Phillies rally for win on Darin Ruf's walkoff single

SOMETIMES IT'S funny the way losing streaks are broken.

Last night was certainly that, unless you're a member of the Cincinnati faithful.

The weather was abnormal for this time of year. It was cold, wet and blustery. It felt more April than June.

And the way the Phillies won was equally weird.

The Phillies tallied three runs against the Reds that they probably shouldn't have in helping to snap a seasonlong, seven-game losing streak, winning, 5-4, in front of an announced crowd of 20,209.

Darin Ruf provided the game's walkoff RBI, a blooped, broken-bat single to rightfield after Carlos Ruiz sacrifice-bunted Odubel Herrera to third base. Herrera led off the ninth with a double down the leftfield line to get into scoring position.

"With [Hererra] running at third, you got a fast runner, so anything semi-deep in the outfield will probably score him," Ruf said.

"I was just trying to barrel it up, or get jammed and break my bat like I did," he said with a laugh.

Ruf didn't even know he was coming in to pinch-hit for winning pitcher Jonathan Papelbon until the middle of Ruiz's at-bat.

How the Phillies got to that position in the ninth was out of the ordinary. Trailing, 4-2, in the eighth with two outs against Reds reliever Jumbo Diaz, Ryan Howard smacked a line drive into rightfield that Jay Bruce badly misplayed, and it rolled by him to the wall for a double. Bruce said he lost the ball in the lights, similar to when he did the same thing in Game 2 of the 2010 NLDS against the Phillies.

Maikel Franco, who entered the game mired in a 2-for-27 slump, then made the Reds pay, launching a jumbo shot into the main concourse down the leftfield line to even the score at 4-4. The home run was estimated at 418 feet.

Franco reached base in his first two at-bats via errors by Reds third baseman Todd Frazier, but broke out of his slump with a double in the sixth inning.

"I thought he looked as good tonight as he had since he's been here," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg said. "I think it started with the double down the line. He really kept his right shoulder in there and reacted to a pitch aggressively. I think he built on that hit, being able to come up and have confidence to hit the big two-run home run."

The Reds got four leadoff runners on base in six attempts against Phillies starter Sean O'Sullivan to help jump out to an early lead.

Sandberg talked before the game about O'Sullivan's need to keep the ball down. Like most pitchers, he'd been hurt most when he's elevated his pitches. Well, the Reds proved Sandberg a prophet in the first four innings.

Brandon Phillips led off the game with a smashed single to leftfield before Joey Votto brought him in with a roped double to the rightfield corner, giving the Reds a lead before O'Sullivan recorded an out.

They combined for another run in the third inning, this time Phillips hitting a double, with Votto doing damage with an RBI single.

The Reds (22-28) made O'Sullivan pay for elevating his fastball again in the fourth, plating two more runs to take a 4-1 lead.

The Phillies (20-33) got on the board in the second inning. Franco led off the inning by reaching on an error by Frazier, then Cody Asche ripped a double into the rightfield corner, setting up runners on second and third with no outs. But the Phillies continued their futility at hitting with runners in scoring position, mustering only one run on an RBI groundout by Herrera.

Reds starter Johnny Cueto, who was making his first start since May 19 (elbow tenderness), then allowed only one hit to the next 11 Phillies batters.

But the Phillies, who had scored only 12 runs during their seven-game skid, rallied to score a win against the Reds' bullpen. Six of the Phillies' nine hits went for extra bases.

"It was a very sloppy night out there," Sandberg said. "To see the guys swing the bats and hang in there and battle late and come up with the win, it makes it all worthwhile. It's good to see the extra-base hits and the fight in the guys."

O'Sullivan got pounded in his 5 2/3 innings, surrendering nine hits and giving up four runs, all earned, but got a no-decision, thanks to the comeback. He also hit Reds leftfielder Marlon Byrd with a pitch in the sixth, and the former Phillie was diagnosed after the game with a fractured right wrist.

The Phillies got 3 1/3 innings of shutout baseball from their bullpen. Papelbon earned the win after pitching a clean ninth inning, with two strikeouts.

Justin De Fratus came on in relief of O'Sullivan with two outs in the sixth and runners on first and third. Hamilton then stole second, but De Fratus got an out when Phillips drove one to the wall in left, where a waiting Asche put the inning to rest.

"I thought the bullpen had been better the last few games," Sandberg said. "So it was good to see that continue."

Meanwhile, Chase Utley went 3-for-4 to raise his batting average to .207. His home run to lead off the sixth inning got the Phillies to within 4-2. It's the first time his batting average rose above the Mendoza line since April 14. It was as low as .099 as of May 8.

But the only number that mattered on this night was that the number seven didn't turn into eight.