7/20/13
Welcome back to the unofficial second half of baseball. The
Phillies have a .500 record and are ready to start the post all-star break on
the right foot. Two of the Phillies players have already stayed in New York
this entire week. Cliff Lee and Domonic Brown played in the all-star game. Lee
allowed a run in his one inning of work and Brown struck out on three pitches
in his only at bat and misjudged a flyball in left field that allowed the AL to
score the third and final run. Moving on to last night’s game, the Phillies
turned to Kyle Kendrick as the Mets started Jeremy Hefner. Hefner has been
pitching better than the Phillies last saw him in April. Hefner has had nine
quality starts in his last 10 starts. During that stretch he has a 4-2 record,
with a 2.14 ERA. Kendrick has had a solid first half. He is 8-6 with an ERA of
3.68. He is on pace to have a career high in wins. The Mets had no drastic
changes to their lineup, but the Phillies made a switch that seemed likely at
some point during this season. Jimmy Rollins was back in his familiar leadoff
position. John Mayberry Jr. will be the Phillies’ starting centerfielder since
Ben Revere broke his foot and will be out for six to eight weeks. Erik Kratz
returned from a torn meniscus and will be the Phillies’ backup catcher.
Humberto Quintero will be used as the third catcher. Will Hefner keep up this
hot streak he’s been on or will Kendrick hold the Mets in check?
Who would have thought that this would be a slugfest? The
Phillies won this game 13-8. I will not get into detail of every run that was
put on the board, but I will tell you the highlights of the runs scored.
Michael Young, Chase Utley, and Domonic Brown all hit homeruns for the
Phillies. David Wright and Marlon Byrd hit homeruns for the Mets. Mayberry Jr.
and Brown had multi-RBI games.
Kendrick was cruising along until the middle innings. He
allowed six runs in the fourth through sixth innings. The Mets knew Kendrick
was going to throw strikes so they attacked Kendrick early in the count and had
a very easy time getting on base. Six of Kendrick’s seven strikeouts occurred
in the first three innings of the game. The bullpen made it nerve racking as
they allowed six batters to reach base. Only Justin De Fratus allowed two runs,
which was a two run homerun to Wright.
Hefner was terrible. He lasted two plus innings and his
stretch of having 10 great outings came to a halt. He allowed eight of the
Phillies’ 13 runs. Greg Burke and Josh Edgin allowed the other five runs to
score. Hefner kept his pitches up in the zone and the Phillies hit the pitches
they were capable of hitting.
Overall, the Phillies exploded out of the gate early. In the
early part of the year, this team was incapable of scoring 10 runs in a game.
Now they’re starting to hit the ball. I think the Phillies are hitting the ball
better because it’s hitting season. The weather is hot out and the ball carries
out of the ballpark better when it’s hot. It was one of those nights when you
knew that pitching would not be a big deal. One team had to outscore the other
to win this game. The Phillies are now in second place, but it didn’t help that
the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds won last night. It would have been nice
to pick up a game on either one of those teams in the standings.
Can the Phillies keep
up their winning ways like they did last night? Sound off and stay tuned until
next time…
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