The Phillies decided when getting to the ballpark in South Florida today that they would give all 1,200 of the fans in attendance a show. And they did not disappoint. Led by the ice cream man himself, Carlos Ruiz collected three hits, including a home run, and four RBIs. His four RBIs tied a career high for the Phillies’ catcher. Not letting the Chooch stand alone Chase Utley, Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs all added solo shots as part of the 15 hit barrage.
Knocking around 15 hits and scoring 11 runs was all Joe Blanton needed. Blanton went six innings allowing only one run and struck out eight. He did lower his ERA to 5.00, his lowest since early May.
Ryan Howard reached the 100 RBI mark for the fifth straight season. He is only the fourth Phillie to have at least five seasons of 100 RBIs joining the likes of Mike Schmidt, Del Ennis, and Chuck Klein. Klein is the only other to do in in five straight seasons. It was also the sixth straight game in which Howard has collected an RBI. He has 11 over that span.
With 17 games left in the season, the Phillies will only play teams from the NL East here on out. Six of the those games will be against the Atlanta Braves who, with beating the Nats 4-0 tonight, are still one game back of the Phillies.
Ryan Lawrence of the Delaware County Times points out that the big three, or H2O, of Roy Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt could line up just in time for the Atlanta series.
The Phillies have won 14 of their last 18 games and 15 of their last 18 road games. Eight of the Phillies’ final games are on the road.
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