By DENNIS DEITCH
ddeitch@delcotimes.com
PHILADELPHIA — One hit does not make a career. Plenty of faceless players have hit home runs for the first hit of their big-league tenures.
However, not many have made their first big-league hit the 40th home run of their season.
That is why Darin Ruf’s first big-league hit, a solo home run off Ross Detwiler in the second inning of the Phillies’ 6-3 win over the Nationals at Citizens Bank Park Tuesday night, does more to instill hope than most.
The best part of Ruf’s homer wasn’t the majesty of its towering path into the left-center field seats, or the rousing ovation he received from the fans in the left-field seats when he took the field in the top of the third. Rather, it was the marathon freeze session his teammates put on the rookie afterward.
It wasn’t the first time veterans played a gag on a young player by not lining up to congratuate him at the dugout steps. But Ruf remained unacknowledged for the rest of the inning -- an inning that included two more hits and lasted several minutes. However, once Jimmy Rollins popped out to end the inning, Ruf got swamped by teammates.
Ruf got his first start for the Phillies after 2 1/2 weeks of watching the team try in vain to make up the wildcard expanse between them and the Cardinals. Two losses over the weekend to the Astros dried up the feasability of that quest, so it was time to give the 26-year-old who slammed 20 home runs in August for Double-A Reading a shot.