Phillies handed a frustrating loss by Mets

PHILADELPHIA -- Bryce Harper is not thinking about the schedule or looking at the scoreboard, although he knows the calendar turns to September on Sunday and the Phillies are 3 1/2 games behind the Cubs for the second National League Wild Card spot with 28 games to play. He knows teams have been in worse spots than this.

He knows this because he has heard stories about the 2007 Phillies.

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“Seventeen games to play?” Harper said following Saturday night’s 6-3 loss to the Mets at Citizens Bank Park. “So, why not?”

Harper knows the story of that ’07 squad because he played with former Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth for seven seasons in Washington, and Werth occasionally mentioned Philadelphia's historic comeback. The ’07 Phillies trailed the Mets by seven games with 17 to play. The Mets went 5-12 the rest of the way. The Phillies went 13-4 to capture their first National League East title since 1993.

Those were a crazy few weeks of baseball 12 years ago. The Phillies played out of their minds, while the Mets threw away their chances.

It would be better business for the ’19 Phillies to simply start playing better baseball, beginning Sunday night in their series finale against the Mets. The Phillies need to win to avoid the sweep, but they also need to win because with every game they lose, the math to catch the Cubs becomes more difficult. What the ’07 Mets did was rare. There is nothing to suggest the same thing will happen to the Cubs or anybody else in the NL.

If the Cubs finish just 14-13, the Phillies will need to go 19-9 to finish ahead of them or 18-10 to tie.

Maybe that is why Harper never bothered to check the scoreboard behind him in right field to see the Cubs had lost on Saturday to Milwaukee.

“We’ve got to win, you know what I’m saying?” Harper said. “If we don’t win, it doesn’t matter. We’ve got to try to come in here, try to win the ballgame tomorrow and do what we can as a club.”

Saturday’s loss proved frustrating, for so many reasons. The Mets had lost six consecutive games entering the series. Left-hander Jason Vargas allowed five runs in four-plus innings against his former team. New York took an aggressive approach before the July 31 Trade Deadline and acquired Marcus Stroman from the Blue Jays, and traded Vargas to the Phillies for a light-hitting Double-A catcher because he had become expendable.

Vargas is 0-2 with a 5.18 ERA in six starts with the Phillies. Stroman, who pitches on Sunday night, is 1-1 with a 4.91 ERA in his first five starts with the Mets.

“You always want to pitch well, but the fact you’re seeing a lot of familiar faces, you really do want to pitch well,” Vargas said. “You tip your cap. They had a good game plan and they stuck to it, and it wasn’t our day.”

Rhys Hoskins was ejected for the first time in his career after he slammed his helmet into the ground and said something to home-plate umpire Will Little following a called third strike in the third inning that was well above the strike zone. Hoskins had a similar pitch called a strike in the first inning, too.

“Look, we’re in an emotional time of the year,” Hoskins said. “Every game means a lot. I’m a little bit frustrated at myself coming up in that situation and not getting the job done. I argued my case just like every other hitter does when they disagree with a call, and I guess they took that emotion as I was attacking him. He has the right to make that call -- unfortunate in a game as big as this one was.”

Harper hit a solo homer to left-center in the sixth inning to cut the Mets’ lead to three. The Phillies then loaded the bases with no outs against Mets left-hander Steven Matz. They scored just one run, as Mets third baseman Todd Frazier made a nice leaping catch to rob Cesar Hernandez of a line-drive hit down the left-field line. Jean Segura hit a leadoff double in the seventh, but the Phillies did not score again.

"Super frustrating,” manager Gabe Kapler said. “It's a game we have to win. ... I think it's more maintaining what we've been talking about mostly, which is every game is critical, every game is huge. We have to come out tomorrow and be better."