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Phillies regain winning ways, rout Marlins

Sep 9, 2007 - 1:08 AM By Vince DiGregorio PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) -- The Philadelphia Phillies managed to halt their freefall for at least one day.

Greg Dobbs had an RBI triple and hit a home run while Chris Coste and Jimmy Rollins each added a two-run blast as the Phillies defeated the Florida Marlins, 9-1, at Citizens Bank Park on Saturday.

The win kept Philadelphia (74-67) six games behind first-place New York (80-61), as the Mets posted a victory earlier in the day. The Phillies entered the contest with just two wins in their last seven games after their four-game sweep of the Mets at the end of August.

"Days like this are special," Dobbs said. "You'd love to be able to duplicate them. It's not always gonna be like that. Sometimes, you're gonna have to win ugly."

Clay Condrey (5-0) combined with three other Phillies relievers to notch the win.

"For us to keep it (close) and then to tack on the rest of those runs, I hope it's a big lift for us," Condrey said.

Hanley Ramirez led off the game with his 25th home run of the season to give the Marlins a quick 1-0 lead. Ramirez hit a 2-2 pitch from Phillies starter John Ennis over the left field fence for his seventh leadoff homer of the season and 14th career.

"I've heard the horror stories about pitching in this ballpark," Ennis said. "When (Ramirez) hit it, I thought it was going to be a double. It took me a little while to regroup."

Florida later put runners at the corners with two outs in the frame, but right fielder Shane Victorino made a diving catch on Mike Jacobs' low liner to prevent further damage.

"Shane making the catch was the key point for me," Ennis said. "I was able to gather myself."

The Phillies threatened in the second inning against Marlins starter Rick VandenHurk, loading the bases with two outs, but Ennis was called out on strikes as VandenHurk struck out the side.

Philadelphia got to VandenHurk (4-6) with three runs in the fourth. With a runner on first and two outs, Dobbs lined an RBI triple to deep right-center to tie the game. Coste then hit VandenHurk's next pitch into the left field seats for a two-run home run to give the Phillies a 3-1 advantage.

"VandenHurk got me in that first at-bat, struck me out with fastballs," Dobbs said. "So my second at-bat, I was trying to be a little bit earlier on him and I was able to do that. The changeup is what I hit to right-center (for the triple)."

Dobbs made it 4-1 in the sixth inning off reliever Harvey Garcia with a home run to right-center for his ninth of the season.

"(Garcia) threw me a fastball that I liked," Dobbs said. "I was able to get the barrel of the bat on it."

Dobbs is batting .353 (12-for-34) with eight RBI against Florida this season.

"Dobbs had two real big hits today," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Dobbs has been contributing all year. He's playing a lot against righthanded pitchers. When the season started, he was a bat off the bench."

Chase Utley added an RBI single in the seventh before Rollins' two-run home run capped a four-run eighth inning that made it 9-1.

Rollins hit his 26th homer, establishing a new personal season high.

Neither starting pitcher made it to the fifth inning.

Ennis went four innings, allowing a run on six hits with no walks and five strikeouts. Ennis, who took the mound in the fifth but didn't record an out, was making just his second major league start and his first since April 10, 2002 when he was with the Atlanta Braves.

"We just needed a win today," Ennis said. "Whatever I could do, if it was one inning or five innings, I'm just glad we got the win today."

After Ennis gave up two singles to start the fifth, Condrey retired the side in order to escape the jam.

"Condrey picked us up," Manuel said. "Especially when we need someone to mop-up, but also he's responded for us in tough situations."

VandenHurk lasted four innings, giving up three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out four. The righthander was slightly better than in his other start against Philadelphia this season when he surrendered six runs in 2 1/3 innings.

"(VandenHurk) just got some balls up," Florida manager Fredi Gonzalez said. "The one pitch to Coste and that was it."