Gload’s Pinch Homer Pushes Phillies Past Rockies
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Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz’s ninth inning 1 out RBI single, his 4th hit in 5 ABs for the game — including a sixth inning solo homer — broke a 5-5 tie off of Colorado reliever Manny Corpas and was followed by pinch hitter Ross Gload’s classic Matt Stairs impression on Monday. The lefthanded pinch hitter nailed Corpas’ 3-1 pitch out to rightfield with 2 men on to put a see-saw game out of reach. Gload’s pinch homer pushed the Phillies past the Rockies by a 9-5 score in the opener of their 3 game series.
With the win, the Phils remained 2 games up in the NL East race on the now 2nd place and surprising Washington Nationals who edged the Mets in the opener of their 3 game series. The Mets are in 3rd place, 3 games back.
Starter Kyle Kendrick only pitched a so-so game following the seven inning shutout effort in his previous start. He threw 100 pitches while giving up 4 runs on 8 hits and walking 2 while striking out 1. He was in jams in three of his six innings and only went clean on the Rockies in the sixth. Having left after six with the Phils up 5-4, Kendrick still stood to get the win until lefthanded reliever J.C. Romero ran into trouble in the seventh getting only 1 out while giving up the tying run on 2 hits and a walk. David Herndon replaced Romero and got out of the inning on 1 pitch, a doubleplay grounder.
Rockies starter lefthander Greg Smith, in trouble in four of his 5 2/3 innings, was no better than Kendrick. His only easy innings were the third, where he struck out 2, issued a walk and got leftfielder Raul Ibanez to fly out and the fourth, when Ruiz led off with a single followed by a doubleplay grounder by shortstop Wilson Valdez followed by Kendrick fanning.
AP sports writer Arnie Stapleton recaps the game for Yahoo:
Meltdowns on the mound, errors in the outfield, replacements up and down the roster—not exactly the ingredients for good baseball.
Carlos Ruiz had four hits, including a homer in the sixth inning and a tiebreaking single off Manny Corpas in the ninth, and Shane Victorino tripled twice, drew three walks and scored three runs.
Ruiz’s third single scored Ryan Howard from second. Howard was plunked by an 0-2 fastball from Corpas leading off the ninth and went to second one out later on a wild pitch by Corpas.
Pinch-hitter Ross Gload then sent a 3-1 delivery from Corpas into the bullpen beyond the right-field wall for a three-run homer that made it 9-5 and sent the shivering crowd streaming to the exits.
The four-run rally off Corpas (1-2) made a winner of Danys Baez (1-1), who threw a scoreless eighth. Jose Contreras got the final three outs.
The ninth-inning meltdown, shaky defense and poor pitching ruined a breakout game for [Jason] Giambi, who had three hits, three RBIs and narrowly missed homering twice.
Giambi made the most of a rare start at first base, driving in three runs with two singles and a sacrifice fly before doubling off the wall in the ninth.
Giambi… added a sacrifice fly in the third and a broken-bat bloop single off lefty Romero in the seventh that erased a 5-4 deficit.
David Herndon then came in and rescued the Phillies with the help of second baseman Chase Utley, who snared Melvin Mora’s grounder up the middle to save a run and start an inning-ending double play.
“That’s how Utley plays,” his manager, Charlie Manuel, said. “Utley is a hard player. He will make big plays at the right time.”
And Ruiz is starting to collect big, timely hits—he said he’s simply learned to chill out in stressful situations.
“The last couple of years I was fighting myself. This year Charlie got me to relax and you see what has happened,” Ruiz said.
To view the scores of all of Monday’s MLB games, click here.
On Tuesday, the Doc hangs out his shingle in Colorado for the first time — Phillies ace Roy Halladay is opposed by Aaron Cook for the Rockies in game 2.
To view all of Tuesday’s games, click here.
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