PHILADELPHIA — Ryan Howard had finished the most prolific night of his young, celebrated career. He drilled two home runs in a World Series game.
But even Howard knew where the seeds of Sunday night’s 10-2 victory were planted. It all began two days earlier, when Jimmy Rollins — hitless after two games in the series — was the last player standing in the indoor batting cage at Citizens Bank Park.
“He’s in there working, I don’t even know — it’s too long,” Howard said. “He’s in there doing one-hand drills, doing stuff off the tee, getting flips … all kinds of stuff.
“But people don’t see that. Tonight, he went out there and he led the way for us.”
While Howard slammed two home runs and Joe Blanton carved a place for himself in franchise history with six sharp innings and an improbable long ball of his own, the night that moved the Phillies one win away from the World Championship began where most successful nights begin — with Rollins.
Rollins finished 3-for-5 — and probably should have been 4-for-5 if it wasn’t for a questionable official scorer’s ruling — and scored three runs as the Phillies trounced Tampa and grabbed a 3-1 series lead.
“As J-Roll goes, we go. The last two games have been no exception,” Jayson Werth said of Rollins. “He’s been our guy all year.”
Rollins was 0-for-Tampa in the first two games of the World Series. Hitless in 10 at-bats. In each of the last two games in South Philly, however, Rollins is 5-for-9 and turned a stagnant offense back into a run-scoring machine. Tonight, he’ll try to finish leading them down a path that ends atop a parade float on Broad Street.
“It seems when he goes we go,” Scott Eyre said, echoing the popular refrain the Phils use in regard to Rollins. “And that’s a nice compliment to have said about you — when you go, everybody else goes. And I don’t think he takes any pressure from that either. He goes out and plays his game.
“The guy was an MVP of the league. I know he didn’t have as great of a year this year as he had last season, but we’re standing right where we’re at. So something is going right.”
Games go right for the Phillies when Rollins finds home plate. They are 43-15 (.741) when he scores a run. For the second straight night, Rollins put that stat into play by leading off with a hit and scored a run in the first inning.
Howard ripped two, booming home runs in two of his final three at-bats and Blanton did a little bit of everything, silencing the Tampa offense with his arm and stunning the home crowd with his bat. After allowing a solo home run in the top of the fifth, Blanton responded with a solo shot of his own in the bottom half of the inning, the first long ball by a Phillies pitcher in World Series history.
Of the 42 previous teams that have gone up 3-1 in a World Series, 36 have gone on to win and 23 have wrapped the series in Game 5. The St. Louis Cardinals were the last team to blow a 3-1 lead when the Kansas City Royals stormed back to take the 1985 World Series.
The Phils appear to be in decent shape to keep the Rays from bucking the trend. For the second straight series, they’ll send ace Cole Hamels to the mound for the clincher in the final game of the season at Citizens Bank Park.
Hamels, 4-0 with a 1.55 ERA in four postseason starts, will need the runs to keep coming. Before Pedro Feliz hit a two-out, RBI single to put the home team ahead 2-0 in the third inning, the Phillies extended their struggles with runners in scoring position to a woeful 2-for-39.
But chicks, and the towel-waving, parade-ready fans, dig the long ball. The Phillies, who hit three solo home runs Saturday, kept the home run derby rolling.
After the Phillies left the bases loaded in the third, failing to add to their 2-0 lead, Rollins and Howard picked the team up in the fourth. Rollins led off the inning with a hot grounder that squeaked by second baseman Akinori Iwamura.
Tampa starter Andy Sonnanstine then walked Jayson Werth before striking out Chase Utley. Sonnanstine couldn’t escape Howard.
Mired in an 0-for-50 home run drought before connecting Saturday night, Howard launched a 2-1 offering from Sonnanstine deep into the left-field bleachers to expand the Phils lead to 5-1.
One lethal swing turned a one-run game into a scoreboard that began making people in Philadelphia believe.
“A championship is the only way to reverse that thought of how the Phillies are portrayed,” Rollins said.
The only two blemishes on Blanton’s final line — two runs on four hits in six innings — were a pair of solo home runs. Blanton got one back in the fifth, socking a pitch from Edwin Jackson over the left-field fence.
After Rollins began yet another inning with a hit — this time a double off the right-field wall that was a few feet from leaving the yard — Werth completed what looked like the second straight home run hat trick of the weekend with a two-run blast in the eighth.
After Utley followed Werth with a walk, Howard annihilated a fastball from lefty Trever Miller. Howard’s second home run of the game — and third in his last seven at-bats — was a majestic shot that reminded everyone in Citizens Bank Park why the recently-struggling slugger has one MVP trophy on his mantle and the possibility of another on the way.
While the bats were at play, the ever-reliable relief corps kept churning out zeroes.
Chad Durbin recorded one out before turning the ball over to Eyre. Eyre was followed by Ryan Madson, who continued his remarkable resurgence by striking out three of the four batters he faced in a perfect 11/3 innings.
With a six-run lead, Brad Lidge got the night off. J.C. Romero made it three shutout innings for the bullpen with a hitless ninth, slamming the door on the Rays and opening the window to a possible World Championship tonight.
For more Phillies news, notes and observations, visit Ryan’s Phillies blog at delcotimes.com/blogs
