Five players to watch in first Phillies-Mets series of 2018 season

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ATLANTA, GA – MARCH 30: Carlos Santana #41 of the Philadelphia Phillies hits an RBI sacrifice fly during the eleventh inning against the Atlanta Braves at SunTrust Park on March 30, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Photo by Daniel Shirey/Getty Images) /

The Phillies are in New York to face the New York Mets for a now two-game series before heading to Philly for their home opener.

After dropping their first series of the season against the Braves in Atlanta, the Phillies travel to New York to face the Mets in a two-game series after the first game was snowed out. There are lots of players you should keep an eye out for.

Here are the five players to watch throughout this series versus the New York Mets.

Rhys Hoskins

Phillies fans are always keeping their eye out for Rhys Hoskins – particularly because he amazed baseball fans last season when he put up eighteen home runs in his first 50 games played.

This season, Hoskins has already homered once and he’s on pace for many more. Some say he’ll be among the league leaders this year. In the first three games combined, Hoskins is five-for-10 with two doubles and three RBI.

Last season, Hoskins went 5-for-34 against the New York Mets and struck out ten times. Additionally, he is one-for-two against RHP Matt Harvey who is the scheduled starter for Game One. He may encounter a problem in Game Two of the series when the Phillies face Noah Syndergaard. Hoskins has never faced Syndergaard in his career but could struggle against the powerful righty.

Despite his struggles against the Mets so far, he is a great contributor to the team’s offense, which has the potential to win this series against the Mets.

Cesar Hernandez

Second baseman Cesar Hernandez seemed to find his groove against the New York Mets as he led the team in hits against the Mets last season. He racked up 21 hits, including two home runs, as well as six runs batted in. Although his strikeout-hit ratio against the club is 22:21, he has still contributed ten runs.

Throughout his MLB career, Hernandez faced RHP Matt Harvey, the Game One starter for the Mets, eleven times, getting four hits, one RBI, and five strikeouts. However, things looked like they have changed – as Hernandez is batting over .300 to start off the season.

If Hernandez plays in Game Two of the series, he has to face Syndergaard as well. Hernandez is just one-for-11 against him. Wednesday may be the time Kapler plays the matchup and gives Hernandez a day off.

Maikel Franco

Maikel Franco definitely should be another player to keep an eye on. Franco went yard six times throughout seventeen games against the Mets last season, leading the Phillies.

Although Franco has had a very slow start to the season, this should be the series where Franco gets back to his normal self. This season, Franco is 1-for-7 with a slash line of .143/.333/.476. The 25-year-old third baseman had a similarly slow start to the season last season, staying below .200 for four games in the early stages of the season.

Against Harvey, Franco has managed to stay above .300, going three-for-eight in his major-league career. Out of those three hits, two of them are home runs. He has only struck out twice against him, and that doesn’t seem to slow him down.

Against Syndergaard, who will start in the series finale for the Mets, Franco went one-for-four last season. In his career, Franco has a .308 average in 13 at-bats. He has one double, one RBI, and three strikeouts versus Syndergaard in his career.

Carlos Santana

Newly acquired veteran Carlos Santana has faced the New York Mets nine times in his career. He has a .241/.410/.414 line against them with two doubles, a home run, nine walks, and six RBI.

Noah Syndergaard

2017 was a lost year for Noah Syndergaard as he made just seven starts the entire season. He missed five months due to a torn lat muscle when he was supposed to be following up an All-Star 2016 season.

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Syndergaard came back strong in his first start this year, striking out ten Cardinals without allowing a single walk in six innings. He did allow four runs on six hits, but a 3.86 fielding-independent pitching from his first start indicates that his start was much better than the run total indicated.

In six career starts against the Phillies, Syndergaard has a 1.78 ERA, 0.877 WHIP, and 10.7 strikeouts per nine innings. Maikel Franco is the only player on the roster with a career batting average over .250 against Syndergaard. Cesar Hernandez, Odubel Herrera, and Aaron Altherr have all struggled against him. The Phillies will have to hope some of the players who have yet to face him in their career can find some success.

Next: How do Phillies rebound this week against Mets?

Facing Syndergaard in the second game of this now-abridged series will make it significantly harder for them to win the series.

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