PHILADELPHIA — Oh, there they are.
There are the Philadelphia Phillies from earlier this year, the ones whose sloppy defense, uninspiring relief pitching and below-average offense led to their manager getting fired in early June.
All three of those things conspired together to sink the Phillies on Friday, as the Mets took the opening game of the teams’ four-game series by a score of 7-2. Philadelphia has played very well since Joe Girardi was canned and Rob Thomson replaced him. They started the season 22-29 under Girardi and were 43-23 under Thomson heading into this series. But these are still (mostly) the same players, wearing the same red pinstripe uniform, and the Mets treated them like they have all year.
