Bats

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Anthony Hewitt has that special quality scouts love to talk about. When his bat meets ball, it makes a different sound: a sweet, explosive crash made possible only through the combination of superior quickness and strength. The problem for Hewitt since the Phillies made him their first-round draft choice in 2008 is that his at-bats have ended far too often with the quiet swoosh of a swinging third strike or the loud pop of a catcher's mitt on a called third strike.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Not surprisingly, Roy Halladay dominated on the mound in spring training, but he also batted .400 in his Grapefruit League starts, including a two-run single against Atlanta's Kenshin Kawakami on Sunday. That impressive average comes on the heels of Halladay's vast second-half improvement as a hitter during his first year pitching in the National League. With Chase Utley out indefinitely because of a knee injury it was suggested to Phillies manager Charlie Manuel that his staff ace could also serve as his three-hole hitter.

Gregg Jefferies hasn't been in the lineup for nearly two months, but his bat has helped the Phillies immensely in the last couple weeks. Literally. On May 15, catcher Mike Lieberthal borrowed one of Jefferies' 34-ounce bats and said adios to his own 31-ounce model. Since then, Lieberthal has looked like the second coming of Johnny Bench. In his next four starts after switching bats, Lieberthal went 10 for 17 (.588) with two homers. That gave him four homers in 61 at-bats and hiked his average from .182 to .295 before he went 0 for 4 yesterday.

Back in July, Phillies centerfielder Doug Glanville couldn't really explain why everything was going so right for him at the plate. He had stitched together four hitting streaks of 14 games or more, putting him in position to establish career highs in every offensive category. Now that the weather has cooled, so has his batting stroke, and Glanville can't explain why his breakthrough season has gone into a steep decline. When New York lefthander Al Leiter struck out Glanville in the sixth inning of last night's 7-5 Mets victory, it extended a slump in which he managed only two hits in 45 at-bats.

There were times in recent days when the frustration Gregg Jefferies was experiencing was as obvious as the script lettering across the front of his uniform jersey. He went into yesterday's game batting .254 and, for him, that's simply not acceptable. "I wasn't panicking, because I know it's a long season," he said. "But I've been pretty bad. " Happily for the Phillies, who already are on a roll, Jefferies might be on the verge of getting hot. He had three hits yesterday, one of them a two-run home run. He also scored twice as the Phillies beat the Astros, 5-2. His average is up to .281.

Following another offense-starved performance by his team, Phillies catcher Bobby Estalella quoted from the Book of Baseball Proverbs to bolster his contention that better days lie just ahead. "Hitting is contagious," said Estalella, who drove in the only run in last night's 6-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates in Veterans Stadium. "Once the team starts hitting, everybody will pick it up. " Perhaps. But if hitting is contagious, the Phillies' 16-4 blowout of the New York Mets Tuesday night, when Estalella slugged two of the club-record seven home runs, is beginning to look like the 24-hour flu. It came, it passed, it's over.

When Matt Szczur got the word last fall - he was a match, his bone marrow might save the life of a sick little girl - "The first thing I said to my mom: 'There's no doubt in my mind. This girl is going to live.' " Whatever he had inside, Szczur wholeheartedly believed it could be of use to this little girl. Szczur's friends had the same exact thought. "We said if it worked for anyone on the team, it would be him," said John Dempsey, Szczur's Villanova football teammate and four-year roommate.

When Raul Ibanez's feet touched second base, he looked to third and saw Ryan Howard staring at him, clapping. He began to shed the batting gloves from the 38-year-old hands he has trusted for 16 major-league seasons, only to fail him for 35 straight at-bats. Washington shortstop Ian Desmond tapped Ibanez on the rear and informed the Phillies leftfielder that, indeed, he too knew about the streak. He had a message for Ibanez. "If you can get out of that, you can get out of anything," he recalled Desmond saying.

The producers of Bats say they used only two live bats and relied on animatronics and computer effects for the rest of the swarm. This may have prevented needless cruelty to bats, but humans exposed to the film are not so lucky. The bats fluttering around the small town of Gallup, Texas, have been genetically altered to make them bigger, smarter and very dangerous. When the Batman responsible for this ill-considered experiment is asked why he undertook it, he brusquely rejoins, "Because I'm a scientist.

A fan who sneaked onto the field in St. Louis and stole bats from Chicago's Sammy Sosa and Mark Grace in the Cubs' dugout was arrested before last night's Cubs-Cardinals game. Patrick Stangler, 33, of Naperville, Ill., took the bats from the Cubs' bat rack, Police Lt. Bob Zambo said. He will be charged with trespassing and theft under $750. His job in danger after a dismal season, Bill Bavasi resigned as general manager of the Anaheim Angels. The move came four weeks to the day after manager Terry Collins, who had signed a two-year contract extension in June, also resigned.

