The MVPs proved truly valuable

For much of this postseason, the last two National League MVPs have been MIA.

But on a tart apple cider night, back performing in the reassuring comfort of their own cozy little playpen, they came out blazing.

The Fire Starter.

And the Big Bopper.

Jimmy Rollins.

And Ryan Howard.

MVPs in 2007 and in 2006.

Rollins, who had been locked in a strikeout-laced slump, was igniting brush fires all over the base paths.

Howard, who has spent much of October flailing impotently at pitches sweeping low and away, finally began to wait for a mistake and then mash it. He lit up the night with a pair of cannon shots.

The two figured in seven of the 10 runs the Phillies scored in taking a three-games-to-one stranglehold in this World Series. The Fightin's looked invincible in a 10-2 destructo of the shell-shocked Tampa Bay Rays.

Their bombers are unloading and their starting pitching, especially the last two games, has been superb. This has the look of the inevitable.

Last night it was Joe Blanton, who was alleged to be the soft spot in the Fightin's rotation. He pitched about as well as the Phillies could have hoped.

He was given this pregame request: "Give us six strong, Joe."

And so he did. Six-plus innings of two-run ball from a linebacker-sized journeyman who has the reputation of being an innings-eater. Known to be wild on occasion, he got ahead of the hitters last night, didn't run many deep counts and permitted only two walks.

Blanton made only two mistakes, and one ended in the right-field stands, the other in the center-field shrubbery. Blanton got half that back by himself, planting a home run in the left-field petunias.

Meanwhile, Rollins was setting the tone and the table, smoking a leadoff double and converting that into an immediate 1-0 lead. It could have been more. In fact, it should have been more but, as has been their distressing habit, the Phillies left potential runs expiring on the base paths.

They left the bases loaded in the first inning and again in the third. And in the fourth, it appeared they would strand two more at the corners.

But the Big Bopper found a cripple he could launch. It was the same-old, same-old, the same pitch that has been paralyzing Howard, except this one was not quite low enough and not quite wide enough, and he unfurled that sweeping, majestic swing that, when he's on and when he's right, launches the ball to the opposite field.

And a couple of continents away.

This homer was Howard's second in five at-bats, an encouraging omen for the Phillies. The Bopper is due, and has been.

"He can carry us by himself," manager Charlie Manuel said.

He'll only have to carry them one more game.

But as though to reaffirm what Manuel said, Howard cranked a two-run homer in the eighth inning, a tracer bullet to right.

The Phillies can smell blood in the water now. And Tampa Bay is unraveling, dissolving in an unsightly flurry of errors. And the Rays are suffering from a serious power outage. Their 3-4 hitters are hitless in the Series, and last night they went a combined 0 for 7, with one walk and five strikeouts.

The Phillies, meanwhile, sit tall in the catbird seat.

And the Fire Starter and the Big Bopper are back. Three hits and three runs scored for Rollins. Three hits and five RBIs for Howard.

Cue the parade.