Phillies hit 3 homers in 7-2 win over Dodgers

[June 08, 2009]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ryan Howard, Carlos Ruiz and Shane Victorino homered, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 7-2 Sunday to split a four-game series between teams with the top two records in baseball.

Antonio Bastardo (2-0) allowed two runs and seven hits over five-plus innings to win his second major league start. He struck out four.

Jimmy Rollins, dropped from first to sixth in the batting order by Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, broke out of a 4-for-27 rut with a pair of singles that contributed to scoring rallies.

The defending World Series champions, who beat the Dodgers in the NL championship series, maintained their three-game lead over the New York Mets in the NL East.

Los Angeles' cushion over second-place San Francisco in the West was cut to eight games.

The Dodgers, who have the best record in baseball at 39-20 and lead the NL in batting average, runs and on-base percentage, have totaled only seven runs in 46 innings against opponents' starting pitchers over their last seven games.

Bastardo, a 23-year-old left-hander, was replaced by former Dodger Chan Ho Park in the sixth with none out, runners at the corners and a 3-1 lead. Casey Blake scored on a disputed double-play grounder by Matt Kemp, called out at first by umpire Chris Guccione. TV replays clearly showed Kemp was safe.

Ruiz and Victorino homered against Randy Wolf (3-2). The left-hander, who pitched for the Phillies from 1999-06, gave up six runs and eight hits in 6 1-3 innings and has a 5.61 ERA over his last four outings. The loss was his first in 12 starts since April 7, when the Padres beat him 4-2 at San Diego in his season debut.

Rollins, who came in batting .219 and was hitless in his previous 14 at-bats with runners in scoring position, was 2 for 4 with an opposite-field single that helped build a run in the second inning.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time Rollins batted lower than fifth in the lineup since May 26, 2006, when he hit sixth. The switch-hitting shortstop and 2007 NL MVP didn't start in Saturday's 12-inning, 3-2 loss, but was 0 for 2 after entering as a pinch hitter.

The Phillies took a 3-1 lead with a pair of runs in the fifth. Rollins singled and scored from second on a single by Ruiz, whose three RBIs gave him 13 in 94 at-bats this season. Bastardo's sacrifice put runners at second and third, and Pedro Feliz scored when Victorino hit a liner back to the box that glanced off Wolf's glove as he tried to avoid the pieces of Victorino's shattered bat.

The Phillies opened the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the second by Feliz, whose fielding error Friday night led to the first of consecutive blown saves by All-Star closer Brad Lidge.

Kemp tied it in the fourth with a hit-and-run RBI single.

Notes: The Dodgers, who have outscored opponents by a 52-15 margin in the first inning, have gone seven straight games without a first-inning run since getting five at Chicago in the last game of their road trip. ... The Phillies are 32-5 when scoring more than three runs, and 1-17 when they get three or fewer.

[Associated Press]

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