The Philadelphia Phillies completed their sweep of the New York Mets on Thursday night with a 16-1 thrashing. The game was scheduled as a makeup for Tuesday's rainout, and the Mets never bothered to show up. Philly bookended two huge rallies for the 15-run win, opening the game with eight in the first and capping it with seven in the ninth.
Amazingly, the eight-run rally in the first did not feature a single home run. Instead, the Phils would start it off with six straight singles and a walk to knock out Mets' starter Jeremy Hefner before he ever recorded an out. The eight-run inning featured an astonishing nine hits as the Phils went station to station. Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley capped it off by driving in two each with singles in their second at-bats. Utley had three RBIs in the inning.
Philadelphia would explode for seven more in the ninth, forcing Terry Collins to use three more pitchers before the game mercifully ended. The big blow came when Ryan Howard launched a grand slam to left field to make it 16-1. Howard finished the night with five RBIs, while Utley went four-for-five with four RBIs. Ahead of them, Rollins and Juan Pierre consistently set the table. Rollins scored three runs and had three RBIs while Pierre turned in a five-hit game.
In between the rallies, rookie Tyler Cloyd shut down the Mets and pounded the zone to ensure it never became much of a game. Cloyd struck out six and allowed just three hits in eight innings -- a crucial start that preserved the bullpen for a huge weekend series against the Braves. The Phillies remain four games back of the second Wild Card spot.
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