Ian Kennedy, going for seven innings and allowing only one earned run, became only the second National League winner to reach 15 wins -- tied with Roy Halladay of the Philadelphia Phillies -- after leading the Arizona Diamondbacks to a 4-3 victory over the New York Mets on Friday evening.
The win, combined with the San Francisco Giants' loss to the Florida Marlins earlier in the day, puts the D-backs up two whole games in the National League West -- their largest division lead of the season.
The game started out with some early fireworks. On the good news front, Justin Upton continued his latest hot streak, hitting a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning. And on thd bad news front, Xavier Nady, starting at first base in front of game-changer Paul Goldschmidt, took a pitch from the Mets' Dillon Gee, breaking his left hand.
Arizona's offense continued to chug along in the first half of the game, with a two-run double from Cody Random and an RBI from Kennedy in the bottom of the second. After that, things got quiet, with Kennedy, Hernandez, and Puts locking down the Mets for the most part while the team held onto the lead. It wasn't easy, though: Kennedy ran into a bases-loaded mess in the fourth, Hernandez gave up a run in the eighth, and Putz allowed his own run before eventually grabbing the save -- his 28th of the season.