Phillies earn another series win and first place in the NL East with a 7-1 win over the Mets

Imagine this scenario: It’s the middle innings of a playoff game, and Juan Soto steps to the plate for the Mets. The score is probably close. Maybe there are runners on base.

Which Phillies pitcher should face him?

Before you answer, go rewatch Soto’s at-bat in the sixth inning Sunday night. It lasted six pitches, including an up-and-in sinker that he waved at while ducking out of the way. And when it ended, with a swing through a 97-mph heater, the Mets slugger smiled and shook his head.

Look closer, and you might even detect a slight bow from Soto to Jesús Luzardo.

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“I’ve known Soto for a long time,” Luzardo said after the Phillies won, 7-1, and retook sole possession of first place in the NL East. “I consider him a friend. But when we’re playing, just we compete against each other.”

OK, so Luzardo’s mastery of Soto didn’t decide the outcome. Far from it. At the time, the Phillies led by five runs. They were well on their way to a fourth consecutive winning series and their 10th win in 13 games.

It wasn’t even the game’s most memorable at-bat. That belonged to Kyle Schwarber, whose 432-foot homer off the ivy-covered center-field batter’s eye started a five-run fourth inning against Mets starter David Peterson.

Super-sub Edmundo Sosa, part of a makeshift lineup in the Phillies’ first game against a lefty starting pitcher in two weeks, delivered three hits, among them a three-run homer to make it 5-0. Rookie infielder Otto Kemp caught the only fly ball hit to him in his first game in the majors in left field.

“I had a game that I’ve been dreaming of having for a couple of days,” Sosa, starting for only the second time since June 9, said through a team interpreter.

None of the three games this weekend between the division rivals was close. The Phillies won a 10-2 knee-slapper in the opener; the Mets rebounded by slugging seven solo homers in a 10-2 giggler. The finale lacked drama, too.

They won’t meet again until Aug. 25 in New York. There will be a lot more sweaty summer nights before then. The trade deadline will come and go on July 31. Both rosters will surely churn and change.

But the Phillies (47-31) and Mets (46-32) have two of the four best records in the National League, so it’s never too soon to dream of a rematch of last year’s divisional round series, won in four games by the underdog Mets.

And Soto, New York’s $765 million man, would be a main character.

Want to bet Luzardo is, too?

“He was really good,” manager Rob Thomson said after Luzardo held the Mets to three singles and a walk in 6⅔ scoreless innings. “Velocity was good. They put some pitches on him the first couple of innings, but then he really started pounding the zone and attacking. That’s what he needs to do.”

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For two months, Luzardo did it as well as any pitcher in baseball, posting a 2.15 ERA through 11 starts. But then he stumbled badly in back-to-back starts and made adjustments to his delivery when the Phillies suspected he was tipping pitches.

With two solid outings in his last three starts, Luzardo is back on track. But he’s also up to 90⅓ innings after being limited to 66⅔ last season by injuries.

By October, he might be best used out of the bullpen.

The Phillies won’t have lefty José Alvarado, who can return in August from an 80-game suspension for failing a drug test but is ineligible for the postseason. Matt Strahm, the top lefty in the bullpen, tossed a spotless ninth inning to close out the Mets, an encouraging sign amid recent struggles.

Executives across the sport expect the Phillies to shop for bullpen help before the deadline. But the Phillies also figure to have a surplus of starters, especially after the All-Star break when Aaron Nola returns from a stress fracture in a rib and top prospect Andrew Painter makes his long-awaited debut.

Surely, one of those starters can aid the bullpen. Maybe it could be Luzardo.

The at-bat against Soto augurs well.

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Luzardo met Soto in 2017, when they were rookie-ball teammates in the Nationals’ farm system. They were teenagers (Luzardo was 19, one year older than Soto) and fast friends.

“We hung out a lot,” Luzardo said. “Spent a lot of time.”

They faced each other a lot over the years, Soto with the Nationals and later the Padres, Luzardo mostly with the Marlins. Soto is 5-for-15 with a homer and four walks against his old friend.

But this round went to Luzardo. He started Soto with a sweeper off the plate for a ball. Soto took a called strike. Then, after being moved off the plate with the high-and-tight heater, Soto fouled off a pitch before swinging through another fastball that seemed to surprise him.

“Maybe, yeah,” Luzardo said. “I haven’t really done much of that to him in the past, so it was obviously good for me in that at-bat and funny seeing that reaction out of him.”

Luzardo reacted strongly, too. He took three steps toward the dugout, then clapped his mitt.

“He does a great job of playing the mental side, like the looks and the dancing, and all that,” Luzardo said, referencing Soto’s famous foot-shuffle after taking pitches. “You do your best to just make your pitch.”

File it away. Luzardo and Soto are bound to meet up again.

Maybe even in a big moment in October.