If Ryan Howard, the Philadelphia Phillies and their frustrated fans needed any more evidence this really might be their year, Joe Blanton gave it to them.
Blanton became the first pitcher in 34 years to homer in the World Series, Howard drove in five runs with two homers and the Phillies romped over the Tampa Bay Rays 10-2 on Sunday night to move within one win of their first championship since 1980.
Jayson Werth also homered as the Phillies took a 3-1 lead in the best-of-seven Series.
Cole Hamels will try to close out the Phillies’ second Series title on tonight against Scott Kazmir in a rematch of Game 1 starters. Hamels (4-0) is trying to become the first pitcher to win five postseason starts in one year.
Of the 42 teams to take 3-1 World Series leads, 36 have gone on to win the crown.
After splitting the first two games in Florida, the Phillies improved to 6-0 at Citizens Bank Park this postseason. That includes a wacky, rain-delayed 5-4 win in Game 3 that ended at 1:47 a.m. Sunday - it drew a 6.1 television rating, easily the lowest in Series history.
Jimmy Rollins made a great escape from a rundown in the first inning - perhaps with the help of an umpire’s blown call - energizing the Phillies and rattling the Rays.
A day after hitting his first homer of the Series, Howard connected twice.
The major league leader in home runs and RBI hit a three-run drive off Andy Sonnanstine that made it 5-1 in the fourth and sent screams through a whooped-up crowd of 45,903. Howard struck again with a long, two-run shot in the eighth.
Blanton, with a Greg Luzinski body type that’s a throwback to an era of pudgy pitchers, had a dreamlike night. He gave up four hits - including solo homers to Carl Crawford and pinch-hitter Eric Hinske - struck out seven and walked two in six-plus innings.
Even when Jason Bartlett’s grounder up the middle caromed off him in the fifth, the ball went straight to third, where Pedro Feliz threw to first for the out. The pinball wizard defense was fitting - The Who gave a concert across the street at the Wachovia Center on Sunday night.
Four pitchers combined for one-hit relief, with Ryan Madson striking out B.J. Upton on a 3-2 changeup to end the seventh with two runners on, preserving a 6-2 lead.
The middle of Tampa Bay’s lineup kept fizzling as if it had been zapped by a Ray-gun, with No. 3 hitter Carlos Pena and cleanup man Evan Longoria combining to go 0-for-29 in the Series. Second baseman Akinori Iwamura made two errors that led to unearned runs, and a frustrated Longoria - again taunted by chants of “E-va! E-va!” in reference to the actress of the same last name - struck out three times and swiped a hand through the air when a call went against him at third base,
Had the Phillies come up with more timely hits - a familiar story - Philadelphia could have blown open the game earlier. The Phillies were 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position and are 6-for-47 in the Series.
Sonnanstine, 2-0 in the postseason coming in, struggled with his offspeed stuff and needed 89 pitches to get through four innings. He allowed five runs - three earned - six hits and three walks.
Rollins doubled just inside the first-base line leading off and advanced on Werth’s fly to right. After Chase Utley walked, Howard hit a comebacker to Sonnanstine. Instead of throwing to second in an attempt to start a double play, the pitcher ran toward a trapped Rollins off third.
Sonnanstine then threw to Longoria, who appeared to tag Rollins on the backside. But umpire Tim Welke signaled safe, and Longoria swiped an arm in the air in frustration.
Pat Burrell walked on five pitches, forcing home the first run. Before that, Sonnanstine had never walked a batter in 18 career batters with bases loaded. Shane Victorino followed with a slow bouncer that Sonnanstine scooped up and flipped with his glove to the plate for a forceout. Feliz then flied out.
Utley reached leading off the second when Iwamura allowed his leadoff grounder to bounce off him for an error and scored with two outs on a single by Feliz, just the third hit for the Phillies in 40 at-bats with runners in scoring position in the Series.
Crawford homered in the fourth, but Rollins reached on another error by Iwamura starting the bottom half, when his grounder rolled under the second baseman’s glove in the hole near first base. Werth walked and, one out later, Howard drove a 72 mph pitch into the lower deck in left for a 5-1 lead, sending the huge electronic Liberty Bell in right-center rocking. Howard had been 0-for-6 with five strikeouts in the much-focused on runners in scoring position stat.
Hinske, activated before the game to replace injured Cliff Floyd, homered in the fifth. With 25 postseason homers, the Rays trail only San Francisco (27 for 2002) for most in one postseason.
Blanton, just 2-for-33 (.061) with one RBI in his career to that point, homered with two outs in the fifth off Edwin Jackson. It was just the 15th home run by a pitcher in the Series, and the first since Oakland’s Ken Holtzman in 1974. No NL pitcher had homered since the Cardinals’ Bob Gibson in 1968.
In the eighth, Howard connected off Dan Wheeler and Werth against Trever Miller.
