Mets magic about to get put to test by powerful Phillies

PHILADELPHIA — The Mets warmed up for the main event by settling an old score with a chatty old villain named Rhys Hoskins.You recall Hoskins: charter member of the Phillies revival a few years back, before he went down with a knee injury.Hit 15 homers as a Phillie against the Mets, including one in which he took 34 seconds to tour the bases, savoring every instant after the man who threw the ball, Jacob Rhame, had previously nearly brained him with a pitch.He hit two more against them this year as a Brewer, including a grand slam last Friday off Sean Manaea that threatened to halt their Pixie Dust Express before it ever left the station.

And, of course, you probably remember Opening Day, March 29, when he slid hard into Jeff McNeil and McNeil angrily confronted him, citing a series of past grievances.Hoskins responded by mockingly wiping his eyes when he got back to the dugout.Hoskins wears Brewers blue now and not Phillies red, but you can tell he still has a lot of Phillie in him.He all but rejoiced in getting hit by a pitch by Luis Severino with the bases juiced in Game 1, and from every corner of Metsdom you could hear a similar hue and cry:“THAT bleeping guy …”But Hoskins came to bat nine more times in the series, went 0-for-9, struck out three times, and late Thursday morning was forced to deliver what amounted to a concession speech on behalf of his teammates in a stricken Milwaukee clubhouse.“There’s a lot of disappointment right now,” Hoskins whispered.Yes.

He was the appetizer.Now comes the main event.

Now come the Phillies.Mets/Phillies is one of the great rivalries in sports that has never had a genuine flashpoint.

It’s like a great love affair that’s never been consummated — only exactly the opposite.They’ve never met in the postseason until now, until Game 1 of the NLDS at Citizens Bank Park Saturday at 4:08 p.m.They’ve only sporadically gotten in each other’s way in the regular season, too, despite sharing the same divi...