The day the New York Mets and Philadelphia Phillies arrived in England to take their East Coast rivalry to East London coincided with the United States defeating Pakistan in an international cricket match played in Texas.

On Saturday afternoon, the two-game series gets underway. The Phillies manager, Rob Thomson, set himself a personal challenge on Thursday night, their first night adjusting to British Summer Time, which is five hours ahead of Eastern Daylight Time: Stay up as long as you can to avoid falling behind due to jet lag.

“I felt perfectly normal when I woke up this morning because I managed to get through the day without taking a nap,” he said.

As his players explored London’s sights in an attempt to stay awake, Thomson seized the chance to visit a Waterloo pub with a Philadelphia theme, appropriately called Passyunk Avenue, named for a famous Philadelphia neighborhood.

Thomson stated, “We discovered that there was a bar in Philadelphia.” “We had a great time,” I said, “because Dusty Wathan, the third-base coach for the Phillies, did a podcast with a guy who was associated with the bar. Let’s head over and take everybody with us.”

Staff members and one of the UK’s most ardent Phillies supporters once noticed Thomson.