CARLOS RUIZ: Not Afraid Of Curtain Koleslaw

... which should come as a surprise to no one, given that Carlos Ruiz is the only person, not to mention the only Panamanian, in the history of The MLB to hit a home run and a walk-off, 48.5-foot single at 1:47 a.m. in the same World Series game! ////// Three swings of the bats tonight (Ruiz 3-run HR, Howard 2-run 2B, Ibanez 3-run HR) helped the Fightin's offset L.A.'s 14 swings of the bat which produced 14 basehits, notwithstanding ex-Phillie Jim Thome's 0-0. ///// Ah, yes ... any Phillie playoff win is swell, but it's sweeter when it happens vs. L.A. and then prompts Johnny A. to open his Cali-to-Mid-Atlantic Corridor phoner w/: "Thank you, God." -- after all, JayAy is the guy who was there for 9 In The 9th back in '90, not to mention the fact that, under the heading of "religious affiliation" on his Facebook pg., it reads: "anti-Dodger." ////// Is that hate-speech? ///// We hope so ... //// Although none of us knows, though, why Thome's name was in the Disneyland Baseball Channel's quick-stat/recap for tonight's game. ////// THOME: 0-0 ///// It belonged there about as much as: HAPP 1/3 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 SO ///// Frickin' amateurs ... //// There can be no argument, however: There was nuthin' amateurish, though, 'bout the professional manner in which Carlos Ruiz totally jerked that Curtain Koleslaw pitch to get the Phils off the deck. ///// He put a quality baseball swing on the pitched pelota and, yeah ... he crushed it. ///// As per the other two runs in the top of the 5th (5 In The 5th doesn't sound as nice as 9 In The 9th, but, the stakes were far greater, so it must be treated with greater reverence, so they say), perhaps the Philly Sixer (Howard) didn't rocket his 2-run 2B down the RF line, but he hit it sharply (and with proper placement). ///// Ibanez? Now, that was funny considering that Honeycutt had just pow-wowed with Sherrill and then, "bang!" .... first pitch, 3-run jack. ////// "Whujuh guys talk about in the huddle?" ////// Relievers named Sherrill ... crooked college football coaches named Sherrill ... ex-fiancees named Cheryl ... what purpose do they serve, anyway? ////// As long as we're nitpicking, Cole Hamels -- pitching in his first game since becoming a daddy (we've heard that his infant daughter's name is NOT Colbertina, which disappoints us tremendously) -- was kinda so-so. ////// It's difficult to assess his performance, since he was reasonably sharp (kinda/sorta) thru the first 4, but then, after sittin' thru 5 In The 5th, was a little shoddy, location-wise, in the bottom of the frame. ///// Ironically, the pitch which #99 Druggie Dreadlock cranked for his HR, well ... location-wise, that wasn't a terrible pitch. ////// Only Man-Ram's gonna handle that one. //// Which he did. //// Which means that maybe it was a shitty pitch, I dunno. ////// It was a bit of a tightrope walk out there tonight ... Madson had to work out of a scrape in the 8th ... and, in the 9th, Lidge woulda been ripe for an implosion if Blakebeard doesn't go 4-6-3 on that DP which Utley started in dandy fashion. ///// Think about it: Lidge facing 3-for-4 Loney w/ 2 on and 0 outs, hmmmmm ... ///// Some of us would rather not think about that -- but, rather why, during last year's NLCS, Blakebeard was wearing his beard and #30, but now he's wearing #23 (the number which GIDP rookie Blake DeWitt was wearing ... and WTF is up with Russell Nathan Coltrane Jeanson Martin wearing "J. MARTIN" above the 55 on the back of his L.A. shirt? ///// Is that how they do things in Ontario, Canada or Ontario, Calif.? /////// Not our concern, probably ...