What to watch for in the Phillies’ last regular-season series against the Mets

In 2015, the Chicago Cubs went 7-0 in their season series against the New York Mets, outscoring them by a 27-11 margin.

“And then,” Kyle Schwarber said, “they swept us in the playoffs.”

Schwarber told that story not to diminish the importance of the Phillies’ four-game, three-day series with the division-leading Mets that opens Friday night at Citizens Bank Park but rather to try putting it in context.

Yes, the Phillies are 4-11 against the Mets and have dropped five consecutive series against them, including last weekend in New York. And sure, it may help the Phillies’ collective psyche to win their last regular-season licks over the National League East pacesetters, with both teams in possession of playoff spots and 48 days left in the season.

But the wild-card-seeking Phillies maintain that this weekend won’t be any more revelatory or predictive than their season series victories over the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers (4-3), or the contending San Diego Padres (4-3), St. Louis Cardinals (4-3), and Milwaukee Brewers (4-2).

“It’s always important to play well, especially against the good teams,” interim manager Rob Thomson said. “But I think we’ve proven, by beating the Dodgers, beating the Padres, beating the Cardinals, all those teams in season series, that we’re a good club.”

Fair enough. Point taken.

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But we’re talking here about the Phillies and Mets, a grudge that would be as supercharged as Cardinals-Cubs, Dodgers-Giants, even Yankees-Red Sox if only they were good at the same time more than once or twice per decade. In their 61 years of coexistence, the Phillies and Mets have had only eight mutual winning seasons, none since 2008.

The idea of them playing games in the second-to-last weekend in August that are meaningful to both teams is too enticing to downplay.

With that, a few story lines to watch this weekend:

In 59 innings since he exited an Aug. 11 loss to the Miami Marlins with a strained right calf, Schwarber has two pinch-hit at-bats and the Phillies have scored a total of 17 runs. They have been shut out in four of the last seven games.

Coincidence? Hardly.

So, the Phillies would welcome the NL home-run leader back to the lineup Friday night, even as the designated hitter.

» READ MORE: Phillies’ Bryson Stott settling into leadoff spot in Kyle Schwarber’s absence

“I feel pretty confident that’s what’s going to happen,” said Schwarber, due to report to Citizens Bank Park for treatment Thursday.

Thomson indicated Schwarber may reclaim the leadoff spot, even though rookie shortstop Bryson Stott is 8-for-24 with a .360 on-base percentage as the fill-in atop the order.

Regardless of where he bats in the order, Schwarber’s presence will make a difference.

Meet Bradley Zimmer.

With center fielder Brandon Marsh headed to the injured list with a bruised right knee and sprained right ankle and few healthy options on the 40-man roster to replace him, the Phillies surfed the waiver wire. They looked into a reunion with Travis Jankowski, who re-signed with the Mets last week on a minor league deal.

The search wound up Thursday with a waiver claim of Zimmer from the Toronto Blue Jays.

» READ MORE: How the Phillies’ trade deadline moves made the roster deeper, better equipped for playoff push

It‘s not clear if they considered calling up touted Johan Rojas from double A.

Thomson said Rojas “can certainly defend ... and run the bases and steal a base.” But Rojas is far less advanced as a hitter, with a .621 on-base plus slugging in 104 minor league at-bats this season.

Last weekend, the Phillies became the third team to face both Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom in a series.

Talk about a bad hand.

Predictably, the offense sputtered, scoring one run on nine hits and striking out 16 times in 13 innings against the Mets’ co-aces. Right-hander Chris Bassitt was no picnic, either, allowing four hits in five scoreless innings last Sunday.

Scherzer started Wednesday night in Atlanta, and deGrom is slated to go Thursday night, which means they will both miss the Phillies. In addition, Carlos Carrasco is out with a strained muscle in his side and fellow mid-rotation starter Taijuan Walker is questionable for Sunday because of back spasms.

» READ MORE: Who will step up as the Phillies’ No. 3 starter down the stretch?

The Phillies, meanwhile, will throw their aces, Aaron Nola and Zack Wheeler, on Friday night and Saturday, respectively.

Team officials believe having Nola and Wheeler on the mound would make the Phillies tough in a short postseason series. That’s probably true despite a 22-23 record in their starts.

Consider this weekend an opportunity to prove that theorem.

Twelve of the 15 games in the season series were played before Memorial Day, when Joe Girardi was managing, the Phillies’ defense was atrocious, and the bullpen combustible.

None of those things is true now.

Since June 1, the Phillies are 44-23 (.657 winning percentage), while the Mets were 42-25 (.627) entering Thursday night in Atlanta. Like objects in a car’s mirror, the teams are closer than their head-to-head record makes them appear.

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But the Phillies have had some of their lowest moments against the Mets. They made 10 errors through the first 12 games against them, including three by Alec Bohm on April 11. They infamously coughed up a 7-1 lead in the ninth inning on May 5, such a spectacular meltdown that a blown 4-3 lead in a 10-inning loss on May 29 seemed mundane by comparison.

The Phillies played the Mets tougher last weekend but still lost two out of three, albeit without Schwarber and Bryce Harper.

Schwarber has reached the playoffs in all but one of his seven seasons, so maybe he’s right that the history between teams doesn’t mean much when they meet in October. The 2015 Mets never trailed in their NLCS sweep of the Cubs.

“I feel like we’ve played some good baseball games against [the Mets],” Schwarber said. “The more we continue to do that, good things will happen and we’ll see where we are at the end of the year. If we run into them [in the playoffs], we run into them. It’s not going to change our mindset just because we haven’t won a series.”

But it also couldn’t hurt if they finally do.