Cameron Rupp clubs Phillies to comeback win over Padres

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SAN DIEGO — Pete Mackanin began his postgame news conference Friday night with a dad joke.
 
“That pitch that Rupp hit was a palm ball,” he said.
 
Huh? Nobody throws a palm ball anymore.
 
Hold it.
 
Ahh.
 
We gotcha, Pete.
 
Indeed, Cameron Rupp did hit a palm ball to help lift the Phillies to a 5-4 win over the San Diego Padres (see Instant Replay), but it wasn’t the kind Padres great Trevor Hoffman used to throw.
 
Beyond the center field wall at Petco Park, just to the right of the batter’s eye, stands a large palm tree. Rupp lined a three-run home run off the trunk of the tree in the top of the fourth inning to erase a 2-0 deficit and give the Phils a lead that Jeremy Hellickson and the bullpen made stand up.
 
Rupp’s 13th homer of the season, on a full-count slider from San Diego lefty Christian Friedrich, came off the bat at 109 miles per hour and traveled 427 feet.
 
Two innings after the home run, Rupp drove in another run with a double.
 
The 27-year-old catcher is hitting .278 with a .502 slugging percentage and 38 RBIs in 71 games.
 
Last year, he hit .233 with a .374 slugging percentage and 28 RBIs in 81 games.
 
He is the most improved offensive player on the team.
 
“One of the things about what Rupp has done is he’s drastically changed his approach at the plate and it’s paying off for him, which is huge,” Mackanin said. “If other guys that need to make an overhaul on their swing would look at what Rupp has accomplished — and it’s all pretty much the same thing, staying on top of the ball and not dropping the back side and getting underneath the ball — if the other hitters that need to do that would pay attention, it would help them also. We’re trying like hell to get them to do that. It’s not easily done. But Rupp spent the whole winter believing in that and it’s paying off for him.”
 
With the infield back and runners on second and third, Rupp was looking to drive the ball up the middle in the fourth inning. He drove it all right.
 
“I didn’t miss it,” he said.
 
Rupp is one of the most good-natured, team-first guys in the clubhouse. He enjoys playing the game and winning and it shows.
 
“I can’t tell you how much fun baseball is when you hit home runs, drive in runs and win games,” he said. “I’m happy to have success after the work I’ve put in.”
 
Rupp was behind the plate for Hellickson’s latest quality start. The right-hander had a terrific month of July, fueling speculation that he would be traded, but the Phillies did not get an offer they liked so he stayed.
 
Hellickson allowed three runs over 6 2/3 innings.
 
“He pitched well again,” Mackanin said.
 
“My command wasn’t good early, but the last four innings were better,” Hellickson said. “I started throwing my curveball for strikes and that helped a lot.”
 
Hellickson said he finds no motivation in trying to show contending teams that they should have ponied up more aggressively for him.
 
“I’m pitching for these guys in this locker room,” he said. “I don’t know who offered what. I’m pitching for the guys behind me and that’s it.”
 
Phillies management needs Hellickson to keep pitching well so his free-agent résumé is nice and shiny this offseason. The Phils would have to offer Hellickson a one-year deal for about $17 million. If he rejects it to pursue a multiyear deal elsewhere, the Phillies would get a compensatory draft pick after the first round of the 2017 draft. The Phils are banking on this risky strategy. That’s why they held on to Hellickson at the trade deadline.
 
The Phillies had just six hits in the game, but three of them resulted in runs — Rupp’s two and Tommy Joseph’s key RBI hit in the eighth. That proved huge when the Padres rallied with a couple of late home runs.
 
Edubray Ramos, Hector Neris and Jeanmar Gomez closed it out. Gomez survived two hits and rolled a big double-play ball en route to his 28th save.
 
The Phillies are 31-10 in Petco Park since it opened in 2004.
 
They will look for another win Saturday night behind rookie Jake Thompson. He will make his major-league debut (see story).

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