Another unforgettable Ruiz hit

LOS ANGELES - Add this one to the Carlos Ruiz lore.

It was a perfect bookend to last season's World Series Game 3 moment - that game-winning hit, the one that Ruiz hit maybe 30 feet, at 1:47 a.m. The first walk-off infield single in World Series history.

"I know I will remember this night for the rest of my life," Ruiz said that night.

Last night, Ruiz will remember, too. He hit a towering shot far past the inside of the left-field foul pole at Dodger Stadium. The three-run homer in the fifth inning kick-started the National League Championship Series for the Phillies, giving them their first lead. They won 8-6.

Starting that inning, the Phillies had done little offensively vs. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw, who had seemed worthy of the Game 1 start - until he lost his stuff.

In that fifth inning, Raul Ibanez opened with a single. Pedro Feliz walked. On to the bottom of the order - Ruiz, then pitcher Cole Hamels.

Ruiz, who had a career-high nine home runs in the regular season, had no previous career success against Kershaw. Going into the game, Ruiz had faced Kershaw four times, walking twice, but never getting a hit. He also had walked in the third inning.

In the fifth, Kershaw's 91-m.p.h. fastball crossed the plate above Ruiz's waist, and he crushed it, giving the Phillies a 3-1 lead. "He got up in the count, 3 and 1," Phils manager Charlie Manuel said. "That's what hitting is."

Getting the lead, in games and in each series, was a hallmark of the Phillies' run to last season's World Series title. However, the Dodgers had struck first against Hamels, on a James Loney home run in the second inning. Then Ruiz changed everything on a night when Hamels again was erratic.

"It's important for us to go out and get the lead," Manuel said before yesterday's game. "I think it definitely helps our starters, and . . . they've got a very good bullpen. Basically, it's going to come down to us hitting those from the middle of the game on, too."

Translation? If Ruiz doesn't get it going, who knows? Obviously, Kershaw never recovered his stuff that inning, uncorking three wild pitches, a NLCS single-inning record. Ryan Howard stayed in his October groove with a two-run double, every bit as big as the Ruiz home run.

But the first RBIs of the NLCS set this game on its rickety, raggedy path. After Ruiz hit one out, Kershaw was so off stride that he immediately walked Hamels. The Phillies batted around. Even after Manny Ramirez hit a three-run shot of his own in the bottom half of the inning, the Phillies held on to their lead. Another three-run shot, this one by Ibanez, in the top of the eighth gave the Phillies their needed cushion.

Ruiz got up again in the eighth inning. A lone Phillies fan in a section of Dodger blue yelled "Choooooch!'' The catcher obliged with another professional at-bat, hitting a single into the hole past third.

Ruiz next did something rare. He made a mistake, straying too far off first, and got doubled off after Ben Francisco lined out. That Phillies fan yelling his name took his cap off and scratched his head. Presumably he also knew Chooch had already held up his end.

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