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Utley homers again as Phils top Rockies

Apr 22, 2008 - 5:35 AM By Brady Delander PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

DENVER (Ticker) - After a number of home runs were hit into the face of winds blowing in hard from left field, Carlos Ruiz did something novel.

Ruiz stayed on the ground with a two-run double in the top of the eighth inning to rally the Philadelphia Phillies past the Colorado Rockies, 9-5, on Monday night at Coors Field.

"I'm a hunch guy," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said of his decision to bat the struggling Ruiz. "I could of hit (Chris) Coste for (Ruiz), but I didn't do it because I felt good by (Ruiz). I have confidence in him. Coste hits lefthanded pitchers very good, but I play how I feel, and I felt good with (Ruiz)."

The Phillies evened their record at 10-10 thanks in large part to Ruiz's hit, but Philadelphia scored nearly every which way in this one.

Jayson Werth hit an inside-the-park home run, and Chase Utley hit a homer for the fifth consecutive game to add to the Phillies' offensive highlights.

The Rockies (9-10), who lost a second-straight game on the arms of relievers, opened the scoring in the second inning when Yorvit Torrealba defied the gusting winds and crushed a 2-1 pitch from Kyle Kendrick over the wall in left field to give Colorado an early 3-0 lead.

"I left a couple pitches up high, but we won the game," said Kendrick.

Philadelphia cut into the lead in the top of the fourth inning. Ryan Howard drilled a two-out single between Todd Helton and Clint Barmes, both diving, to bring up Pat Burrell, who became the second batter of the night to send a home-run ball straight into the wind and over the fence in left field.

Following the lead of Burrell and Torrealba, Garrett Atkins added to Colorado's slim lead in the fifth inning with a two-run home run to left field.

Through five innings, Rockies' starter Mark Redman pitched precisely as planned. He kept the ball low in the zone, forced a slew of groundball outs (nine of 15 outs in five innings of work) and did not allow too many hits or runs. That is, until the sixth inning.

"(Redman) was so efficient when he was on his game - five strikeouts, nine groundball outs," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "He just made some mistakes over the plate, and this club is very good at barreling balls when they're over the plate."

Werth opened the sixth inning for the Phillies against Redman by lacing a curving fly ball to right-center field, out of reach for the Rockies' speedy Willy Taveras. As the ball bounced off the wall and rolled back toward center field, Werth was well on his way to third base and being waved home.

Utley, the next batter, accomplished the same result while burning fewer calories. Utley crushed a Redman pitch over the fence in right field for his sixth home run in five games.

Utley became the fourth Philly to hit home runs in five consecutive games (Bobby Abreu was the most recent, May 2005 with Mike Schmidt and Dick Allen also accomplishing the feat).

Utley's blast cut the Rockies' lead to 5-4, and the hot-hitting second baseman nearly tied the score in the eighth. Utley turned on a 2-2 pitch Colorado reliever Taylor Buchholz but sent the ball foul. He struck out swinging two pitches later.

Buchholz wasn't out of the woods yet. He gave up singles to Howard and Burrell and walked Pedro Feliz to load the bases, prompting the Rockies to call Brian Fuentes out of the bullpen.

Facing Buchholz, Ruiz laced a low, flat pitch down the first-baseline for a double, scoring Howard and T.J. Bohn to give the Phillies their first lead of the game, 6-5.

"I was trying to be very aggressive, and I got a good pitch to hit. I knew if I got a hit, something's going to happen," Ruiz said. "In that position, especially with the bases loaded, most of the pitchers stay away. I was looking for something over the plate and made contact. I told myself a big hit right here and you got a good chance to win the game."

Philadelphia piled on in the ninth, getting an RBI double from Werth and a two-RBI double from Bohn.