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Scuffling Phillies join NLCS hit parade

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By David Gurian-Peck / MLB.com

10/22/09 3:20 AM ET

PHILADELPHIA -- Jayson Werth had just four hits in the National League Championship series.

Three left the ballpark.

Two of those homers came in Game 5 on Wednesday, when the Phillies beat the Dodgers, 10-4, to win their second straight NL crown.

Philadelphia, which for much of the series relied on the top of its order and on eighth-place man Carlos Ruiz, finally got the production it expected from its Nos. 5-7 hitters -- Werth, Raul Ibanez and Pedro Feliz.

Heading into the World Series, in other words, the Phillies' lineup is positioned to be downright lethal from top to bottom.

Werth, Ibanez and Feliz had more hits in Game 5 than in the first four games combined. They entered hitting just 4-for-41 (.097) with two home runs and six RBIs.

On Wednesday, they were 5-for-12 with three home runs, six RBIs, a double and five runs scored.

"It's great -- we won the National League. We did our jobs," Werth said. "We have four games to win. I can't say it enough."

Werth set the tone in the first inning. Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla retired the first two men he faced but then promptly walked Chase Utley and Ryan Howard.

Padilla's first three pitches to Werth, too, missed the zone.

"I was going to make him throw me two strikes -- two fastballs, right over the middle, but that was my plan," Werth said. "I was in the driver's seat."

And on the second full-count pitch, Padilla left a 96-mph fastball, belt high, over the middle of the plate. Werth crushed it into the right-center-field seats, and the 46,214 in attendance at Citizens Bank Park erupted.

"It was a pretty cool moment, because the place got really loud," Werth said. "You can feel it's electric. You can feel it, it's running through you. You're pumped, flying around the bases."

That part of the lineup was just getting started. Feliz led off the second with an opposite-field home run, his second hit of the series. To start the fourth, Werth singled and was quickly driven home by Ibanez's double to right-center field. Ibanez would score later when Shane Victorino was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded.

Werth completed his stellar performance with a solo shot to center in the seventh.

He said that he was a little upset after Game 4, when he flied out with two men on base to end the eighth inning. The Phillies would win on Jimmy Rollins' walk-off double, of course, but Werth was disappointed in his own at-bat and had a day off to think about it.

Now the Phillies have a week off before they meet the American League champion, but this time, Werth and the two hitters that follow him will be able to think happier thoughts.

"We're going to soak it all in and enjoy the moment, but really, we want to do it again," Werth said. "We got a job to do still."

David Gurian-Peck is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.