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Phillies end skid with 9-6 win over Orioles

BALTIMORE - Each player in the parade of happy Phillies streaming into the dugout Friday shook Charlie Manuel's right hand. The manager stood on the top step for the majority of a 9-6 victory over the first-place Baltimore Orioles that ended a six-game losing streak and must have wondered if his message had been received.

Mike Fontenot celebrates his two-run home run against the Orioles with Juan Pierre. (Nick Wass/AP)
Mike Fontenot celebrates his two-run home run against the Orioles with Juan Pierre. (Nick Wass/AP)Read more

BALTIMORE - Each player in the parade of happy Phillies streaming into the dugout Friday shook Charlie Manuel's right hand. The manager stood on the top step for the majority of a 9-6 victory over the first-place Baltimore Orioles that ended a six-game losing streak and must have wondered if his message had been received.

A day earlier, he issued the ultimate slap to the face for a bunch of underachieving millionaires, saying they "scared nobody." Asked Friday before the victory what affect that can have on a person, Manuel turned serious.

"I would be mad," Manuel said, "but I would be mad at myself."

So a group of 25 men beaten verbally and physically in the last week answered their manager's challenge in the form of an offensive barrage at Camden Yards in the game's first four innings.

Manuel batted Jim Thome, a likely future Hall of Famer with all of two hits in 2012, fourth. "He's still got something in him," Manuel said before the game. Indeed, three Thome hits and two runs scored made Manuel look quite shrewd.

Shane Victorino equaled a career-high five RBIs. Mike Fontenot crushed an opposite-field home run (seriously), and Joe Blanton survived 62/3 repulsive innings. There was enough to like from the Phillies after innings and innings of ineptitude.

The Phillies began Friday with their worst record through 59 games since 2002, when a Larry Bowa-managed team started 25-34 and finished 80-81. Manuel's words may have cut deep in the clubhouse.

"It's motivation," Thome said after the game. "He's very honest. I think as players, when you hear your manager say that, you want to get better. You want get that edge."

This one was not easy; Manuel had closer Jonathan Papelbon warming in the eighth inning of a three-run game because he couldn't be too sure on a night when the Phillies desperately needed to taste victory. But Antonio Bastardo navigated the eighth, and Papelbon, pitching in this city for the first time since authoring the final failure in an epic Boston collapse, earned his 16th save.

It was easy to foresee a slugfest with Blanton and Jake Arrieta on the mound. Since May 10, Blanton had an 8.44 ERA and Arrieta a 7.82 clip. Those were two of baseball's three worst ERAs in that span.

Arrieta was pummeled for nine runs and 11 hits, both career highs. Blanton was not much better; he allowed five earned runs for the fifth straight start. If he does it again in his next start, he will tie Calvin Maduro's modern-era franchise record.

Granted, Michael Schwimer offered no help. The fifth run charged to Blanton scored only when Schwimer served a two-run home run to J.J. Hardy in the seventh. Blanton could not finish the inning because he reached 115 pitches. Making it that far was no small feat.

"I'm just trying to survive out there right now," Blanton said.

Manuel's lineup, specifically Thome, rewarded his faith. Thome entered Friday 2 for 20 on the season amid questions of his future. The 41-year-old had struck out 11 times in those 20 at-bats and appeared painfully aged.

"He can still hit one," Manuel said before the game. "He might hit that warehouse tonight."

The first ball he hit did not travel over the right-field wall, let alone reach the infield dirt. But it went for an infield single, and that allowed Victorino to bat with two runners on base in the first inning. He singled home the first run for a Phillies lead they would never relinquish.

The Phillies sent 10 men to the plate in the second and scored six runs on six hits. Thome barely missed that homer in the second inning when he crushed a double to the warning track in right-center. Then Victorino delivered a two-run double.

"That's what I've longed to see from Jim," Victorino said. "When he's swinging the bat well he can carry a team."

In the fourth, Thome doubled again, this time with two outs. And Victorino promptly stroked an Arrieta slider into the right-field bleachers for two more runs. It was but one of the swings Friday that scared the opposition, much to Manuel's delight.