The New York Mets came home to face the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday carrying a six-game skid and a 34-47 record, a slide that has turned a division series into something more urgent than a routine meeting. Philadelphia arrived at 45-36, and the gap in the standings was only part of the pressure on a club trying to stop the bleeding.
That is why Phillies Vs Mets was drawing attention now: the Mets had just been swept by the Cubs, and the damage was not limited to one bad inning or one bad night. They lost 9-6 on Tuesday after a Monday rainout, were swept in a doubleheader on Wednesday, and then left a season-high 14 runners on base in an extra-innings loss on Thursday. Across those seven games against the Cubs in 2026, the Mets lost all seven, and the issues kept repeating in plain sight.
The defensive breakdowns were the clearest sign of how far things had gone. The Mets led 3-0 in the first game of the doubleheader before the Cubs scored 10 unanswered runs, then committed six errors in the nightcap and lost 10-5. Carlos Mendoza said the errors were extremely routine plays, which made the collapse harder to explain and easier to remember.
Amid that mess, Francisco Alvarez has been one of the few Mets producing at the plate. He hit three home runs in the Cubs series, and since returning from the IL on June 9 he has gone 4-for-14 with a.294/.345/.529 line, four home runs and a 145 wRC+ in 14 games. For the season, Alvarez has eight home runs, a.258/.326/.436 slash line, 115 wRC+ and 0.9 fWAR, a useful reminder that the lineup has not been empty even while the results have been.
The contradiction is what makes the series interesting. A player can be warming up while the team around him is unraveling, and that has been the Mets’ problem: the offense has flashes, but the pitching and defense have been too porous to hold anything together. Kodai Senga has been part of that picture too, with a 10.08 ERA after seven starts before being moved to a bullpen role.
The Phillies had already taken two of three from the Mets last weekend, so this was not just a chance to reset after the Cubs series. It was a test of whether the Mets could turn one encouraging stretch from Alvarez into something that actually changes a game, or whether the same holes would show up again against a division opponent that has already made them pay.
