Pedro's Gem Ruined by Utley's Bad Aim

LOS ANGELES -- It happens suddenly and inexplicably, virus-like, an out-of-body experience that can turn the best ballplayers into hopeless head cases. Worse, the condition might linger for weeks or months, even years. For sure, it comes with the worst possible timing for Chase Utley, heretofore known as baseball's most productive second baseman, a man whose only previous gaffe in his professional life came at the World Series celebration last fall in Philadelphia.

"World champions! World [bleeping] champions!" he shouted to the fans, apparently unaware that the ceremony was being telecast without a tape delay.

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Friday, the Philly fans were swearing at him. For the second straight game, Utley hurled a would-be double-play ball closer to Bakersfield than the mitt of first baseman Ryan Howard. Unlike the night before, however, when the Phillies scored eight runs and nullified all mistakes, this throwing error wrecked the cause. It injected poison into a two-run eighth inning that lifted the Dodgers to a crazy 2-1 victory, tied the National League championship series at 1-1 and, most unfortunately, ruined a memorable pitching performance by Pedro Martinez, a 37-year-old artist who turned back time in a familiar setting.

"I had plenty of time to turn it. I just didn't make the throw," said Utley, a four-time All-Star who dismissed the idea of a bigger mental problem developing. "A lot of things could have gone differently, not just that play. Chan Ho [Park] made a good pitch to get a ground ball, which was what we needed. But we couldn't turn it. I just made a bad throw.''

Sound familiar? In the divisional series, about 150 feet from where Utley stood, Matt Holliday of the Cardinals let the final out of the game hit him square in the midsection. The Dodgers rallied and swept the series. See a pattern?

"It wasn't something I like to watch," Martinez said. "But I've been there. It's not like we blew it away so bad. Just a couple of little things we should have done that we didn't do. I don't think it will have any lasting effect on us. We didn't execute. We made errors. If we hit like we normally do, I don't think the game's going to end up 2-1.''

If baseball made sense, Martinez would have been a Dodger for life. In one of the more ignominious trades ever, he was delivered to Montreal in November of 1993 for a second baseman named Delino DeShields, who amounted to little in three L.A. seasons. Seems Dodgers management was concerned that Martinez's slight frame wouldn't hold up physically. Two hundred and nineteen victories, 2,827 innings and 3,154 strikeouts later, Pedro has humiliated a general manager -- Fred Claire, where are you? -- on his way to first-ballot Hall of Famedom. It seemed a cruel joke for Martinez to return 16 years later, a designated ghost ready to inflict more harm on a Dodgers team that was tight and not ready for the moment in Game 1. The fans were worried, though not concerned enough fill every seat at Dodger Stadium for the second straight game, only feeding perceptions that L.A. is a beach town and Hollywood town but absolutely not a great baseball town, attendance figures and playoff appearances aside.

Their fears were warranted. No longer firing his old gas and relying on savvy and intelligence, Martinez was brilliant. He became only the fourth man in postseason history to pitch at least seven shutout innings, allow two hits (or fewer) and not walk a batter. Considering he hadn't pitched since Sept. 30 and was more than four weeks beyond throwing 130 pitches in a 1-0 win on Sept. 13, when he injured a rib muscle, there was no reason manager Charlie Manuel couldn't have let him pitch another inning. Why turn to his shaky bullpen when Martinez had thrown only 87 pitches and Manuel, before the game, said he was willing to give him as many as 95? But maybe believing the talk that he has become a country-bumpkin savant, Manuel decided to go the lefty-righty strategy route with his bullpen and yank Martinez.

Pedro would have gladly soldiered on, but he didn't disagree with the decision. "Putting the team in a position to win was the main goal. I was able to make pitches at the key moments," Martinez said. "The temptation was to push it, but after not pitching for 17 days, seven innings was enough. I would have loved to go one more or maybe finish the game if I knew I was going to stay healthy, but I want to be able to still help the team."

Said Manuel: "He was gone. I mean, he was spent. We got seven innings out of him. Believe me, it was a hot day, and he hadn't pitched in 17 days. He did a tremendous job and he actually took it farther than I anticipated. To me, Pedro was done."


