Put against Phillies: Four things to know, the prediction while the teams of the first place NL East meet in Philadelphia

Two rivals of the national league upstairs will meet in a key series of the weekend, and adding to the plot is that the Philadelphia Phillies and New York dishes are newly for first place.

Let’s drop the ground with the updated ranking of the East National League:

1. New York Mets: 45-30
2. Philadelphia Phillies: 45-30
3. Atlanta Braves: 34-39 (10 GB)
4. Nationals of Washington: 31-44 (14 GB)
5. Miami Marlins: 29-44 (15 GB)

The dishes are currently holding the equality break because they are 3-0 in tête-à-tête matches against the phillies this season (they swept them away at the end of April). As a reminder, the expansion of a field in the 12 -team playoffs and the inflated calendar of the playoffs which results from this expansion no longer meant equality break matches. Instead, the head-to-face record is the first equality break for places in the playoffs and sowing, if two or more teams ended at the end of the regular season.

Sportsline currently gives the two clubs of chances to make the playoffs – 85.9% for dishes and 91.6% for phillies. However, sowing is important, and it is quite possible that the possible NL East champion wins one of the two byes in the first coveted round in the NL tranche (the two best winners of the division of each league win these byes). In which figures are a very battered NL East race, each match counts.

Speaking of this, here is how the probable pitch aligning for this three game set at the Citizens Bank Park in Philly:

Friday’s opener is the creation of a gap on the pitching front. Wheeler is once again a competitor of Cy Young in the NL with its made of less than 3.00 and 110 stick withdrawals in 88 sleeves. Meanwhile, the dishes will be forced to start the Tidwell recruit, which is recalled from Triple-A time to make its second beginning of a career at the MLB level. He receives the appeal due to the injury suffered by Tylor Megill, who is on the list of wounded 15 days on Tuesday with a sprain in his elbow throwing. The dishes also remain without AS Kodai Senga, which has been released since June 12 with tension in the hamstrings (it is nothing injuries to Sean Manaea and Frankie Montas, who have not yet launched this season).

Phillies are favored at home when opening on Friday (-203 in Draftkings), because the dimensions also expect that they win the three-game series (-135).

Now let’s prepare the ground for this conflict for high issues with four things to know about the hostilities to come in Philly.

These teams are headed in opposite directions

As of June 11, the dishes kept a notable advance of five games in the division. However, they enter this series on a sequence of six consecutive defeats, having undergone swallows in the hands of the Rays of Tampa Bay and the braves of Atlanta of Tampa Bay. During these six defeats, the dishes were upgraded by a heavy margin of 41-14, which means that nothing worked well. The dishes were swept away in any of their 22 series before the current losses sequence. It is also their longest sequence of defeats since they dropped seven in a row in early June 2023. To put an end more, the dishes had the best baseball record before the current skid.

As for the phillies, they enter this confrontation after winning eight of their last 10. This stretch includes the taking of two of the three of the powerful Cubs, sweeping the Blue Jays and winning three of the four of the Marlins. During this period, the phillies carried out 51 points scored against 32 points authorized. The Mets series marks the start of a difficult schedule for Philly. Since the first Friday match, 18 of the next 21 Philly games have come against winning teams, and 15 of these matches are against the teams currently in the playoff position. In addition, the three games against the lost teams against the improvement of the brave.

Juan Soto is more like his peak

During his first season since who left the Yankees in favor of a record pact of $ 765 million with the food, Soto took some time to find his place. On June 28, Soto endured a day of 0 for 4 on the plate against the Logly White Sox, and that dropped his oblique bar line for the season at .224 / .352 / .393. Admittedly, this is not a bad production, especially once you adapt to the conditions of league and stadium, but it is not near Peak Soto. June, however, found Soto in vintage form. Since the calendar has overturned, it cuts .310 / .481 / .621 with five circuits in 58 AT-BAT and 18 steps against only 10 sticks to the stick. It raised his OPS Global + to 143. Yes, this sequence of defeats is always intact, but it is not Soto’s fault. Do not be surprised if his presence is felt this weekend in Philly.

Phillies need Jesús Luzardo to straighten

In a potential rubber match, phils will trot Luzardo, their major acquisition of the offseason in a business with Miami. He looked like another first line presence in the rotation of Philly for a large part of this season, but in his last four departures, he bleed 25 points and nine involuntary walks in 16 rounds. This section includes a strong beginning against impactful cubs, but otherwise it was a disaster. During his last departure, a tour of June 17 against the Marlins, he granted four points on six strokes and four steps in five rounds against one of the worst alignments of MLB. If there is hope to find, it is that the offensive of the food this season has been clearly worse against the left -handers than they did against right -handers.

These two rivals will not be found for a long time

Whatever the results of the whole weekend, it will simmer for a while. After Sunday, the dishes and the phillies will not meet before a series of three games in the Queens scheduled from August 25 to 27. Then the regular season series ends with four games in Philly from September 8 to 11. It is of course quite possible that the division is always at stake at this late hour, therefore, to repeat, each match will probably have an importance in this race NL East.

Prediction

We are going to bow to recent trends, the advantage of the Philly field and its large pitching advantage in the opening. The phillies take two of the threeWith Luzardo bouncing in the final.