Phillies start second half with a bang

July 19, 2013

Box Score (From ESPN.com)

By Zach Geibler

Citi Field hosted the All Star game festivities earlier in the week. On Tuesday night the league’s best mustered up a meek 3-0 game, the win going to the AL. On Friday night at Citi Field, the offense of these National League teams was quite the opposite. The Phillies out-slugged the Mets 13-8.

Kyle Kendrick was on the mound for the Phillies to open up the second half of the season, which Phillies have seemed often to come alive and get into a playoff picture.

Jeremy Hefner opposed Kendrick on the mound for the Mets.

The Phillies wasted no time with the bats, banging out a four run first inning, highlighted by an RBI triple by Chase Utley and RBI singles by both Dominic Brown and John Mayberry Jr.

Kyle Kendrick also started off the game hot, just like the offense, pitching three innings of no-hit ball as well as six strikeouts.

In the third inning, the Phillies took their hot inning to another level, scoring seven runs. The slug-fest of an inning started with a solo home run by Dominic Brown, his 24^th of the season.  The inning also yielded an RBI single from Delmon Young and RBI doubles by both John Mayberry Jr. and Carlos Ruiz. Adding insult to injury, Michael Young hit a three run home run which brought the Phillies lead to 11 runs by the end of the third inning.

The Mets also helped the Phillies out with misplays and mishaps, putting three errors on the board.

In the fourth inning Kendrick got hit, on a three run home run by ex-Phillie Marlon Byrd.

In the fifth inning the Phillies retaliated with another home run, this time a two run shot by Chase Utley, his 12^th of the season, and 30^th in his career against the Mets.

The rest of the game was offensively owned by the New York Mets, who scored runs in the fifth and sixth innings, as well as in the ninth inning on a two run home run by David Wright.

Despite making the game a bit interesting, the Phillies win the game by five runs and statistically clobber the Mets pitching.

The win went to Kyle Kendrick, who is 9-6. The loss falls to Jeremy Hefner who is 4-7 on the year for the struggling Mets.

The Phillies brought out the bats to start up the second half of the season, as well as a very important 9 game road trip, which may very well determine the Phillies roles as buyers or sellers on the season. These games may also be determining factors on the futures of many Phillies including Michael Young, Jonathan Pabelbon and even beloved second basemen Chase Utley.

With the win, the Phillies move to 49-48 on the season, inching above the Nationals to be alone in second place by a half of a game.

The rest of the road trip includes two more games against the Mets, as well as three games in St. Louis and three in Detroit.

(Image from Yahoo Sports)