All That Awaits Phillies Is Chilled Bubbly

PHILADELPHIA -- The radar-gun readings were frightening, like something from an I-95 speed chase between the cops and a fugitive. Take this 101-mile-per-hour fastball, said Jonathan Broxton. Or how about this smoke at a mere 99? Or 98, 96, a slider at 93? The man goes 6-foot-4 and 290 pounds, give or take an In-N-Out Burger, and the question seemed not how the Dodgers closer would retire the Phillies in the ninth inning but with how much heat.

Yet sometimes, Broxton loses his control. This was not the time to do so, near midnight in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series. The Phillies were down to their final two outs when the big man walked pinch-hitter Matt Stairs, then grazed the elbow of Carlos Ruiz. Greg Dobbs lined out for the second out, but the raucous Philly crowd was undaunted, knowing Jimmy Rollins was up next, knowing he produced two big hits off Huston Street in the Division Series, knowing he can get around on the meanest fastball and knowing he's the closest thing to a Hollywood hot dog in a blue-collar town.

"A good matchup for us, really. He can explode on a fastball," said his manager, Charlie Manuel. "He likes the big moment, he wants to be there. He can control the adrenaline and handle the moment. Jimmy is about the big stage, he likes the mike and likes to talk. Everything about him is personality, and I love everything about it. When he goes to the plate, he wants to be part of the big moment of the game."

Late Monday night, Rollins was part of another benchmark in Phillies history. He slashed a double into the gap between center field and right, driving in two runs and giving the Phillies a dramatic 5-4 victory over Broxton and the Dodgers. What appeared to be a series-evening victory for Los Angeles became a dagger for the Phillies, who lead 3-1 and have no chance of failure as long as Cliff Lee, the best pitcher of the postseason, isn't kidnapped in the coming days.

"It doesn't get any bigger than this moment. Last at-bat, big victory for the Phillies. This has to be at the top by far," said Rollins, wearing a Red Bull cap. "I wasn't afraid of him; I'd faced him a number of times. He has pretty much thrown me all fastballs. He's the closer, and he throws 100 miles per hour. He's gonna give it his best. If he loses, he's gonna lose with his best."

"Jimmy is about the big stage, he likes the mike and likes to talk. Everything about him is personality, and I love everything about it. When he goes to the plate, he wants to be part of the big moment of the game."
- Phillies manager Charlie Manuel He makes it sound so easy, hitting a ball traveling faster than Usain Bolt. "Sixty feet is a long way to see a fastball, even at 100 miles per hour," Rollins said. "He threw it right where I was looking for it. RIght before he threw it, I said, 'Hit it in the gap between right and center.' I caught it. I was able to beat him."

Just an inning before, the Dodgers appeared ready to tie the series at 2-2. There was Ryan Howard, hotter than cheese and steak melting on a South Philly grill, holding his bat menacingly with his right hand and measuring up George Sherrill. Yes, George Sherrill, even though the Dodgers closer, Broxton, was ready in the bullpen and had these indomitable career numbers against the immovable force that is Howard in October: 0-for-10, six strikeouts. Joe Torre, L.A. manager and mad scientist, preferred a lefty-lefty matchup. This would be the same Torre who intentionally walked Albert Pujols whenever possible in the Dodgers' last series against St. Louis. I viewed it as a major insult to Howard, and I suspected he'd crush a Sherrill pitch to Passyunk, add a three-run homer to his bulging postseason resumé and push the Phillies within one win of another NL pennant.

And then, Howard swung mightily and missed for strike three.

A remarkably gutsy piece of managerial chess -- I might say insane -- enabled the Dodgers to survive another inning. But the next opponent, likely the Yankees, should be advised not to test Howard too often.

A silly, little Subway commercial? That's how he is best known to the masses, via a chit-chat with a long-passe Jared Fogle. The reason he isn't a bigger deal nationally is that he's a slugger thriving after the Steroids Era, the filthy period that turned baseball's credibility into crudibility and diluted the Once-Great American Home Run. We'd love to love Howard, a likeable lug who has given us no reason to think he's juiced up on more than just $5 Footlongs. But really, are we ready to trust anyone who hits a lot of homers? My gut sense is, we not only should trust Howard but treasure what he has become in October, the sport's judgment month.

As the Phillies continued their inevitable repeat march to the World Series, it was Howard who extracted more blood from the Dodgers. He set the tone with a two-run homer in the first, a laser-shot liner over the right-field fence that sent the red-jacketed, white-hankie-waving fans into a cocky delirium. It was yet another dent in the front door of baseball history, the eighth consecutive postseason game in which Howard has driven in at least a run, tying him with Lou Gehrig for the all-time record. Alex Rodriguez is garnering all the headlines for finally escaping his playoff sinkhole. I'd say it's time to laud Howard for his stunning consistency in a month when some of the game's greatest players, from A-Rod to Barry Bonds, have struggled. He is batting .379, with 14 RBI, and slugging .793 in these playoffs.

