The battle for the lead in the NL East commences on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park between the Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets.
Blade Tidwell is scheduled to pitch for New York, while Zack Wheeler will take the mound for Philadelphia.
Phillies vs. Mets prediction, preview
Blade Tidwell is making his second career MLB start on Friday night. Tidwell has spent most of the season in the minor leagues but was called up for a spot start in early May against the Cardinals. That start went poorly, with Tidwell giving up six runs in 3.2 innings against St. Louis. Tidwell is being called in for another spot start, this time in Philadelphia, one of the hardest places to pitch in baseball. The Phillies’ crowd should be rowdy for this massive Friday night game against their division rivals, and they will know that Tidwell is inexperienced. If things start to go poorly for Tidwell, his start could unravel quickly. Luckily for the Mets, they have the third-best bullpen in baseball, sporting a 3.16 ERA as a unit. If Tidwell can just give the Mets a halfway-decent start, the bullpen could carry them through to give them a chance to win.
Zack Wheeler has been one of the best pitchers in baseball over the past few years. Wheeler spent a couple of years in those great Mets rotations, which featured Matt Harvey, Noah Syndergaard and Jacob deGrom, but the Mets opted to pay other players and let Wheeler go. Wheeler has found a home and won a World Series in Philadelphia, much to the chagrin of Mets fans. Wheeler is having another great season in 2025, with a 2.76 ERA through 14 starts this season. Wheeler is averaging 11.3 strikeouts per nine innings, the fourth-highest mark in baseball among qualified pitchers. His 0.89 WHIP ranks behind only Tarik Skubal and Paul Skenes at the top of the major league leaderboard. Wheeler should be able to translate his dominant form into a win in the first game of this pivotal series.
Phillies vs. Mets pick, best bet
The Phillies and Mets are currently tied atop the NL East. The Phillies won the division in 2024, but the Mets came out on top when the two teams faced in the postseason and advanced to the NLCS. There has only been one series between the teams so far this season, and it came in April, very early in the season. The Mets swept that three-game series in New York. However, this Mets team is not the same one that started the season so brilliantly. New York has lost six straight games, blowing the division lead it had built over Philadelphia. Its starting pitching has started to fall off, and the offense is ice-cold. This matchup against Zack Wheeler will be a tough time for the Mets to try to turn it around.
My favorite bet for this game is a same-game parlay with the Phillies Moneyline and Alec Bohm to have two or more hits + runs + RBIs. Tidwell showed in his first spot start that he is not ready to face MLB competition. This dangerous Phillies lineup in the pressure cooker of Citizens Bank Park will not make things any easier for Tidwell. The Phillies should get a couple of runs, at minimum, off Tidwell. Wheeler will do what he always does and limit the Mets to one or two runs at most. Philadelphia should cruise to a win and take control of the NL East lead once again. Alec Bohm should play a key role in the win as well. Over the past two weeks, Bohm has been batting .365 with a .949 OPS. He has 12 RBIs across those 13 games and should generate more production against Tidwell tonight.
