Philadelphia Phillies versus New York Mets: MLB Preview
The pitching power house, Philadelphia Phillies, are all set to take their historical rivals the New York Mets on May 27, in the first of the three game series which will be played at the Citi Field in New York.
While the Phillies have been on fire at home in the Citizens Bank Park, they do not have the best of records when travelling away. New York would probably emerge as the fan's favourite in the match-up as they would be sitting comfortably at home and waiting
for the Philadelphia outfit.
Roy Oswalt, who is one of the Phillies four aces, will be up against Chris Capuano of the Mets. Both the pitchers suffered severe hammering, the last time they got down on the mound in their previous appearances. Oswalt's performance was not up to the mark,
not because of his pitching, but because of the Phillies' poor offensive backing. As a pitcher, he was an ace and allowed only one run in seven innings against the Texas Rangers in the inter-league series.
Capuano got caught in the shadow of his own excellence, as he gave up an uncharacteristic six-run in the duration of five and one third inning against the New York Yankees. Part of it can be blamed at the Yankee Stadium, but that should not be a problem
this time around at the Citi Field.
Both teams have been plagued by injuries and many of their players are currently on the disabled list. From the Phillies side, Joe Blanton, Shane Victorino, Michael Stutes and Brian Schneider are all on fifteen-day Disabled List, except for Stutes who is
on the day-to-day list.
The Mets have even more injured men than the Phillies. R.A. Dickey is on the day-to-day Disabled List, but everyone else is on the fifteen-day list. Ian Davis, Jenrry Meji, Bobby Parnell, David Wright, Angel Pagan and Chris Young are included in this list.
The Mets are battling leadership problems, along with injury ones, as the financial situation of the team forced the owners to sell a minority share of the team to the Hedge Fund Manager, David Einhorn, for a good $200 million on Thursday. The Mets' Manager,
Terry Collins, has decided to accept the move with a positive attitude.
"I hope this is a good sign," Terry Collins said. "And certainly I'm very happy that this helps Fred and makes things run smoother. I'm excited for him."
The Phillies and the Mets have met twice before this season. Both times the Phillies have won two out of the three game series. It was during one of the games, between the staunch rivals, when the news of Al Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden’s assassination
broke out and both the teams left their age old rivalry behind to enjoy the moment as fans from all ends of the stadium started chanting 'USA'.
Head-to-Head Statistics
In the recent MLB series, which have witnessed 250 games, we can see that the home team has 122 wins as opposed to 128 wins for the away team.
Phillies’ home ground’s average point per game, in their Mets’ encounter, is 4.5 per game as opposed to the visitor’s 4.7 per game, implying an average gap of 0.2 per game in favour of the away team, while the total average score is 9.2 per game.
If we take Philadelphia as the away team and New York as the home team, the Mets have won 59 games as opposed to Phillies’ 63 wins. Both the team’s average score per game is 4.4 per game, while the total average is 8.8 per game.
Prediction
Keeping the statistics, home ground advantage and the team’s disabled list in mind, it is safe to say that the odds will be in favour of Phillies to win against the New York Mets, despite being the away team.
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