him for a long time.

“And I know they’ve got a couple more [young pitchers] coming.”

Indeed, in two weeks, the Phillies may face 22-year-old Jonah Tong, who will make his major league debut Friday. Maybe righty Brandon Sproat will be in the majors by then, too.

The Mets are pinning their hopes to young pitching.

But those hopes are greater now thanks to how the Phillies played over the last three games.

“I don’t think that we’re focused on that,” Schwarber said. “I think we’re focused on ourselves. It’s about us in the clubhouse, us as a team.

“There’s disappointment, right? Who likes to lose? No one likes to lose. But there’s nothing that can really faze us. We’ve been swept before this year. We bounced back. So, we’ve got to do the same thing, and I’m not worried about it.

Mark your calendars anyway for Sept. 8-12 in Philadelphia and a Phillies-Mets showdown that will carry more weight than the Phillies bargained for.

“It’s a good team over there, obviously,” Harper said. “Teams can get hot and get hot at the right time and get rolling. But I trust everyone in here. We’ve got to have a sense of urgency to win games. We’ve got to show up and play our best baseball, especially right now and down the stretch.”