New York Mets

Mets visit Phillies with different vibe than April (Aug 10, 2017)

Published Aug. 10, 2017 1:53 a.m. ET

The New York Mets are back in the City of Brotherly Love for the first time in four months, and their season has a much different feel to it.

The Mets (50-61) enter their four-game weekend set on Thursday night in fourth place in the National League East. They have lost 10 of their last 13 games.

New York has scored just 2.4 runs per game during that stretch. The Mets have scored one run or have been shut out in three of their last five games, including a 5-1 loss to the Texas Rangers on Wednesday afternoon.

"You can't ride one guy to get back in it," Mets manager Terry Collins said. "You need your lineup to produce and do what they are supposed to do, do what they are capable of doing. Right now, we've got some guys that aren't hitting."

When the Mets were last in Philadelphia in early April, they had a much more intact pitching rotation that featured Noah Syndergaard and Matt Harvey. The only big-name arm who has stayed healthy in 2017 for New York is right-hander Jacob deGrom, who will be on the mound Thursday night.

DeGrom (12-5, 3.36 ERA) has given the Mets a chance to win in nearly each of his 22 starts, though the team has been on the losing end in both of his last two outings. In his last start, deGrom allowed three runs, five hits and two homers in five innings against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

DeGrom's start Thursday will be his third of the season against the Phillies, against whom the right-hander has been successful during his four-year career. In nine career starts against Philadelphia, deGrom has held hitters to a .207 batting average and a .534 OPS, the second-lowest mark of any team he has faced at least five times.

The 29-year-old deGrom is 5-0 against the Phillies in his career. The Mets have won both of his starts against the divisional foe in 2017, including a 12-strikeout performance by deGrom on June 30.

Vince Velasquez (4-6, 4.82) will start Thursday for the Phillies, and he is also making his third start against the Mets this season. His first two did not go as well as deGrom's, however.

In back-to-back starts in April, Velasquez gave up a combined eight runs, 10 hits and seven walks in 11 innings. In five career starts against New York, the right-hander is 1-2 with a 3.76 ERA and a 1.291 WHIP.

Thursday's start will be the fifth for Velasquez since he returned from an elbow injury that sidelined him for seven weeks. In his last outing, the 25-year-old gave up just three hits and two runs, but he walked six batters in five innings against the Colorado Rockies. The six walks were a career high for Velasquez.

"The extra pitches and the walks, it just all added up," Velasquez told Philly.com after the start. "It was a snowball effect. I have to limit the damage as much as possible."