By Brandon Apter, Sports Talk Philly editor 
New York, NY – The Philadelphia Phillies and New York Mets conclude their four-game series this afternoon at Citi Field as Jake Thompson opposes Robert Gsellman.
The first three games of the series have been all about the offense, with the Mets taking the first two games by scores of 9-8 and 10-5 while the Phillies won on Saturday night, 10-8. Philadelphia powered ahead to a 10-0 lead early and nearly collapsed in the later innings, but were able to hold off the Mets bats and win by two.
The Mets remained tied with the Giants atop the National League Wild Card race, with the Cardinals still trailing by a half game heading into Sunday's action.
Starting Pitching Matchup:
| Philadelphia Phillies (70-85) | New York Mets (82-73) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHP | Jake Thompson | RHP | Robert Gsellman | ||
| (3-5, 5.62 ERA) | (2-2, 3.13 ERA ERA) | ||||
Jake Thompson's first five big league starts are ones to forget, posting a 9.78 ERA in just under 20 innings of work. Since then, he's gotten more comfortable and commanded his pitches better en route to a 2.97 ERA over his last five starts. He has not faced the Mets yet in his young career. Last time out, Thompson gave up five runs in three innings against the White Sox to earn his third win of the season in the Phillies 7-6 win.
Gsellman is 1-1 with a 2.86 ERA in four starts during the month of September. He last pitched on September 20 against the Braves, a 5-4 loss for New York. Gsellman gave up two runs on five hits in 5.1 innings and took the loss. The 23-year-old right-hander surrendered four runs in six innings against the Phillies back on August 28. Jimmy Paredes was 2-for-3 with a double and an RBI.
Starting Lineups:
| Philadelphia Phillies (70-85) |
|
|||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Position | Player | Bats | Position | Player | Bats | |||||
| 1 | 2B | Cesar Hernandez | S | 1 | 3B | Jose Reyes | S | |||
| 2 | SS | Freddy Galvis | S | 2 | SS | Asdrubal Cabrera | S | |||
| 3 | CF | Odubel Herrera | L | 3 | LF | Yoenis Cespedes | R | |||
| 4 | 3B | Maikel Franco | R | 4 | CF | Custis Granderson | L | |||
| 5 | 1B | Ryan Howard | L | 5 | RF | Jay Bruce | L | |||
| 6 | LF | Cody Asche | L | 6 | 2B | T.J. Rivera | R | |||
| 7 | RF | Aaron Altherr | R | 7 | 1B | James Loney | L | |||
| 8 | C | Jorge Alfaro | R | 8 | C | Rene Rivera | R | |||
| 9 | P | Jake Thompson | R | 9 | P | Robert Gsellman | R | |||
Game Notes:
- Maikel Franco is 6-for-14 with three homers and eight RBIs in the first three games of this series with the Mets. The Phillies third baseman is hitting .310 in September with five doubles, three homers and 15 RBIs.
- Over the last seven days, Odubel Herrera is hitting .435 (10-for-23) with a triple, two home runs, four RBIs and eight runs scored. His average is back up to .290 heading into Sunday's game.
- This month, Asdrubal Cabrera is batting .333 and has five home runs, including the walk-off homer on Thursday. He's slugging .628 this month after putting up a .786 slugging percentage in August.
- The Phillies are 6-9 against the Mets this season, so they've already secured a better mark than last season, when they went 5-14.
Broadcast Information:
- First pitch: 1:10 p.m.
- TV: CSN
- Radio: 1210 WPHT
What's Next:
- Tuesday, September 27th, 2016 at Atlanta Braves, 7:10 p.m.
- Turner Field
- RHP Jerad Eickhoff (11-14, 3.75 ERA) vs. RHP Julio Teheran (6-10, 3.10 ERA)
- TV: CSN; Radio: 94 WIP
