Phillies 6, Nationals 3
WP – Cole Hamels (16-6, 3-11)
LP – Ross Detwiler (10-7, 3.28)
SV – Jonathan Papelbon (37)
PHILADELPHIA — Seeing his name penciled into the starting line up for the first time as a Major Leaguer had to have felt good for Darin Ruf.
Blasting a solo homer in the 2nd inning for his first career hit in the Majors had to have felt even better.
Ruf hit the first of three Phillies home runs – the shot coming off of Nationals starter Ross Detwiler – in their 6-3 win over the Nationals, backing Cole Hamels on a night he didn’t have his best stuff.
After a pair of pinch-hit at-bats, Ruf finally made his first start in left field. He finished the game going 2-for-3 with a homer and a single.
Ruf, like most rookies who hit their first Big League bombs, was greeted with the silent treatment upon arriving back to the dugout after his home run.
“I knew something was up when I tried to give the bat boy a [fist] pound and he didn’t even acknowledge me,” Ruf said after the game. “So it’s like, ‘All right, OK,’ if he’s not going to do anything. But then I tried talking to [Tyler] Cloyd and Steve [LeRud], and nothing. So it was like, ‘OK, let’s see how long this lasts.'”
The team finally broke the silent treatment about five minutes, and three batters later.
When Ruf jogged back out to left field to start the 3rd inning, he was greeted by a standing ovation from the fans in the left field area. Ruf tipped his cap to those fans, acknowledging the warm ovation.
Only a few balls were hit Ruf’s way, and in one instance he had to throw home. Unfortunately for Ruf he doesn’t have much of an arm in the outfield.
The Phillies were trailing 1-0 when Ruf hit his game-tying shot in the 2nd. They took the lead in the very next inning on a Ryan Howard RBI single that was followed up by a three-run homer by Carlos Ruiz to give Hamels a 5-1 cushion.
Lost in tonight’s game was the fact Hamels won his 16th game of the season, a career-high in one season. But Hamels only last five innings, throwing 99 pitches.
Washington cut the lead to 5-3 in the 5th inning on a pair of RBI singles by Bryce Harper and Ryan Zimmerman. But Domonic Brown’s solo home run to lead off the 6th gave Philadelphia a 6-3 cushion.
2B: Frandsen (5). HR: Ruf (1), Ruiz (16), Brown (5).
TTB 