By FRANK WARD
DailyPhiladelphian.com Editor

“Raauuuuuuuulllll…..”

A year ago, that sound reverberated throughout the cozy confines of Citizens Bank Park. The man signed to a three-year deal to replace Pat Burrell in left field launched 19 homers and hit .329 in his first 55 games. A groin injury ended his hot streak and Ibanez was never the same last year after the All-Star break.

Fast forward to this year and the man has gotten off to a .247 start through Sunday. He was hitting as low as .229 a week ago.

Rauuuullll Ibanez is starting to show signs of putting the pieces of his bat back together. he's hit .391 his last six games.

Over his last six games, Ibanez has gotten nine hits and driven in five runs. He’s gone 9-for-23, a .391 average. On Sunday, he ended an 84 at-bat homerless streak with a tow run shot off of Tim Wakefield in the fourth inning.

Will the real Raul Ibanez please stand up? Was he as good as the beginning of 2009, as bad as this year, or somewhere in between?

Your answer may be here.

Last year, after a pinheaded blogger pontificated that Ibanez had performance-enhancing help in hitting 22 homers by mid June, SI.com’s Joe Posnanski analyzed Ibanez’s career and discovered that the veteran outfielder has a 55-game stretch each year during which he performs like a true stud. As Posnanski wrote, “when he’s hot, he’s HOT.”

Consider these numbers from 2002 through 2009:

• In 2002, he .hit 328 with 15 doubles, 15 homers and 54 RBI during a 50-game stretch in the middle of the year.
• In 2003, he hit .326 during a 55-game segment of the season.
• In 2004, he hit .365 in 54 games.
• In 2005, he .330 in 55 games.
• In 2006, he had 18 homers and 57 RBI in 52 games.
• In 2007, he finished the last 52 games of the year hitting .363 with 15 long balls.
• In 2008, he hit .374 with 17 doubles and 13 homers during55 games in the middle of the summer.

Nobody can conclude that Ibanez is 100 percent out of his season-long slump at this point. But, it’s a start. And, at this point, you have to at least look at his past and hope we’re about to see a surge greater than any sea during a hurricane that carries the Phillies lineup back to relevance.

At this point, we’d all take that.

Raaauuuuullllll…. Good to see you still have a pulse.