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A Giants Killer

Rollins has three hits as Phils cruise

Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley celebrate turning a double play in the seventh inning.  (David M Warren/Staff Photographer)
Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley celebrate turning a double play in the seventh inning. (David M Warren/Staff Photographer)Read more

Earlier this month, Jimmy Rollins was hurting. It was easy to tell. One night in Florida, Rollins scored from second on a single to right. As soon as he crossed home plate, he limped to the dugout.

Rollins fouled a pitch off his left foot on July 26. It wasn't until last Saturday in New York when it didn't hurt Rollins to turn the bases.

"I felt pretty good about that," Rollins said.

Nights like Wednesday's 8-2 win over San Francisco are rarer and rarer for the 31-year-old shortstop. He is enduring the worst offensive season of his career since 2002, when he was 23 with a tendency to swing at everything and anything.

But each time he shows flashes - stealing bases at will, taking extra bags on balls hit to the wall, and generating a powerful whoosh with a swing - there is every reason to believe Rollins can still be the man at the top of this potent Phillies lineup.

Rollins fell a double shy of the cycle Wednesday. He was 3 for 5 with a single, triple, and three-run home run. He stole two bases and scored two runs.

"This time of the year," manager Charlie Manuel said, "when a lot of focus is on our team, Jimmy rises. This is when Jimmy likes to play."

It also helps that Rollins is healthy. He missed 56 games with a calf strain, then another three with the bruised foot. Before Saturday, when Rollins couldn't run like normal, the triple he hit in the third inning would have been a double, he said. Before, he didn't want to push it.

"I think everybody knows," Jayson Werth said, "as Jimmy goes, we go. Tonight was another testament to that."

Rollins' home run broke the game open in the fourth, putting the Phillies ahead, 5-1. Righthander Joe Blanton made it stand for his fifth win in what has been largely a disappointing season.

The win was capped by rookie Domonic Brown, who launched an eighth-inning, pinch-hit home run that landed in the right-field upper deck. It was enough to merit the first of likely many curtain calls for Brown in South Philadelphia.

The more important home run came four innings earlier. For Rollins, his three-run bomb ended a streak of 154 at-bats without one - the third-longest homerless streak of his career. It also marked the first home run the Phillies had hit in 59 innings, the team's second-longest streak of the season.

Manuel's teams have been known for their home runs - especially when playing at Citizens Bank Park. But without Utley and Ryan Howard, the Phillies have relied more on manufacturing runs in winning 20 of their last 25 games. Entering Wednesday, the Phillies were eighth in the league in steals; they were in the top three in steals each of the last three seasons.

Manuel said a lot of that has to do with the injuries to Rollins, Utley, and Shane Victorino. Now Rollins looks like the speedster he has been in the past.

He's showing signs of comfort at the plate, too.

"The plate is starting to feel like it actually is where it is, as opposed to when I'm up there and the plate feels like it's in the other batter's box and I'm never close enough," Rollins said.

Before the game, someone asked Manuel if he still thinks Rollins can hit.

"Bet your sweet ass," the manager said.

Werth stood nearby and heard what Manuel said. As the game began, he relayed it to Rollins.

"I had no idea what he was talking about," Rollins said.

Then, after Rollins' home run, Werth said it to Rollins again. Hey, whatever works for the shortstop.

"When he goes," Blanton said, "we really go."