Ramirez's career effort lifted the Cubs to an 11-6 victory over the Phillies before a crowd of 31,101 on Monday night at Citizens Bank Park.

Ramirez was 4-for-5, including a pair of three-run home runs in the first and fourth innings. Ramirez, who had his fourth multi-homer game of the season and the 17th of his career, also finished with a career-best seven RBIs.

Ramirez became the sixth Cub to have at least 35 doubles and 35 home runs in the same season. Ramirez now has 35 homers after hitting a three-run shot off Phillies starter Jon Lieber in the first and another three-run dinger in the fourth off reliever Eude Brito.

"I feel pretty good," Ramirez said. "I wasn't trying to do too much, to hit the ball wherever the pitch is."

Cubs manager Dusty Baker said he's thrilled with Ramirez's recent play.

"He's really come out of nowhere with home runs, RBIs, closing in on .300," Baker said. "It's a great finish. He's finishing strong. It came right on time for us."

The Cubs finished with 16 hits and helped stall the surging Phillies, who swept a three-game series in Houston before Monday's game. The Phils are 1 1/2 games behind the Padres in the National League Wild Card race.

Meanwhile, the Cubs won on the road for just the second time in their last 11 games.

"We get paid to play 162 games," Ramirez said. "We've still got to go out there, play the game and do the best we can."

Center fielder Juan Pierre, who ripped his third homer of the season, a solo shot in the third, said that it's satisfying to beat a Wild Card-contending team.

"We definitely want to finish strong, knowing that their team is in the hunt," Pierre said. "We're doing everything we can to stop them."

After building an 8-0 lead, the Cubs nearly gave it all back. Starter Sean Marshall surrendered five hits and six earned runs in 3 1/3 innings, including a pinch-hit grand slam to Jose Hernandez, which cut the advantage to 8-6 in the fourth. It was the fifth career grand slam for Hernandez and his first since April 12, 2001.

"He just lost control of the strike zone, got behind and had to come in," Baker said of Marshall. "You get behind, come in and those guys can hit it. Jose Hernandez has been one of the best for a long time coming off the bench."

Cubs first baseman Scott Moore added a solo homer in the fifth, his second of the season.

When you're playing in Philadelphia, Baker knows you can never have a big enough lead.

"These guys can score runs," Baker said. "And they can score them in a hurry, especially in this ballpark. You're always appreciative especially when you have some walks. ... It was a total team victory. It sounds corny, but it was."

Pierre agreed with his manager about playing here.

"This is like mini-Colorado," Pierre said. "I knew that five, six runs is like a one-run lead here. When we got those [extra] runs, it was important."

But on this particular night, Ramirez produced more runs than the Phillies scored as a team.

"His first three times up, he did us in," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "He was the one guy we talked about to not let him beat us."

He did anyway.

While this ballpark is homer-friendly, Ramirez's shots would have sailed out of most ballparks.

"If you hit it good, it's going to go out, no matter where you play," Ramirez said. "To think about the stadium, you're going to go 0-for-4 every time."

This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.