Ryan Howard said the Phillies were a better team than the New York Yankees in 2009 and just “ran out of games” trying to become back-to-back World Series champions.

Howard, who last played in the major leagues in 2016, was a slugging first baseman on a team that won five straight National League East titles from 2007-2011. He spoke with reporters before being honored prior to the Phillies’ 4-3 win over the Washington Nationals.

The Phillies defeated the Tampa Rays in five games in 2008 to win their second World Series title and repeated as National League champs in 2009.

Howard hit a game-tying two-run double in the ninth inning of Game 4 of the National League Division Series against the Colorado Rockies. The Phillies then went on to defeat the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games in the National League Championship Series, but lost the World Series to the Yankees in six games.

“(The) ’09 (World Series) was one of those things where we felt we had the better team, but we just ran out of games,” recalled Howard. “(Hideki) Matsui just caught fire and crushed us. It didn’t really do anything to our confidence. We just ran into a team where we just ran out of games. They just caught us.”

The Phillies acquired Cliff Lee in a trade mid-season and Pedro Martinez as a free-agent acquisition.

Lee was brilliant the rest of the season and won Games 1 and 5 in the World Series – pitching a complete game in Game 1.

But the acquisition of Martinez turned out to be ill-fated. While he had his moments during an up-and-down half-season, Martinez faltered in the World Series, including getting knocked out early in the deciding Game 6.

The key swing game was Game 4 with the Yankees holding a 2-1 series lead. The game was tied in the top of the ninth when Alex Rodriguez ripped a two-out RBI double off Brad Lidge.

The Yankees added two more runs and instead of potentially facing Phil Coke in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game, the Phillies went down against closer Mariano Rivera, putting them on the brink of elimination.

The Phillies stayed alive by winning Game 5, but Matsui hit a two-run homer and two-run single off Martinez in the first three innings of Game 6 and New York went on to a 7-3 clinching win.

“(The) ’09 (season) was just as fun as ’08,” said Howard. “We went into that season knowing ‘Hey, we have a chance to do the same thing again.’ I don’t think we were content with what we did in ’08. What we did in ’08 was great, but we wanted to do it again in ’09.

“We had a nucleus there, we added great guys. That was the key there. We added Pedro Martinez, a Hall of Famer, but all the people we had were just class acts. He fit right in personality-wise, that’s why we were so good, everybody fitting in with the team we had.”

The Phillies had two more chances to add to their World Series trophies. But they lost the National League Championship Series to San Francisco in 2010 and the National League Division Series to St. Louis in 2011, with Howard tearing his Achilles on the final play of the series.

“We were always very confident in our ability even moving on those next couple years (after ’09) as well,” said Howard. “I think we all thought we should have won more, but nothing is guaranteed in this game. A lot of guys played a number of years and didn’t win. Jamie (Moyer) had played 22 years and hadn’t been in the World Series (until 2008). We won (92) games and got a ring. You have to treasure it.”

Howard played five more seasons with the Phillies after 2011 but never played on another team with a winning record.

Bill Evans can be reached at bevans@njadvancemedia.com or by leaving a note in the comments below. Follow him on Twitter @BEvansSports.