Mets Bats Explode For Seven Homers In Romp Over Phils

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The New York Sun

PHILADELPHIA – The Mets’ brief losing streak is going, going, gone – and in record fashion.


David Wright hit a grand slam, Jose Reyes and Victor Diaz each homered twice, and the Mets hit a team-record seven last night in a 16-4 rout of the Philadelphia Phillies.


Mike Piazza and Doug Mientkiewicz also homered, and Wright and Diaz each went 2-for-4 with four RBI for the Mets, who stopped a two-game skid. The seven homers were only five shy of New York’s season total coming in.


Reyes got the rout going early when he hit the fourth pitch of the game to left off returning Phillies starter Vicente Padilla (0-1). It was the first leadoff homer of Reyes’s career and just the beginning of the home runs for the Mets.


Padilla, a former All-Star who hadn’t pitched this season because of right triceps tendinitis, looked like he was throwing batting practice against the Mets. Diaz hit a two-run shot in the second before the Mets bats really came alive in the third.


Padilla retired the first two batters before giving up a liner to Piazza that just missed landing in Ashburn Alley, the outfield entertainment area. Cliff Floyd followed with a broken-bat single, and Mientkiewicz hit a two-run shot.


Wright singled and Diaz followed with a two-run homer for the first multihomer game of his career and an 8-2 lead. Padilla was gone after three innings, allowing eight runs and eight hits. He was 9-1 with a 2.24 ERA against the Mets.


Gavin Floyd, who was bumped to the bullpen after two starts to make room for Padilla, wasn’t any better. He gave up a solo homer to Reyes for team-recordtying homer no. 6 and Wright’s first career grand slam to left in the sixth.


Victor Zambrano gave up four runs and eight hits in six innings, pitching out of two bases-loaded jams.


Zambrano also made the Phillies pay with his bat in the fifth after Floyd intentionally walked Diaz to put two runners on with two outs. Zambrano, a 2-for-21 lifetime hitter, lined a two-RBI triple into the right-center gap.


Zambrano gave up homers to Chase Utley and David Bell, and the teams tied the record of nine homers at Citizens Bank Park.


When the game was still close, Zambrano showed he could pitch out of jam. He gave up two hits and a walk to load the bases in the first, but got slumping Jim Thome to hit into a double play, and only one run scored.


Thome went 1-for-3 and his homerless drought reached 14 games, the longest to start a season in his career.


The Mets had hit six homers in a game two times in franchise history, the last on June 15, 1999, against St. Louis.


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