Mets Clobber Phillies 11-1
With Ryan Howard and Roy Halladay coming back sometime after the All-Star break, it is still too early to bury the Phillies. But the Mets put a shovel in the ground with a big win over the Phils Tuesday night at Citi Field.
The Mets scored a run in the first when Daniel Murphy tripled and David Wright drove him in with a ground ball out.
The Phillies got the run back in the second when Carlos Ruiz led off the inning with a solo home run.
The Mets scored three runs in the bottom of the second but they could have scored more had it not been for more poor base running. Lucas Duda led off with a walk. After Scott Hairston struck out Andres Torres singled to put runners on first and second. Josh Thole then singled, but Duda got a poor read on the ball and only advanced to third instead of scoring. However he came around when Jonathon Niese snuck a single up the middle. Torres also scored to make it 3-1, but Thole got thrown out trying to go to third, breaking the cardinal rule of never making the second out at third. Ruben Tejada singled and then Murphy hit a double to left. Niese scored to make it 4-1 but Tejada was thrown out at the plate. Bad baserunning victimized the Mets several times during their series with the Dodgers.
The Mets made it 5-1 in the fourth when Thole scored on a single by Tejada, who advanced to second on the throw home. He came around when Murphy singled to right to extend the lead to 6-1.
They put the game out of reach in the sixth when David Wright hit a three-run home run to deep center field to make it 9-1.
Murphy hit a two-run double in the eighth to give the Mets an 11-1 lead. Murphy is clearly out of his slump, finishing the night with four hits and falling a homer short of the cycle.
Niese pitched eight innings, allowing one run, lowering his ERA to 3.35. He upped his record to 7-3.
The Mets win 11-1. They are now seven games over .500, in second place, three and a half games behind the division leading Nationals. The five-time defending NL East champion Phillies, in contrast, are ten games below .500, in last place, 12 games out of first.