"I'm in a chill mode at the plate," he says.

The chill started during a hot summer, when Howard hit .305 with 23 homers and 74 RBI after the All-Star break. He also has reached base in 17 straight postseason games. You appreciate Howard even more when Manny Ramirez comes to the plate at Citizens Bank Park and the locals chant raucously, "You took steroids! You took steroids!" Or when the ad board behind home plate flashes this twist of irony while he's batting: "drugfree.org/playhealthy." When Ramirez and Rodriguez were nailed as juicers, it left the integrity of power-hitting to the likes of Howard and Pujols. If either ever ended up testing positive, I might just stop watching the game. Such is the thrill of the theater they're creating.

"He's a big-game player who thrives on big-game moments," said Jayson Werth, who hits behind Howard in the lineup and gets to watch the show up close. "One of the things about Ryan, you get to stand on deck while he's hitting. You get a pretty good seat, especially when he hits balls really far. When you're on deck and anyone else is hitting -- the ball doesn't come off the bat really like it comes off his. I find myself just kind of watching more as a fan sometimes."

Oddly, we're getting to watch Howard swing more than we should in the NLCS. Unlike their Pujols strategy, the Dodgers aren't consciously trying to avoid Howard. They thought he was vulnerable to pitches inside, but that isn't a wise strategy in the Phillies' cozy home ballpark. "We didn't come into the series saying we're going to walk Howard every chance we get," Torre said. "We're certainly not going to pitch to him with a base open. He's got a pretty good supporting cast around him, too. There's no easy out in that lineup."



Yet in the first, with Rollins on first and two out, Randy Wolf left a delicious pitch over the plate. Howard turned on it, begging the question of why Torre pitched to him. As it is, the Dodgers manager rightfully is being hammered for starting Hiroki Kuroda -- making his first appearance since Sept. 28 because of a bulging disc -- in Game 3 instead of using a healthy, playoff-tested veteran such as Jon Garland or Jeff Weaver. Even Chad Billingsley, whose second-half freefall reduced the Dodgers to less-than-championship material, would have made more sense than Kuroda, who allowed six runs in 1 1/3 innings. In fairness to Torre, the Dodgers don't have a bona fide ace. But in Howard's case, he has options. The man is lethal, much more vocal at the plate than in the interview room.

"I don't know. I mean, I guess it just happened," he said of his three-month surge. "For some reason I just went up there and started seeing more pitches. Just told myself to relax and try and see as many pitches as I can and just wait for a mistake. I think it's just more plate discipline, just being more relaxed and just trying to work good at-bats, trying to wait for a good pitch, a mistake or what-not, and I'm trying to take advantage of it."

It helps to be a lineup in which Rollins, Shane Victorino and Utley hit in front of him and Werth and Raul Ibanez are behind him. Howard is a good teammate. He knows what to say, particuarly in October. "When you're hitting in this lineup, it makes things a lot easier," he said. "I think it's more just the experience that I've gained from last year to this year, just the entire feel of the playoffs and just kind of taking a step back and looking at last year, at what kind of happened last year, and just ways of maybe being able to change that going into this year. I just kind of gathered that experience of just being more relaxed, going up there and being loose and having fun playing."

Have you seen Howard in the on-deck circle, almost in a meditative trance as he awaits his performance on stage? "I think that's his way of focusing and basically getting ready," said Manuel, who originally made his baseball living as a hitting instructor. "I think that he's thinking about his at-bat and things that he has going for him."

In Howard, we're watching more than slugger. He's an athlete who was seen diving head-first into third on a triple in Game 3. "Full-out panic going around second base," he said. "It was a lot of fun. I saw where the ball was. I saw where [right fielder Andre] Ethier was. It was one of those things where I had to make my mind up if this is going to happen or not. So once I hit second, it was pretty much going full bore."

The Phillies are a full-bore operation, too. They never believe they're out of a game, which should make a World Series against the Yankees all the more compelling. "We always talk about it, 27 outs to finish a game. You stay 'til it's over, as Yogi said," said Manuel, the modern-day Yogi Berra. "Anytime we have a close game, we're always capable of winning it. Tonight, a walk, hit batsman and JayRo hits the gap."

"We have guys on this team who really believe in themselves, in a borderline extremely cocky way -- believe they can come back no matter who's pitching," said Brad Lidge, who recorded his first victory of the season and is a big-league reliever again, as opposed to a beleaguered reliever. "It's a lot of fun to watch. They never feel like they're out of the game. We feed off our intensity in the postseason."

After Rollins' knockout blow, the intensity extended to home plate, where the hero was buried by a mob of teammates. "The pileup and beatdown that happens, that can be dangerous," said Rollins, only half-kidding. "The one thing I didn't want to do was get crushed. I kind of went in the fetal position and started throwing punches. It was a lot of fun. It's how we celebrate."

They're used to it, after all.