Howard homers twice, Phils crush Rays

Ryan Howard homered twice and drove in five runs, Joe Blanton pitched six outstanding innings, and the Philadelphia Phillies hammered the Tampa Bay Rays 10-2 in game four of the World Series to take a 3-1 lead.

Things started poorly for Tampa Bay right from the get-go. Starting pitcher Andy Sonnanstine walked Pat Burrell with the bases loaded to give Philadelphia a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first, and the Rays, for the second game in a row, could not generate any offense early on. The struggles continued for Carlos Pena and Evan Longoria, who are now a combined 0-for-29 with 15 strikeouts in this World Series. The Phillies would then extend their lead to 2-0 in the third when Pedro Feliz drove in Chase Utley with an RBI single. The following inning, Tampa Bay would finally get on the board.

With two outs and no one on in the top of the fourth, Carl Crawford hit a solo home run, his second of the series and the postseason overall, to make it a 2-1 game. Still, when it looked like the Rays were finally starting to gain some momentum, Philadelphia took it all away once again in the bottom half of the inning.

Jimmy Rollins reached to lead off the frame on an error by Akinori Iwamura, his second of the night (his first allowed Utley to reach and then come around to score in the third). Sonnanstine then walked Jayson Werth, but after he was fortunate enough to strike out Utley for the first out, Howard went deep for the second time in as many games, smacking a three-run blast to opposite field to give the Phillies a 5-1 advantage. Eric Hinske hit a solo shot for Tampa Bay in the fifth, but that would conclude the team's scoring.

What probably was the telling point of Philadelphia's dominance in this game, and perhaps in this series, came when Blanton hit a line drive home run to give the Phils a 6-2 lead in the bottom of the fifth. The rowdy crowd at Citizens Bank Park demanded Blanton come out for a curtain call, and he was then given a rousing ovation when he ran out onto the field to start the sixth.

Later, in the eighth, Werth smashed a two-run homer off of Dan Wheeler, putting Philadelphia up 8-2. Then, Howard struck again. Following a walk to Utley, the NL MVP candidate launched a two-run shot to right off of Trever Miller, making the score 10-2 and all but erasing any chance of a late-inning rally by the Rays.

Blanton went six innings, allowing two runs on four hits; he struck out seven. He is now 2-0 with a 3.18 ERA in three postseason starts in 2008.