Geoff Jenkins threaded the ball through Eugenio Velez, and Ryan Howard scampered home the winning run in a 6-5 thriller over the Giants Sunday. The game-winner ended a score-and-be-scored-upon hit fest, where no team had an advantage for long.
The Phils drew first blood with a Pat Burrell two-RBI double. Burrell went 2-for-3 and now has an astounding 30 RBI on the season. He’s basically on pace for 150 RBI. But Cole Hamels couldn’t keep the Giants grounded, giving up a few singles and a double to Rich Aurilia of all people, to tie the game at 2.
Aurilia haunted Hamels all day. The Phils took the lead again, scoring on a bunch of wild pitches and errors to make it 4-2, but Aurilia socked a two-run home run to tie it back up. In the eighth, Chad Durbin surrendered an Aaron Rowand single and Jose Castillo triple to give the Giants the 5-4 lead.
That’s when the Phils did what they do best. Carlos Ruiz punched his first homer of the season with one out in the eighth, seizing the game again for the home team and tying it up at 5. It set up the ninth inning heroics, started by two-out walks by Burrell and Ryan Howard off Keiichi Yabu. Jenkins finished the deed.
Games and series like these are the ones contending teams need to win, and that’s what the Phils did this weekend. The Giants are a young group of guys that resemble ticks – you can’t just brush them off. Hamels didn’t have his best stuff today and really served up a couple meatballs, but the offense was able to overcome mediocre pitching. Moreover, they took advantage off Giant errors and finally scored with a runner in scoring position. In the end, they got it done, remaining in first place and grabbing a huge getaway win as they hit Arizona this week for a huge series against the best of the National League.
Associated Press photo
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