Phillies Don’t Look Too Swift : Baseball: Colorado ace is ailing, but he handles Philadelphia easily to win his fifth in a row, 7-3.

Even a bad day for Bill Swift means a good day for the Colorado Rockies.

Swift, still recovering from a sore shoulder and summer cold, won his fifth straight start and Dante Bichette hit another homer at home Thursday to lead Colorado to a 7-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.

Swift (6-2) has a 2.33 ERA since coming off the disabled list last month, despite a slow recovery from the flu before the All-Star break. He gave up two runs on three hits in seven innings with three strikeouts and one walk.

“I’m not feeling that good,” Swift said. “My shoulder’s tired, and with the time off I lost some of my strength. I didn’t throw a lot of pitches, but I felt like I was struggling.”

That was news to Rockies manager Don Baylor. Although he pulled Swift after only 77 pitches, Baylor still couldn’t help but shake his head after watching his ace make quick work of the Phillies.

“He threw 70-plus pitches, and he did it effortlessly,” Baylor said. “He makes it look easy. Boom. Boom. Boom.”

Bichette provided the offense, driving in three runs, including two on his 16th homer. All have come at Coors Field.

“It’s a weird stat,” Bichette said. “I don’t know if it’s a good stat or a bad stat. The last few years I’ve hit as many on the road as I have at home. I’ll try to hit one on the road for you guys, so I can get it over with.”

Bichette also provided some defense, robbing Lenny Dykstra of a double in the sixth with a sliding catch in left.

Swift got more defensive help in the seventh after his throwing error put runners at second and third. With one out and Colorado leading 4-2, second baseman Jason Bates made a leaping catch of Charlie Hayes’ line drive and doubled Jim Eisenreich off second to end the threat.

“I was snake bit,” said Hayes. “It’s frustrating. Every pitch they threw me turned into an out.”

After leaving the bases loaded in the second, the Rockies got to starter Paul Quantrill (7-6) for four runs in the third on Bichette’s two-run homer and a two-run triple by Bates.

The Phillies got their first hit off Swift in the fourth when Dykstra doubled inside the right-field line and scored on Gregg Jefferies’ sixth homer of the season to make it 4-2.

The Rockies added one in the seventh on a triple by Joe Girardi and a sacrifice fly by Bichette and two in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter John Vander Wal and a two-out single by Mike Kingery.

The Phillies scored a run off reliever Mike Munoz in the eighth before Curtis Leskanic came on to escape further trouble.

Philadelphia manager Jim Fregosi was ejected in the top of first after arguing with third base umpire Jerry Layne, who also tossed Phillies infielder Mariano Duncan and bench coach John Vukovich.

Layne had called Dykstra out on a check-swing appeal to start the inning, and that prompted the dispute.

“Mr. Layne kept his head in our dugout the entire time” after the check-swing call, Fregosi said. “Duncan hollered at him ‘Just watch the game,’ and he kicked him out. He (Layne) was just looking for trouble.”