The D’backs (20-15) got off to a strong start in the four-game set with the Phils (16-20), taking the opener 2-1 in a pitcher’s duel. Patrick Corbin was once again stellar for the D’backs and Heath Bell made his first appearance as the announced closer, shutting down the Phils in the ninth for his fourth save of the season.

The Phillies are 25th in the league in runs per game, 3.66, on offense and even worse on the road, 3.18. This is the first series between the two teams this season. In 2012, the Phillies were on the right end of a six-game set, winning four of the six games.

With three games still ahead, the D’backs would like nothing more to continue their four-game win streak. Here’s how it sets up.

Game 1 (Friday): Ian Kennedy (1-3, 5.19 ERA) vs. Tyler Cloyd (0-0, —-)

In his last time out, Kennedy had such a “IPK” outing that it was almost cliche. He went seven innings, fighting through three walks and seven hits given up. But he also gave up for runs in those seven innings. That seems to be the norm for Kennedy the past 12 months. He doesn’t have an out pitch, leaving him with very few options when trying to run through a lineup three times. He has three quality starts this season, two outings where he gave up four runs and another where he gave up six. He also only has one “stellar” start, which I define as seven innings or longer, giving up two runs or less. Cloyd, taking DL’d Roy Halladay‘s spot on the rotation, will be making his 2013 debut. He started six games for the Phillies in 2012, going 2-2 with a 4.91 ERA. With the Triple-A Lehigh Valley IronPigs of the International League this season, he’s gone 1-3 with a 5.40 ERA; however, he has an 8.2 K/9 and 3.1 BB/9 in 35 innings.

Game 2 (Saturday): Trevor Cahill (2-3, 2.80) vs Cliff Lee (3-2, 3.26)

Quietly, Cahill has been absolutely dominant after his first two starts of the season. He’s thrown 27.1 innings since then, and has only allowed five runs in those outings. Though, his most strike outs came in those first two games of the season where he allowed seven runs in 10.2 innings. Somebody let @cantpredictball know on Twitter. Lee has been the Phillies’ best pitcher this year out of the big three (Lee, Halladay and Cole Hamels), which would be okay if he was his usual dominant self. Instead, he’s been good, even great, but not exceptional. In his previous three outings combined, he’s thrown 19 innings and allowed 10 runs. His control of the strike zone has remained stellar, though, only walking five the entire season.

Game 3 (Sunday): Brandon McCarthy (0-3, 6.75) vs. Kyle Kendrick (4-1, 2.45)

McCarthy threw his first quality start of the season his last time out, a 5-3 win over the Dodgers on May 7. But it was the quality start that I believe shouldn’t count. He lasted only 6.1 innings and allowed three earned. It was his best outing of the season with a doubt, though. He’s been incredibly unlucky with BABIP against so far, with a unsustainable .385 mark against him. League average is .300 and most pitchers will be fairly close to that, some above, some below, but nothing even close to that high. That bad luck continued in his previous outing. He struck out three, walked one and still gave up eight hits in 27 batters faced, giving him a .348 BABIP in the game. That’s obviously a tiny sample size and any one game can be much higher and much lower for pitchers, but at some point, McCarthy’s going to start getting a tad luckier. That being said, his other peripheral numbers aren’t stellar right now. I’ll have a more detailed post up on Sunday. If Lee has been the best Phils’ starter of the big three, Kendrick has been the best pitcher of the entire staff. He’s on a streak of five straight starts of at least six innings and two runs or less, including a complete-game shut out on April 26 against the Mets. In his last outing, he went seven innings, allowed two runs on six hits and struck out six.

Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-US PRESSWIRE

But, it wouldn’t mean all that much if the D-backs went on to get swept by the Phillies so it was important to continue the momentum they gained in the game Kennedy won into tonight’s game. It didn’t take long.

The D-backs scored four runs and batted around in the first inning against Phillies starter Kyle Kendrick. And an underlying story in how they scored those points was that they didn’t need a home run to score multiple runs. They were able to string together hits and move runners around the bases without the long ball. That is important for the team because the D-backs were batting less than .200 with Runners In Scoring Position. In this game, they were 5-12 with RISP.

That doesn’t mean the D-backs didn’t hit some long balls, though. Justin Upton finally hit his first of the season with a mammoth shot to the left field and Jason Kubel hit his second of the year with a bomb to right field, just one batter after Upton.

The D-backs scored eight runs total in the first four innings to put the game away early or so it seemed at least.

Wade Miley was absolutely fantastic for the D-backs as he has been for them for most of the season coming out of the bullpen. He threw six scoreless innings only allowing two hits and a walk while striking out seven. He had the Phillies off-balance for the entire game with a low-90s fastball and a devastating change-up that he threw for strikes on a consistent basis. Brad Ziegler and freshly called-up from triple-A Jonathan Albaladejo pitched scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth.

But the shutout was ruined when left-hander Joe Paterson, struggling so far this year, came into the ninth with a 9-0 lead and proceeded to give up five runs without recording an out. It cut the lead enough that it forced Manager Kirk Gibson to bring in oft-used Craig Breslow and start getting closer J.J. Putz loose in the bullpen.

But Breslow was able to close out the game and finish off the Phillies in what should have been a laugher for D-backs fans but ended with a little bit of anxiety. Miley received the win for the D-backs to increase his record to 2-0 on the season.

There were several important aspects of this game that the D-backs can build on going forward. Most importantly, they won consecutive games for the first time in a week. But getting Upton hitting has to be a priority with Chris Young on the DL for an indefinite amount of time. Upton did not even have and RBI coming into the game but recorded two tonight. It is vital that Upton, the D-backs best hitter, starts to drive in runs in bunches like he is capable of doing.

Furthermore, tonight was another great showing for Miley but it was also encouraging to see him strike out seven batters. In his three previous appearances, Miley threw 8.2 innings but only struck out two while walking four. That type of k/9 rate or k/bb rate is not a good sign of success to come. But tonight, he struck out seven while only walking one. If Miley can continue to strike out people, he should be a great weapon for the D-backs out of the bullpen.

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