Philadelphia, PA (Sports Network) – Roy Halladay turned in eight scoreless innings and Raul Ibanez drove in three runs as Philadelphia awoke from its batting funk and downed Colorado, 6-0, in the opener of a four-game set from Citizens Bank Park.
Halladay (11-8) picked up his first win since July 5, holding the visitors to five hits while striking out nine and walking just one.
Ross Gload hit a two-run homer while Jayson Werth drove in a run and Jimmy Rollins collected two hits and scored twice for the Phillies, who have won two in a row and scored more runs than in their previous three games combined in the debut of new hitting coach Greg Gross.
After losing three of four to St. Louis this week and tallying four runs in the final three tilts, Milt Thompson was fired and Gross brought back into the fold. The 57-year-old had been hitting coach under former manager Larry Bowa from 2002-04.
Aaron Cook (4-6) was charged with nine hits and five runs over 4 1/3 innings in the setback for the Rockies, who have lost three in a row and seven of nine.
Early in the contest, the Phillies’ offense still couldn’t get going, failing to score through their first four tries at the plate despite four hits and three walks.
Cook got into trouble in the fourth with two walks and a balk, then escaped a bases-loaded, one-out situation by getting Wilson Valdez on a force out at home and fanning Halladay.
The Phils finally got on the board in the fifth on an Ibanez two-run double. Rollins laced a single up the middle and Placido Polanco followed with a bloop before the key hit. Ryan Howard singled, Werth’s liner to center plated another run, and after Howard swiped second, Gload launched a two-run shot into the bullpen in right-center for a 5-0 game.
Halladay then stranded runners on the corners with two outs in the seventh, but couldn’t help his own cause in the home half as he struck out looking with the bases loaded.
An Ibanez RBI single in the eighth boosted the Phils to a 6-0 advantage and J.C. Romero turned in a scoreless ninth.
After a 2-0 decision in 11 innings on Thursday in St. Louis, this was the second time in 2010 that the Phillies have held opponents scoreless in back- to-back games…The club did it on July 10-11 against Cincinnati…Gross spent the last three-plus seasons as the hitting coach for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs of the International League, the Phils’ Triple-A affiliate. He spent 10 of his 17 major-league seasons as a player (1979-88) with the Phillies.