Mayberry Mauls Mets

NEW YORK - Three aces is a hot hand.

Four of a kind is nearly impossible to beat.

In terms of pedigree, history, and salary - as well as recent trips to baseball's annual Midsummer Classic - Vance Worley might not belong in the same sentence as Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels.

But the 23-year-old righthander continues to match the Phillies all-stars pitch-for-pitch.

Worley worked more of his magic on Friday night, allowing just three hits and one run in 51/3 innings as the Phillies opened the second half of the season with a 7-2 win over the New York Mets in front of a crowd of 37,304 at Citi Field.

John Mayberry Jr. drove in five runs, and Raul Ibanez cracked his 13th home run and made a diving catch as the team with the best record in baseball picked up where it left off before the all-star break.

"He's got a chance to be pretty good," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of Worley. "He's big and strong, stronger than you think. He competes. He stays after it. He likes to pitch."

On a warm night in Queens, Worley struggled a bit with his command and appeared to tire in the sixth. He walked four, including two in the sixth when the Mets loaded the bases and Manuel went to the bullpen.

Worley was replaced by Juan Perez, a lefthander who squelched the Mets' hopes for a big rally. Perez struck out Scott Hairston on a wild pitch that allowed a run to score and retired Ronny Paulino on a groundout to end the inning.

"I definitely wanted to finish that inning off," Worley said.

The Phillies (58-34) also got a boost from the return of reliever Ryan Madson, the once-and-future closer who was activated from the disabled list before the game. Madson, who had been out with a bruise on his throwing hand since June 19, worked a perfect seventh inning, striking out two.

Manuel said that Madson would pitch in the seventh or eighth inning for a couple of games before reclaiming his role as the team's closer.

"I felt normal," said Madson, who hit 96 m.p.h. on the radar gun on one fastball.

Mayberry was the night's hitting star, delivering a two-run single in the second inning and a three-run double that broke open the game in the eighth.

"It was great to be able to come up with runners on a couple of times and even better to come up with a couple of hits," Mayberry said.

Worley has seized the No. 4 spot in the rotation in the absence of the team's projected fourth ace, injured righthander Roy Oswalt. Worley improved to 5-1 and lowered his ERA to 2.15 with another strong performance against the punchless Mets.

Worley also extended a Halladay-esque - as well as Lee-like and Hamels-ian - stretch in which he has allowed just three earned runs in his last five starts for the Phillies, over 301/3 innings.

Including four starts for the triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs, Worley has surrendered just 31 hits and six earned runs in his last nine outings, over 551/3 innings.

Since allowing eight runs (five earned) in three innings in a 9-5 loss to the Mets at Citi Field on May 29, Worley has been carving his way through triple-A and major-league lineups alike.

The one thing he hasn't done that compares with the established aces in the Phillies' rotation is pitch deep into games. His longest outing was seven innings, and he did not finish the sixth on Friday night.

"That's a matter of time," Manuel said of Worley's pitching deep into games. "He's got that kind of talent."

Although the first four batters in the lineup went a combined 1 for 17, the Phillies got a big lift from Ibanez (two hits, two runs), Carlos Ruiz (two hits, two runs), and Mayberry.

"He did the hitting tonight," Manuel said of Mayberry.

The Phillies bunched a walk, three singles and an RBI groundout by Worley off Mets starter R.A. Dickey to take a 3-0 lead in the second.

With one out, Ibanez continued his hot hitting with an infield single. Ruiz followed with a single, and Domonic Brown walked to load the bases.

Before the game, Manuel was asked what he wanted from Mayberry in the second half of the season.

"Hits," the manager said.

Mayberry came through in his first at-bat of the second half, slicing a two-run single through the right side.

A 3-0 lead was plenty for Worley, especially against a depleted Mets lineup missing injured stars Jose Reyes and David Wright.

Worley also got a boost from his defense as Ibanez made a diving grab of a Ruben Tejada liner in the gap in left-center field leading off the fifth.

Ibanez, who had a home run and six RBIs in a 14-1 win over Atlanta in the last game before the all-star break, went deep again with a shot off Dickey that landed 10 rows deep in the seats behind right field with one out in sixth.