In truth, the Phillies were done. As manager Joe Torre admitted, the Dodgers were relieved when Martinez was pulled. "You have to be, you have to be,'' he said. "Even though he doesn't have the same velocity he once did, he did a masterful job.'' When Manuel opted for Park, yet another ex-Dodger, that's when the home offense finally came alive and the fans stood and waved those cliche' rally hankies found IN EVERY PLAYOFF STADIUM. Park had a chance to wiggle out of trouble when third baseman Pedro Feliz fielded a grounder and threw to Utley, who had a clean pivot look at first base even as Ronnie Belliard slid into second -- but threw the ball 10 feet to Howard's left. Instead of holding a 1-0 lead with two out, the error allowed Juan Pierre to score the tying run. Minutes later, J.A. Happ walked Andre Ethier with the bases loaded, and the Dodgers had saved their season.

Ut-oh. The Phillies have a problem. Because in Game 1, another Utley throwing error prolonged the fifth inning and led to a two-run homer by Manny Ramirez. This prompted the pitcher who allowed the homer, Cole Hamels, to throw up his arms in a gesture that showed up both Utley and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who had struggled to shovel the ball to Utley. Though he committed only four throwing errors in the regular season, Utley has not been able to throw the ball on a straight line to first base in recent weeks. Watching him here recalls the throwing issues of former Dodger second baseman Steve Sax, whose career ended prematurely because the simple throw to first grew into a huge mental problem. Or how about Chuck Knoblauch, who couldn't make that throw in New York and faded away?

Is the Utley Watch on in Philly? The Chase Chase? Will every grounder to second base now be accompanied by an "Ohhhhhh nooooooo!'' from the town's notoriously demanding fans as the series returns to Citizens Bank Park?

"He can correct that,'' Manuel said. "Chase is better than that. Those mistakes happen sometimes. Two days in a row, he made one. I know it plays a part in a game, and so does he. But at the same time, I've got a lot of faith in him. He's the one guy in the world who will work on it and correct it. I don't think there's a problem."

Is the Utley Watch on in Philly? The Chase Chase? Will every grounder to second base now be accompanied by an "Ohhhhhh nooooooo!" from the town's notoriously demanding fans.
But that doesn't mean the players agree. A bit of dissension crept into their clubhouse after the Hamels gesture, which was obvious enough that Manuel felt the need to address it with Hamels. "There's a couple reasons why you would get upset, and one of them is because a mistake is made on the field," Manuel said before Game 2. "I think Cole is more professional than that, and I think that right there is kind of being in control of yourself, and I know he's much better than that. I will talk to him about it, yes."

Hamels tried to explain that he was reacting as a fan would. Uh, a fan is a fan; a teammate is a teammate. "I'm so into the game. I'm a fan, too," Hamels told reporters. "If this game was in Philly, what do you think the crowd would have done? It's high emotions, high intensity. You want to get things done, and I reacted just like the fans would have. But I'm supposed to be the professional and I'm not allowed to do that. I think they understand I didn't mean anything by it. It looks better to pitch 5 1/3 and give up one run verses four, but the ultimate goal is to win. I'll say I'm sorry to the guys. I think we're such a good team and good teammates that they understand the frustrations.

"It's not going to look good ever. Why do you allow guys to fist-pump when they get out of an inning? We're very emotional, and this game is very hard, so when you get in those situations, you make the right pitch and something actually happens and then you're not able to come through, it's draining. But at the same time, you see the ticker and it's five innings, four earned runs."

No. It was Phillies 8, Dodgers 6. Hamels should not care how his line reads when the Phillies win, particularly after he had an erratic regular season himself. This is October. You don't win a World Series by showing up teammates in the NLCS. Even Torre was compelled to come to Utley's defense. "We want everybody to be perfect. I don't think there's been that perfect game that anyone has played yet,'' he said. "Pitchers pitch perfect games, but I don't think anyone has played a perfect game. I think Belliard may have had something to do with it, going in to second hard on the slide. Errors are part of the game. I mean, I'd certainly like to have (Utley's) problems. He's pretty damned special."

So was Martinez. How special to watch a master reach down and dazzle again, this time with guile. "Everything I have (accomplished), I know I can do once again," he said. "Who knows how many times? This is the kind of game, the kind of situation I wanted. I'm not trying to prove anything. Anyone who needs me to prove anything better go home and check that out.

"It's like art. You enjoy painting that little piece of wood or cloth. It's art. I enjoy every little bit of it. When it gets more difficult, the more we enjoy it. I see the crowd going bananas and it seems like everything is in slow motion."

I would like to see him pitch again this postseason, maybe in Yankee Stadium against the team he used to bedevil. But for the Phillies to return to the World Series, the second baseman has to throw the ball to the first baseman. Come Sunday, a sports-maniacal Eastern city will hold its collective breath every time the ball is hit to Chase Utley.