The Mets and Philadelphia Phillies play a four-game series at Citi Field starting on Friday, June 25.
Here are five things to watch...
Jacob deGrom's scoreless streak
DeGrom will enter Saturday's start with a scoreless streak of 30 innings, which is 2.2 innings shy of the Mets' all-time record held by R.A. Dickey.
So if deGrom tosses three scoreless innings to start the game, the record will be his.
Of greater historical significance is that deGrom enters Saturday's game with a 0.50 ERA and 0.51 WHIP in 12 starts this season, which is of course absolutely outrageous.
After Saturday's start, deGrom likely has two or three more starts left before the All-Star break, which begins after the Mets' game against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Citi Field on Sunday, July 11.
The Phillies' offense is depleted
The Phils are currently without two key lineup cogs.
Didi Gregorius is still shut down on his rehab assignment due to inflammation in his elbow, and Jean Segura is on the IL due to a groin injury.
Segura is eligible to return from the IL on Saturday, but it is not clear whether he will be activated during the series against the Mets.
How is Jonathan Villar? And what's up with Seth Lugo?
Villar hasn't played since June 21 due to a tight calf, but his MRI came back clean and he could be available to play against the Phillies.
As far as Lugo, there is no reason to think something is amiss, though it was a bit curious that he was seemingly unavailable to pitch on June 23 after pitching just 1.0 inning on June 21 and getting the day off on June 22.
Do the Phillies have a closer?
The Phillies lost a wild game to the Washington Nationals on Wednesday, squandering multiple large leads and recovering before Hector Neris -- who has been an adventure all season -- blew the game.
The blown save for Neris was his third in his last five appearances, and manager Joe Girardi intimated after the game that Neris could be removed from the closer role.
If Neris is replaced as the closer, one option for Philadelphia to close could be Jose Alvarado, who was involved in an incident with Smith earlier this season after Alvarado acted like a complete imbecile following a strikeout of Smith.
The potential return of Brandon Nimmo
Nimmo began a rehab assignment with Triple-A Syracuse on June 20 and could possibly be activated at some point during the series against the Phillies, though the current expectation is that he'll come off the IL as early as Monday, June 28.
When Nimmo returns, the Mets -- who recently got both Michael Conforto and Jeff McNeil back from the IL -- will have all of their regular position players except J.D. Davis, who could start a rehab assignment soon.
As far as what Nimmo's return would mean for the lineup, it's fair to believe that he would slide in most days in center field (flanked by Dominic Smith in left and Conforto in right), with Kevin Pillar returning to the bench.