The Phillies bullpen got a big boost this off-season with Brad Lidge as their new closer. This makes their 8-9 innings really strong especially against the Mets. Warning: these are not pretty statistics.
Tom Gordon, the closer for part of the year for the Phillies last year had excellent numbers against the Mets. He had 7 appearances against the Mets last year all of them were extremely effective:
April 11: 1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 SO, Save
August 27: 1.0 IP, 1 SO
August 29: 1.0 IP, 1 BB, Hold
August 30: 1.0 IP, Win
Sept 14: 1.1 IP, 3 SO, Win
Sept 15: 0.2 IP, 1 SO, Hold
Sept 16: 1.0 IP 1 SO
Total: 7.0 IP, 1 H, 8 SO, 1 BB, 0.00 ERA, 1 Save, 2 Holds, 2 Wins
Career: 21 G, 3-1, 7 saves, 21.2 IP, 2.08 ERA
Career at Shea: 12 G, 1-1, 4 saves, 11.1 IP, 2.38 ERA
Not one run scored against Flash Gordon this season at all. This is not a good situation because he is the setup man. The Mets cannot put themselves in a situation where they are down in the eighth because their chases of scoring their after are pretty low. To put this in perspective, Gordon's ERA was 4.73 for the season, and 0.00 against the Mets.
Brad Lidge only had one appearance against the Mets last year. It was on September 8th and he pitched a no hit, one strikeout inning. In his career, he has 14 G against the Mets posting a 1-1 record, 16.2 IP and a 2.70 ERA. At Shea Stadium, he has 7 Games, 1-0 record, 9.0 IP, and a 0.00 ERA. He is also very good against the Mets.
All in all, the Mets have to score early and often this year to beat the Phillies.
On a site note: Another website was added to the blog list on the side: Mets 4 Life. It is a great site that is updated very often (everyday) and has great analysis. Go check it out. If you have a site that you would want on the list to the side, please email me at eteich@umd.edu
