Rollins also sees a few similarities between Hamels and the star left-handed pitcher on his current team, Clayton Kershaw.
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Three pitches later, Franco deposited a hanging curveball into the left field bleachers.
Rollins, who received a prolonged standing ovation before his first at-bat in his first game back in Philadelphia, was 2-for-5 with a double against his old team.
“I spoke with Ruben and was like ‘If you can get me here, let’s do it, ‘” Rollins said.
The Phillies, by the way, are now 13-3 since the All-Star break.
For his third at-bat, the Phillies used a Little League photo of Rollins in lieu of his player headshot. It snapped a string of 38 straight road games wearing the alternate “Dodgers” jerseys.
Emotions were running high on Tuesday night in Philadelphia, as Jimmy Rollins, the Phillies all-time franchise leader in hits and doubles returned to Philly donning a Los Angeles Dodgers uniform for the first time.
“It was cool”, he said.
The defense was called on early and often to mop up after Jerome Williams, who was, in a word, superbad.
“It’s insane. It’s definitely insane”, he said of the Phillies’ season of change. “He’s forever a Phillie”. On the second occasion, Rollins walked to the plate and patted catcher Carlos Ruiz on the right shoulder. Domonic Brown hit an RBI single in the bottom half.
The ball flubbed out of the lefty’s hand completely and rolled toward first base.
Instead, after a long chat, the umpires ruled a balk, sending Ruiz back to third. Franco’s broke open a tie game with a seventh-inning grand slam, the first Phillies rookie to homer with the bases loaded since Ryan Howard in September 2005. The runners advance, but the ball’s dead. “I think a lot of people around me, I know for sure, they’ve been excited and they are excited”.
Franco’s homer was his 12th of the season.
“He’s a gamer”, Mackanin said of Franco. One pitch later, Herrera drew a walk before Franco hit the grand slam on a 1-1 pitch.
“They’re a younger club, pretty good fastball hitting club over there and he pitched pretty good against them at our place in L.A.”, Mattingly said.
Jeanmar Gomez (1-2) earned the victory in relief.
It was Giles’ third save since taking over the closer role from Jonathan Papelbon and his first of more than an inning.
But Ruiz beat the throw and the Dodgers intentionally walked Cesar Hernandez to put two on with no outs. He did a good job for us, didn’t really need him to go back out there at that point. Williams hasn’t faced the Dodgers since 2012 and is 2-3 with a 4.97 ERA in five starts against them.WALK-OFFS1.
The Phillies broke on top in the third inning. Rollins led off with a single but was erased on a fielder’s choice.
TV: 7:05 p.m. ET, SportsNet LA (Los Angeles), CSN PhiladelphiaPITCHING MATCHUP: Dodgers LH Brett Anderson (5-6, 3.14 ERA) vs. Phillies RH Aaron Harang (5-11, 3.97)Anderson was a hard-luck loser last time out, stretching his winless drought to four starts despite limiting Oakland to two runs and five hits over seven innings. “It continued longer than I thought”.
After forming such a formidable double play combo for so many years in Philly, Rollins hasn’t enjoyed hearing about Chase Utley’s struggles from 3,000 miles away.
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Whereas the Phillies have been welcoming somebody previous in Rollins, the Dodgers welcomed somebody new in left-hander Alex Wooden, who was making his debut in blue after coming over in a commerce with the Atlanta Braves final week.
