Mets odd men out watching Philly-Atlanta series
Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Zack Wheeler (45) works from the mound in the first inning of Game 2 of a baseball NL Division Series against Atlanta, Monday, Oct. 9, 2023, in Atlanta. Credit: AP/John Bazemore
PHILADELPHIA — Pick a worse October for the Mets.
Between firing a manager, then hiring a president of baseball operations, then having a GM resign, and now trying to fill both vacancies, they can turn on the TV to see the Phillies and Atlanta battle for a trip to the NLCS.
A week earlier, even the Marlins were part of the playoff conversation, too.
We’re old enough to remember when the Mets and Bobby Cox’s boys had a real October hate-fest going in the late '90s. A decade later, it was the Mets and Phillies swapping “team to beat” taunts from both ends of the Jersey Turnpike, spitting real venom from the City of Brotherly Love.
Sure, there were a few painful late-season collapses mixed in there, but anything is better than the empty feeling in Flushing this month — while being forced to watch the current NL East juggernauts having all the fun. Being irrelevant is what stings the most during these playoffs, and replaced on the big stage.
The East runs through Atlanta and Philly now, with both trading punches in the Division Series for the second straight year, as the Mets gawk like a front-row spectator. On the eve of Wednesday’s Game 3, with the best-of-five series tied at 1, the Phillies were not only reeling from their blown 4-0 lead in the previous night’s 5-4 loss at Truist Park, but digesting the relayed info about Atlanta’s Orlando Arcia mocking Bryce Harper for his baserunning blunder on the game’s final 8-5-3 double play.
“I don’t think anybody needs any motivation right now,” Phillies manager Rob Thomson said Tuesday at Citizens Bank Park. “But if that adds to our motivation, that’s great.”
With the Phillies choosing to rest Tuesday rather than work out, Thomson was the only one available to provide an official response to Arcia’s clubhouse antics after Game 2. But kicking the Phillies — and particularly the dangerous two-time MVP Harper — right before two games at their raucous ballpark was like head-butting a beehive. Or as an opposing coach described to Thomson after last year’s postseason, “four hours of hell.”
Thanks to the pitch clock, it’s closer to three hours now. But there’s a reason the Phillies are 24-11 (.686) during the playoffs at the Bank, the best winning percentage of any team, at any park (minimum of 20 games). And it sounds like the Off-Broad Street bullies are in Atlanta’s heads, especially after dropping two straight in Philly last October to lose the Division Series.
“It’s as nuts of a place as I’ve ever been, that’s for sure,” Atlanta manager Brian Snitker said.
Reliever A.J. Minter, a seven-year vet, called Citizens Bank Park the “loudest stadium I’ve ever been in.” You can bet any visit by Atlanta, which currently has displaced the Mets as the most despised East foe, gets the crowd cranked up to 11.
“We know Philly fans,” Minter said. “We know them pretty well . . . It’s definitely going to be chaotic. It’s going to be loud, and we just have to be ready for it.”
Not only was Monday’s Game 2 an instant classic — both for Atlanta’s late-inning, two-homer comeback and a brilliant leaping, game-saving catch by Michael Harris II — it was a source of further irritation for Mets’ loyalists, who got to see a pair of old friends once again turn in dazzling performances on the October stage.
There was Zack Wheeler, famously dissed by Mets GM Brodie Van Wagenen after bolting for the Phillies, firing a no-hitter into the sixth inning and tying the Phillies' postseason strikeout record (10 Ks) before his former teammate Travis d’Arnaud ultimately bounced him with a two-run homer. Looking back, it was Wheeler who turned out to be the most reliable ace from the Mets’ stable of young stars — accounting for Jacob deGrom’s lengthy medical absences — and yet he ends up as the No. 1 for their NL East rival.
The Mets’ passing on Wheeler in free agency was a business decision by the Wilpons, and Van Wagenen infamously summed up his Flushing career as “two good half seasons” that the pitcher parlayed into $118 million. It didn’t take Brodie long to eat those words, and he’s been munching on them ever since. As for d’Arnaud, the Mets flat-out released the struggling catcher in 2019 after only 25 plate appearances, but he rebounded to be a steady bat with decent pop for four teams, settling in with Atlanta the past four seasons. With d’Arnaud’s clutch blast Monday off his former Mets batterymate, he now has 10 homers and 29 RBIs in 53 career playoff games.
“He’s such a good pitcher,” d’Arnaud said. “Truthfully, I think I just got lucky.”
For the Mets, this October has just been a continuing series of unfortunate events, the aggravating sequel to a pricey and pathetic regular season. For owner Steve Cohen and new baseball ops president David Stearns, they should consider this Division Series between the Phillies and Atlanta an instructional video. The Mets have a lot of catching up to do.
On the bright side? One of these annoying NL East teams has to lose.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
