Staring pitcher and reigning NL Rookie of the Year winner Jacob deGrom.
Kevin’s Point of View
The Philadelphia Phillies started a three game series with the New York Mets on Monday afternoon. It was the Mets home opener and fortunately for them they had reigning National League Rookie of the Year Jacob deGrom on the mound.
deGrom did not have his best stuff but finished as advertised with a stat line of 6.1 IP, 7 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO.The Phillies had their opportunities with runners on but could not capitalize.
The Phillies had veteran Aaron Harang on the rubber. Harang did his part to keep the Phillies in the game with a stat line of 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO. Mets catcher Travis d’Arnaud and center fielder Juan Lagares each had an RBI to contribute to the Mets 2-0 victory.
The Phillies offense continued to struggle by getting shutout for the second time this season in only seven games. Even though it is early in the season the Phillies were tied for the least amount of runs scored in the MLB after yesterday. Going into the season the offense was the Phillies biggest weakness and it seems as if that is definitely true.
The pitching as a whole has held up, ranking sixth in the National League with a 3.09 era.
The Phillies did not have a lot to look forward to going into game two of the series the next night against Mets’ ace Matt Harvey. Harvey has not missed a beat coming back from Tommy John’s surgery.
Harvey received his second win in as many starts but the Phillies did manage to get three runs off him, which should be taken as a victory. The problem with that is the Phillies’ starting pitcher David Buchanan got hit hard with a stat line of 5.2 IP, 9 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO. That will not get the job done when facing Harvey.
The Phillies did make a valiant comeback, after falling behind 6-3 they cut it to 6-5 off of Jeff Francoeur’s solo shot in the top of the ninth. That was all they could as they dropped to 3-5 on the season.
Second baseman Chase Utley was a bright spot for the Phillies with three hits, two of which were home runs, three runs batted in and two runs scored.
Utley was also hit in the back by a Harvey fastball in this game. The pitch was retaliation for two unintentional hit batters on Buchanan’s part. The home umpire warned both teams after Utley was hit and nothing came of it after that.
The only part that mattered was the final score of the game, which was 6-5 in favor of the Mets. Speaking realistically The Phillies will most likely struggle to ever get over .500 again this season.