The Tumbler, the armored and heavily armed version of the Batmobile from Christopher Nolan's caped crusader trilogy, will make a few stops in the area next week. Fans can also see and get photographed with the Bat-Pod, a menacing mega-motorbike formed from parts of the Tumbler in the second film, The Dark Knight (2008), sequel to Batman Begins (2005). It's part of a promotional tour, of course, for the third installment, The Dark Knight Rises, due in theaters July 20. Although some fans have shown up dressed as characters at previous stops, don't expect to see the likes of actual stars Christian Bale (Batman)

Jordan Rizzo was looking for an inside pitch. He found two of them. "That's what I was working on during practice [Sunday]," Rizzo said after leading Williamstown to a 9-1 victory over host Cherry Hill West on Monday in the first round of the South Jersey Group 4 tournament. Rizzo, a junior first baseman, hit a pair of home runs, and senior Mike Mosley pitched a two-hitter for ninth-seeded Williamstown (14-8), which advanced to face top-seeded Washington Township (22-2)

  Spotlight: Clearview senior Nick DeFrank Clearview hasn't faced many lefthanded pitchers this season, so Nick DeFrank hasn't taken many righthanded swings. But in the fifth inning of Wednesday's game against Gloucester Catholic, DeFrank slashed a single to left field in one of his few righthanded at-bats of the season. "I think that might have been only my third or fourth time I batted righthanded," he said. A rare switch-hitter at the high-school level, DeFrank also is versatile in the field.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Anthony Hewitt has that special quality scouts love to talk about. When his bat meets ball, it makes a different sound: a sweet, explosive crash made possible only through the combination of superior quickness and strength. The problem for Hewitt since the Phillies made him their first-round draft choice in 2008 is that his at-bats have ended far too often with the quiet swoosh of a swinging third strike or the loud pop of a catcher's mitt on a called third strike.

What are men to do now that Pat Burrell is coming back to town? Hide your women. At least that's the advice of a public service announcement — a spoof and decidedly adult one, at that — now making the rounds on the Internet. Put together by Philadelphia's Bird Text comedy sketch group, the 3-minute video is timed to coincide with Burrell's return to Philadelphia on Saturday to retire as a Phillie. Known as Pat the Bat for more than his slugging prowess, the video plays off his reputation as a ladies' man to evoke a sense of dread — for men at least — over the outfielder's brief return to the team for which he played nine seasons.

THE ETERNAL optimism that wells inside of Charlie Manuel and Jimmy Rollins is either a spiritual gift or a coping mechanism. Either way, the Phillies have no choice but to buy into the belief that, at some point, a victory like the one they posted against the Padres Sunday will jump-start the winning streak that will take them over .500 for the first time since Opening Day. "This is a team that can go on a run and put things together," Rollins...

The eternal optimism that wells inside of Charlie Manuel and Jimmy Rollins is either a spiritual gift or a coping mechanism. Either way, the Phillies have no choice but to buy into the belief that, at some point, a victory like the one they posted against the Padres Sunday, will jump-start the winning streak that will take them over .500 for the first time this season. "This is a team that can go on a run and put things together," Rollins said after the Phillies recorded a 3-2 matinee victory at Citizens Bank Park to take two out of three games from the Padres.

Before Friday's opening of a three-game series with the San Diego Padres, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel was asked what it would take for Carlos Ruiz to become an all-star. "If Chooch keeps hitting the way he is and catching the way he is, I think he stands a good chance of the all-star game," Manuel said. Good observation. In a season sapped by a struggling offense, Ruiz has been one of the bright spots and he showed why once again. Ruiz went 3 for 3 with a home run and three RBIs as the Phillies defeated the Padres, 7-3, at Citizens Bank Park.

Chipper Jones unloaded on Jamie Moyer on Saturday night, figuratively speaking. Moyer, the Colorado Rockies' lefthander, accused the Braves slugger of stealing signs while on second base. According to Mark Bowman of MLB.com, Jones responded that Moyer is "paranoid," that he believes others are stealing signs because he played for the Phillies "who are known for stealing signs," then challenged the 49-year-old lefthander to "meet him in the hallway" if he wanted to take things any further.

Haddonfield scored three times on bases-loaded walks on Saturday, opening the door for a 6-3 home win over Audubon, the No. 3 team in The Inquirer's South Jersey baseball Top 10. Rob Perkins and Mike McLaughlin each had a run-scoring single in the Colonial Conference game, and Bulldogs junior righthander Jason Cavanaugh shut out Audubon after allowing three runs on three hits in the first inning. Lee Ware Tournament. Winning pitcher Steve Rodier drove in three runs, while Brandon Cornelius and Billy Burton added two RBIs apiece for Timber Creek, which jumped on top early and cruised past Pennsauken Tech, 15-2, in the championship game at Woodstown.