Carlos Ruiz

Cole Hamels has pitched at such a high level that on a night when he allowed three earned runs, it appeared to be a subpar effort. Only by the lefthander's exceedingly high standards. Despite allowing two home runs after surrendering just three in his previous seven starts, Hamels had more than enough to keep both his and the Phillies' winning ways intact. He struck out nine and walked one as the Phillies defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-4, Friday night at Citizens Bank Park in the beginning of interleague play.

Carlos Ruiz is 50-cent-a-gallon gasoline. He is a $500 Mercedes- Benz. He is a five-acre, 15-bedroom mansion on the beach for $5,000. Too good to be to true. Too affordable to be so good. The league MUP - most underpaid player. Perhaps the two greatest injustices in baseball right now are that the Phillies' heavy-duty catcher has never made an all-star team and that he had made only $5.93 million in his career before this season. The all-star snubs can be partially explained.

It is the type of game the Phillies need to win, not because the opponent was the Nationals, but because the game was eminently winnable. All spring training, we heard about the nuances of the game and how a makeshift lineup would have to compensate for the absences of its two stars with some flawless play. Yet there they were, in the bottom of the third inning Monday night, with the bases loaded and their cleanup hitter at the plate, a single away from tying it up or taking the lead.

Eleven years ago, former Phillies scout Allan Lewis told Sal Agostinelli that a short, stocky second baseman from Panama could hit and throw a baseball. "I think part of our job is to dream a lot when you sign a guy," said Agostinelli, the Phillies' international scouting supervisor. "I liked this kid because Allan told me he could hit. He didn't think he ran fast enough to play the middle infield, but he thought he could catch because of the way he could throw. " Scouts dream.

THE LAST TIME the Union played Chicago, Carlos Ruiz scored the game-winner on a volley that stunned Fire keeper Jon Conway and made him look silly. And Ruiz also won MLS Goal of the Week honors. Turns out it was the last time for him to do so in a Union uniform. Pending a few John Hancocks, Ruiz is set to leave the team for Mexican club Veracruz, according to a source. Ruiz didn't make the trip for tonight's game in the Windy City. The Union heads into the meaty part of its schedule without its leading goal scorer (Ruiz)

BEFORE HE WAS a catcher, he was a second baseman. Before he made the majors, he caught in the minors. And back then, Carlos Ruiz never dreamed that he'd be putting down signs for guys like Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt and Cliff Lee and Pedro Martinez. And yet, in the last calendar year, he has been behind the plate for each of those pitchers, a quartet of the elite arms in the game today plus a future Hall of Famer at the end of his career. "For me it's very special to have that kind of pitching on this team.

At 2:03 a.m. yesterday, cameras and microphones engulfed an unlikely man in the Phillies' clubhouse. "You're killing me!" reliever Chad Durbin barked at catcher Carlos Ruiz. Walking back from a shower, Durbin couldn't find a path to his nearby dressing space. A media type moved. "I'm just kidding," Durbin said. "He deserves it. " Questions came in Spanish and English. The 29-year-old native of Panama answered them in the language they were asked, understanding he is now part of Phillies World Series lore, the living embodiment of the ups and downs of a long night.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - There's about to be another "Chooch" in town. Carlos Ruiz was excused from spring training Monday to attend the birth of his latest child, a boy also named Carlos. Father and son have different middle names. Ruiz also has an 8-year- old son named Carlos, his agent said yesterday. Ruiz, whose popularity in Philadelphia has exploded over the last three seasons, is expected back in camp tomorrow. Veteran backup Brian Schneider took his place behind the plate in the Phillies' 6-5 loss to the Orioles yesterday.

A woozy Carlos Ruiz, still feeling the effects of being hit in the head by a broken bat the night before, left Citizens Bank Park an hour before Saturday's game began. The Phillies don't expect Ruiz to need a stint on the disabled list, but the injury is serious enough to keep the catcher sidelined for a few days. That necessitated the recall of catcher Dane Sardinha from triple-A Lehigh Valley. To free space for Sardinha, righthander Scott Mathieson was designated for assignment.

Cole Hamels proved to be the streak stopper the Phillies needed. Hamels, whose no-hit bid was broken up with one out in the sixth inning, allowed four hits through eight innings in Wednesday's 4-1 win over the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. Hamels struck out eight and walked three while throwing 114 pitches. Jonathan Papelbon allowed a solo home run to Adam LaRoche in pitching the ninth. Hamels (7-1) ended the Phillies four-game losing streak. Their previous win was Hamels' 6-4 triumph on Friday against the Boston Red Sox. The Phillies (22-23)

It is the type of game the Phillies need to win, not because the opponent was the Nationals, but because the game was eminently winnable. All spring training, we heard about the nuances of the game and how a makeshift lineup would have to compensate for the absences of its two stars with some flawless play. Yet there they were, in the bottom of the third inning Monday night, with the bases loaded and their cleanup hitter at the plate, a single away from tying it up or taking the lead.

The mist turned into rain, but that was not reason enough for a mass exodus Monday night from Citizens Bank Park. No, not yet. Then John Mayberry Jr. flied weakly to right, ending the sixth inning and the Phillies' failed rally in a 2-1 loss to the Washington Nationals. "Let's get out of here," one fan said to another in the ballpark's club seats. And so they left, as did many others. This brand of Phillies baseball is no more frustrating than when runners reach base and are primed to score.

When Mike Aviles smacked the third pitch Cliff Lee threw Sunday, he had done something no Red Sox hitter had accomplished in 99 years. Aviles had bashed leadoff home runs on two consecutive days to ignite Boston's offensive explosions. In 1913, a man named Harry Hooper did the same thing. Upon his retirement from baseball, he campaigned for Franklin D. Roosevelt and was named postmaster of Capitola, Calif. No, it has not been that long since Lee has won a game, but it's beginning to feel like it. After a 5-1 drubbing by the Red Sox, Lee is winless through his first six starts of a season for the first time in his career.

Cole Hamels has pitched at such a high level that on a night when he allowed three earned runs, it appeared to be a subpar effort. Only by the lefthander's exceedingly high standards. Despite allowing two home runs after surrendering just three in his previous seven starts, Hamels had more than enough to keep both his and the Phillies' winning ways intact. He struck out nine and walked one as the Phillies defeated the Boston Red Sox, 6-4, Friday night at Citizens Bank Park in the beginning of interleague play.

The deficit is not at all intimidating. Five and half games in the middle of May is nothing for a team that believes it is capable of an extended streak of good baseball and the Phillies, as bad as things have been, still believe they have that ability. Why shouldn't they? The core, albeit not entirely healthy, remains from the team that overcame a seven-game deficit to the New York Mets with 17 to play in 2007. Three years later, the Phillies were seven games behind the Atlanta Braves on July 22, 2010, and won the division going away.

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.

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.

WASHINGTON - Once upon a time, the Phillies were the team that dressed in red and white and energized its fan base by going first to third and stealing home. Sunday night, they were the team that pegged the hottest prospect in the game in the small of the back and then watched him work his way around the bases to the delight of the crowd. Even if you are not a fan of symbolism, you have to admit that the run that Bryce Harper manufactured run in the first inning of Sunday night's 9-3 win over the Nationals was a tidy summation of the budding power shift in the National League East.