NEW YORK — The fifth pitch of Aaron Nola’s night was a low-and-in curveball to one of Francisco Lindor’s nitro zones, it traveled 376 feet over the wall in right field and so began the Phillies’ 2025 season series with the Mets.

The Phils were sent home last October on this same field in Flushing, and the Mets again looked like the superior team on Monday night. The 5-4 final was deceptive as the Mets entered the ninth with a five-run lead and tried to get middle reliever Max Kranick through a third inning when the Phillies finally came through with a few knocks. Bryson Stott homered off Edwin Diaz to make it a one-run game but that’s how it finished.

Nola served up leadoff home runs in each of the first two innings while Mets right-hander Tylor Megill stifled the Phils’ offense for the sixth consecutive time.

Megill retired eight of nine the first trip through the order, striking out five, before the Phillies put some solid plate appearances on him in the third inning. They loaded the bases on a Bryson Stott single and back-to-back two-out walks from Trea Turner and Bryce Harper. Kyle Schwarber expanded the zone, though, to strike out on a down-and-away changeup.

Not capitalizing on that opportunity hurt because the Phillies’ chances to touch Megill have always been sparse. He’s dominated them in six starts dating back to 2022 with a 1.36 ERA. The Phillies have hit .149 and homered once in 124 plate appearances against him.

“To me, it feels like we’re doing a lot of things better. We’re walking at a very high rate. It just feels like we’re not hitting enough homers or getting enough key hits,” Turner said. “We had 10-plus baserunners tonight at least. Just felt like we had guys out there all game.”

The Phillies are 13-10, three games behind the Mets in the NL East. They’re 20-30 in their last 50 games against the Mets, who played them tough even before they started spending freely under owner Steve Cohen. This looks like a much better club than even the one that defeated the Phillies in the 2024 NLDS with the additions of Juan Soto and Clay Holmes, a healthy Kodai Senga and the most productive start of Pete Alonso’s career.

It was obviously just one early-season game and the teams will meet at least 12 more times, but Monday was a continuation of a couple of concerning trends. The Phils are going to need to hit Megill at some point. His career ERA entering the night was 4.39.

“Big guy, big arm angle,” Turner said. “The velocity’s really good to get you out in front to cheat to get to the fastball and then the offspeed is good enough to get you out. Gotta battle. Felt like we had some traffic out there, just couldn’t get the hit to give us the lead.”

Nola was slightly better than he’d been previously and two of the runs he was charged with were inherited by Jose Ruiz, but he continues to struggle with the home run ball, pitch with diminished velocity and put more traffic on the basepaths than usual. Though he’s had trouble in the past keeping the ball in the park, Nola has always maintained low walk rates and low opposing batting averages, which has resulted in many of the home runs being solos.

Nola has been more hittable than ever before, though, with a .301 opponents’ batting average compared to .233 for his career. He’s also walked 10 batters over his last three starts. Nola said after his most recent outing against the Giants that he hasn’t felt like himself from the stretch this season, and he’s spent quite a bit of time in the stretch, putting the leadoff man on base in nine of his last 18 innings. He is 0-5 with a 6.43 ERA.

The Phillies haven’t given him much to work with, scoring a grand total of five runs in his five starts.

“Guys start trying a little harder when it feels like those hits aren’t falling for you,” Turner said. “We’re doing some positive things but we’ve got to get rolling.”