Thursday, October 1, 2026
79 ° Clear
79 ° Clear
The Philadelphia Phillies and the New York Mets are set to collide under bright, beautiful, sunny skies at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday night.
Both teams have fought their way through some difficult early-season struggles, but the Phillies have the advantage in the record column (40-34) over the Mets (33-41) at this point in the summer.
It’s always an interesting set of games when these two fan bases collide, with the first episode of that backyard brawl taking place tonight in South Philadelphia
Prior to the ballgame, Phillies general manager Dave Dombrowski held court with the media to discuss the team’s recent roster moves, including the demotion of rookie starting pitcher Andrew Painter.
“We think the best thing for him is to kind of get reset,” Dombrowski stated.
“To work on some things with the pitching people. He’s been working. They tell me he’s been doing very well in sides, but it hasn’t carried over to a game. Difficult, but we’ve sent many good pitchers and many good players down. They go down, they get reset, come back, and then they do well for you.”
Interim manager Don Mattingly felt the conversation with Painter went as well as could be expected. “It went okay,” Mattingly said. “I think it’s the best thing for him. At this point, it’s hard to keep working and keep trying to get better and perform at the big league level. He’s not the first guy this has happened to.”
Despite one less pitcher to turn to, Mattingly does not envision using a bullpen game to navigate this stretch. “For me, it’s not the best scenario because you are taxing your bullpen every five days,” the interim bench boss said. “They’re not terrible, but I prefer not to.”
While the rookie’s transaction was known, Philadelphia announced an additional roster move to provide the club with some additional bullpen arms ahead of the matchup against New York. The Phillies recalled two pitchers, Seth Johnson and Bryse Wilson, while demoting Tanner Banks to Triple-A (alongside Painter’s demotion yesterday). This brings the Phillies roster back to the required 26-man unit for the series against New York.
Additionally, it was announced that Adolis Garcia’s season is over following surgery to repair a right latissiumus dorsi injury on June 24. The recovery timetable for this injury is six to eight months, and he is expected to be ready for the start of the 2027 season. However, it remains to be seen whether that action will take place with Philly after the slugging outfielder signed a one-year, $10-million contract with the team this offseason.
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With the transactions out of the way, the Phillies and Mets are set to battle for the first time this season.
All three games against New York will be under the nighttime lights at Citizens Bank Park, with games at 6:40 (tonight) followed by a pair of national TV broadcasts on Saturday (7:15 pm on FOX) and Sunday (7:20 pm on NBC/Peacock).
Stay tuned to MetroPhiladelphia.com for coverage of this massive N.L. East dustup all weekend.
