NEW YORK -- So what happens when you take the worst hitting team in baseball and match it up against the Yankees' best starting pitcher?
A mismatch, of course.
In favor of the hitters.
This is not a joke. The Philadelphia Phillies, the worst team in baseball that boasts its weakest-hitting lineup, came into the Bronx Monday night for a three-game series, took an 8-2 lead before the game was four innings old, and held on for an embarrassing and dispiriting 11-8 victory before a small, quiet, and rapidly diminishing crowd at Yankee Stadium.
Pincushion: The Phillies are ranked last in MLB in runs scored, 29th in home runs, and 27th in batting average, yet they battered Michael Pineda over 3 1/3 innings, inflicting death by a thousand cuts -- 11 hits, two of them infield singles, and one of them a home run -- and putting up the most runs Pineda has allowed all season, eight. Also disturbing is the fact that Pineda, who struck out 16 Baltimore Orioles on May 10, couldn't strike out one Phillies batter, and they have struck out more than all but eight other teams in baseball. Since the Yankees decided to skip Pineda's turn on June 6, he is 1-2 with an 8.80 ERA and has allowed 21 hits in 14 1/3 innings. And, oh yeah, this was the first time all season the Phillies had hit double-digit runs.
Career night: The Phils' Maikel Franco, who came in with seven home runs and 19 RBIs, left with nine home runs and 24 RBIs after a 4-for-4, two-homer, five-RBI night. Franco hit a solo shot in the first, a two-run single in the fourth, and a two-run HR in the sixth. In fact, no Yankees pitcher had ever gotten him out -- ever -- before Diego Moreno, making his MLB debut, struck him out with the bases loaded in the seventh. And if that wasn't enough, Franco also made a spectacular diving stop at third base to rob Chris Young of a double in the sixth.
Busted open: The Phillies posted a four-spot in the fourth to make a relatively close 4-2 game into an 8-2 rout. The big hits were a two-run double by Cesar Hernandez and a two-run single by Franco, who drove in three runs in the first four innings. Franco's single sent Pineda to his earliest shower of the season.
Closing in: Brett Gardner belted a three-run homer, his eighth of the season, to cut the Phillies' lead to 8-5 in the bottom of the fourth. Last year, Gardner did not reach HR No. 8 until July 2 on his way to a career-high 17.
Messy third: The Phillies took a 4-2 lead in the third inning on three singles wrapped around a walk and an unusual double play. The Phils loaded the bases with none out on Ben Revere's hit, a walk to Hernandez and an infield hit by Franco that Didi Gregorius made a nice diving stop on. Ryan Howard followed with a two-run single up the middle and then Domonic Brown grounded to the left side, where Gregorius fielded the ball on the right side of second base. Unable to tag the runner (Howard) going by, Gregorius got the out at first, then the Yankees got Howard into a rundown, which he kept up long enough to allow Franco to score from third.
Answering back: The Yankees got back the Phillies' first-inning run on Franco's HR and raised it another in the bottom of the inning on singles by Gardner and Chase Headley, a sacrifice fly by Brian McCann and an opposite-field double by Carlos Beltran. They tried to force another run home when third-base coach Joe Espada sent Beltran on Garrett Jones bloop single to right, but Beltran was easily thrown out at the plate by Brown to end the inning.
Elvis leaves the building: McCann greeted Phillies reliever Elvis Araujo by belting his 1-2 pitch into the second deck in right leading off the seventh. The solo shot, No. 11 for McCann, cut the Phillies' lead to 10-6.
Tomorrow: Game 2 of this three-gamer matches CC Sabathia (3-7, 5.31) and RHP Sean O'Sullivan (1-5, 4.79), first pitch at 7:05 p.m. (YES).
