Robertson, Dobbs help IronPigs blank Yankees

FROM THE MORNING CALL

As Greg Dobbs' average and effectiveness nose-dived throughout the summer for the Phillies, all he needed, Charlie Manuel and others said, was at-bats to find his stroke again.

Now that he's apparently done that, can another appearance in a Phillies uniform be forthcoming in September for the 32-year-old utilityman?

Dobbs continued his four-game surge with a homer and a double, knocking in three runs to back a combined shutout by Nate Robertson and Michael Stutes in a 6-0 win over Scranton Tuesday night before 9,120 at Coca-Cola Park.


Dobbs, who also drew two walks (after being behind in the count 1-2 and 0-2), followed Rich Thompson's leadoff single in the first inning by jumping on Lance Pendleton's next pitch for his second homer in as many nights, a bomb off the lower billboards behind the Bud Light Trough in left.

Later, with Thompson at second in the fifth inning following a walk and his second stolen base, Dobbs bounced a double just inside the first-base line.

He's now 8-for-15 in his last four games, with a triple, two homers and eight RBIs. That's after he had been 2-for-22 in his first six games of his second stint with the IronPigs (55-83), who assured themselves of not finishing with a worse record than their inaugural season (55-89).

Dobbs was hitting .152 in 66 at-bats for the Phillies before being designated for assignment for the first time on June 22. He returned to the Phillies a week later after going 2-for-17 in four games with the IronPigs when both Chase Utley and Placido Polanco went on the disabled list and hit .227 in 75 at bats (17-for-75) before being designated again on Aug. 17. Overall he's hitting .191 in 144 at-bats (76 games), but is just 5-for-42 as a pinch-hitter, a role he excelled in the past three seasons with the Phillies.

Robertson, who has pitched nine seasons in the majors, was immediately cast as a candidate to make a spot start in next Monday's doubleheader against Florida when the Phillies signed him last Wednesday as a minor league free agent. But the 32-year-old left-hander struggled in his first start for the IronPigs last week at Scranton (83-54), giving up seven hits and five runs (four earned) in 4 2/3 innings.

"I thought he pitched pretty well for four innings but then kind of flattened out in the fifth," IronPigs manager Dave Huppert said of Robertson's debut.

The home debut for the ex-Marlin and Tiger went much better as he pitched under the eyes of Phillies professional scout Dave Hollins. Robertson threw just 59 pitches in six innings, allowing only three hits, walking none and striking out five. He retired the final 10 batters he faced after Kevin Russo's one-out double in the third (Russo was promptly thrown out by catcher Dane Sardinha while trying to steal third) and faced just two batters over the minimum.

Stutes retired the first five batters he faced before issuing a two-out walk to Brandon Laird in the eighth. He ran into some trouble in the ninth when he walked Russo to open the inning and gave up a one-out single to Jesus Montero to leave runners at the corners. But Cody Ransom snagged Juan Miranda's line drive to third, then beat Russo to the bag to double him up and end the game.

The hot-hitting Ransom lined a leadoff double to open the fourth, then later scored on Sardinha's two-out single to boost the IronPigs' lead to 3-0. Ransom later added a seventh-inning single and is hitting .333 (22-for-66) over his last 19 games.

Equally hot Andy Tracy capped the IronPigs' scoring after Dobb's RBI double in the fifth, driving his 20th home run onto the berm in straight-away center field. Tracy is hitting .500 (9-for-18) over his last five games with two homers and seven RBIs.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/ironpigs/mc-ironpigs-0831-20100831,0,4887577.story