This is suddenly a pretty big series. As luck should have it, both teams walk in sharing first place in the National League East. This series won’t decide the division, but it will give the winner a great boost of confidence.

As if the division rivalry and the standings weren’t enough, we, the fans, are treated to some intriguing pitching matchups for this series. While the Mets elected to hold off on Pedro Martinez until the weekend, the Phillies are debuting a new acquisition on Tuesday and welcoming back a struggling starter on Wednesday. These two go from the frying pan and into the fire, it seems.

The series opener sees Mets ace Johan Santana go up against new Phightin’ Phillie Joe Blanton. Santana is coming off his worst start of the season against the Reds, but that was a series (and a lineup and a ballpark) that the Mets pitchers all struggled with. Regardless of most recent performance, this matchup clearly favors the Mets, as Santana had just shaved his ERA under 3 before the Reds game.

Blanton is in the midst of his worst season as a professional, and those are numbers he put up in the pitching haven of McAfee Coliseum in Oakland. He’s 3-3 with a 5.73 ERA on the road this season. However, Shea Stadium is a pitcher’s park, and Blanton has a brief but good history against the Mets. Blanton has thrown 15 shutout innings against the Mets in two previous starts. On the other hand, both those games took place in Oakland and both in years (2005 and 2007) when Blanton had “good” seasons. So Blanton’s performance on Tuesday is anyone’s guess, but hopefully, with the added pressure of it being a debut, he’ll choke.

The middle game features the return of Brett Myers going up against John Maine. Maine has been bad as of late, raising his ERA from 3.73 to 4.22 over the course of the last four starts. He’s also only managed to pitch at least five innings once during that span. This could be Maine just having another tough second-half stretch, but it seems like it’s more than that. It will be tough for Maine to right the ship in such a big series against a division rival, but MLB.com reminds that Maine has a good track record against the Phillies.

In his return to the rotation, Myers is an abysmal 3-9 with a 5.84 ERA in 17 starts this season. Since his demotion on July 1, Myers made four minor league starts: two with Triple-A Lehigh Valley, one with Double-A Reading, and one with Single-A Clearwater. The Philadelphia Daily News compiled the overall stats of this four-start stint: “1-3, 3.00 ERA, 28 strikeouts and seven walks in 27 innings.” The stint basically broke down to three good starts and one bad one. Oddly enough, Myers went backwards, pitching his Triple-A starts and then going to Double-A and then Single-A. There must be some geographical reasoning behind that. Regardless, if the point of the trip was to get his confidence back, it did the trick. If it was to make a fair assessment of Myers’ state, I’m not sure that’s the most accurate course of action.

If Myers does poorly over another stretch, will he return to the bullpen? I don’t know if the Phillies need the help with guys like J.C. Romero and Brad Lidge, but Myers was effective last season. I would guess this is a tough position for Myers to walk into, but then again, he did fan the flames by talking trash about the Mets once again. Maybe he’s fine with the spotlight. We’ll see on Wednesday. For what it’s worth, Myers is especially bad on the road: 0-6 with an 8.18 ERA.

Thursday showcases the more familiar matchup of two lefties: Jamie Moyer and Oliver Perez. Exactly the opposite of Maine, Perez has been good over his last four starts, pitching at least six innings per outing and never allowing more than two earned runs. As has been well documented, Perez has been good in big games, and the Phillies are no exception. He’s thrown 18.1 scoreless innings, holding the Phillies to a .169 BAA. Clearly, he’s taking advantage of a few of those lefties.

Meanwhile, Moyer has been annoyingly good against the Mets this year, posting a 1-1 record with a 3.38 ERA in 18.2 innings. He’s lowered his ERA to under 4 once again this season, and hopefully, the Mets can bump it right back up again. Chances are, this will be the pitchers’ duel of the series, though.

It’s hard to pick this series because there’s so many untested variables. How will Blanton do in his new environment? How will Myers return? Will Perez continue his success? Will Maine make adjustments and return to his old self? On paper, these look to be three interesting contests.