Phils romp to ninth straight win

It seems to happen every season: At least one player appears in the team photograph because he was on the roster the day it was taken, only to leave shortly thereafter and become a distant memory by the fall.

Because of the impending arrival of Pedro Martinez, Rodrigo Lopez will have a difficult time remaining a Phillie, despite being captured in the group picture earlier this month. But he continued to serve as a helpful stopgap tonight, protecting a blowout lead for the second time in three starts.

The Phillies defeated the Chicago Cubs, 10-1, at Citizens Bank Park behind six effective innings from Lopez and homers by Raul Ibanez, Carlos Ruiz and Ryan Howard. It was their ninth consecutive victory, the team's best streak since May 2006.

Barring injury to another pitcher, Lopez will remain in the rotation only until Martinez is ready, but he pitched well again tonight and appeared healthy. The righthander left his previous start, on July 8, with a shoulder strain, after seeing his fastball velocity drop from 89 to 82 m.p.h in the fifth inning.

Tonight, he was surely relieved to see the pitch once again peaking in the high 80s. Having recovered his strength and repertoire, Lopez repeated his first start with the Phils, when he used guile and sharp command to defeat the New York Mets on July 3 after the Phillies gave him a large, early lead.

He walked one but stranded the runner in the first, and induced three groundouts in the second. Despite allowing a walk, a single and two hard-hit outs, Lopez posted another scoreless inning in the third. That outcome was made possible by Chase Utley, who reached a scorching Koyie Hill line drive, and Lopez himself, who struck out the powerful Derek Lee with two on and two out.

Lopez again faced a two-on, two-out situation in the fourth, after allowing a single and a walk. Again, he escaped trouble with a strikeout, Hill the victim this time. He ended up stranding baserunners in each of the six innings he pitched.

The offense, ignited by a Jimmy Rollins single, scored three runs in the first inning and dominated the night. Shane Victorino followed with a double, moving Rollins to third. The Phils appeared poised for a big inning, but Utley hit a sharp liner down the line that first baseman Lee snared for the first out, and Ryan Howard followed with a strikeout.

The Cubs' all-star starter, Ted Lilly, was one pitch away from an impressive escape when Ibanez blasted a 2-2 pitch to dead center field for a three-run homer, his 25th of the season.

The Phillies added to their lead in the second with two uncommon occurrences, a Pedro Feliz walk and a Ruiz home run. Feliz, who entered the game with a .335 on-base percentage, drew a base on balls to begin the inning. The badly slumping Ruiz, whose average fell from .299 on June 9 to .226 entering yesterday, poked a ball over the left-field wall. The catcher's fourth homer of the year made it 5-0 Phils.

A four-run fourth, which included a Ruiz double, a sacrifice fly by Rollins and a dropped fly ball by Cubs leftfielder Alfonso Soriano, gave the Phils and Lopez a nine-run lead and another enjoyable summer night.

Contact staff writer Andy Martino at 215-854-4874 or amartino@phillynews.com.