NEW YORK – Finally, there was life in Ryan Howard's bat, energy in his words. "Come on man, let's go," he shouted upon crossing the plate, as if adding a hardy exclamation point to his two-run homer in the sixth inning would spark whatever the defending champions had been missing since they took a brief World Series lead way back in October.
The Philadelphia Phillies brought the bravado, for sure. On the eve of the Fall Classic, Jimmy Rollins made one of his many extemporaneous observations, saying on the Jay Leno Show, of all places, "If we're nice, we'll let it go six. But I'm thinking five. Close it out at home." So here's the first lesson, to any budding big leaguers: try not to mouth off when playing the wealthiest, hungriest, most talent-stacked team on the planet.
NEW YORK (AP) -- Philadelphia's Ryan Howard struck out swinging against Yankees reliever Damaso Marte in the eighth inning Wednesday night, setting a record with his 13th strikeout of the World Series.
Howard, who was MVP of the Phillies' NL championship series victory over Los Angeles, passed Willie Wilson's old mark. Wilson struck out 12 times for Kansas City against Philadelphia in 1980.
Howard went 2 for 5 in the opener, but got two hits the rest of the Series, including a two-run homer in the sixth inning in Game 6. He fanned four times in Game 2 and three times in Game 3.
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Jack Marucci's focus this week has been the health of his LSU Tigers as they prepare for Saturday's SEC showdown at third-ranked Alabama. But Marucci can't help but sneak a peek at the World Series between the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.
Especially after Marucci prior to the start of the Series received a message from Philadelphia's Chase Utley that indicated he wanted a special bat to swing against New York reliever Mariano Rivera.
"It's the same wood but a different style, a little thicker and shorter," Marucci told FanHouse Wednesday.
Phillies second baseman Chase Utley is having quite the World Series. The perennial All-Star is hitting .333 with five home runs, eight RBI and a disgusting 1.651 OPS. Needless to say, he's as locked in as anyone in the series. Four of those round-trippers came in the two Phillies victories (two in each), which illustrates the point that it is paramount for the Yankees to stop him in order to win Game 6.
PHILADELPHIA -- As losses go, this one was pretty ugly for the Phillies. On the bright side, those are the ones that are easiest to forget.
Other than Jayson Werth's two homers, nothing went right for the Phillies in Saturday's 8-5 loss to the Yankees, which left them down 2-1 in the World Series.
The All-Star quartet at the top of the order -- Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard -- was awful, going 1-for-11 with five strikeouts. Starter Cole Hamels had another of his meltdowns, spoiling a promising early performance. The bullpen couldn't hold the Yankees, giving up three more runs as the Yankees ran away.
In Advanced Scouting, MLB FanHouse's professional talent evaluator breaks down the playoffs from a scouting perspective.
Unless you are a fan with a rooting interest in this World Series, it's nearly impossible to not appreciate how good of a matchup this World Series is. Both the Phillies and Yankees have dominant aces they can rely on, sluggers that pound the ball with the best of them, and tenacious hitters who seem to make every at-bat an epic battle.
In such an even matchup, it's difficult to find glaring edges for either club, and that is where advanced scouting can come into play. Knowing how to pitch a certain dangerous hitter in order to neutralize him or what to look for against a particular pitcher could be what wins or loses a potentially tight series such as this. So, where are those holes each team can exploit and what will it take for them to come out on top?
PHILADELPHIA -- They wear red for a reason. The Phillies have become the lifeblood of successive Octobers, a team with a heart bigger than Rocky Balboa, a gang with an edge like south Philly, a cause that doesn't crack like the Liberty Bell or Donovan McNabb, all managed by a country savant who sounds a bit like Ricky Bobby. Bruce Springsteen played across the street the other night, and when the folks discovered that Dodgers manager Joe Torre was watching a fellow sixty-something rock the house, they busted into a "Beat L.A.!" chant that could have drowned out Jungleland.
There is much to love in Citizens Bank Park, a warm and cozy yard in a hard, crusty town. There was much less to admire in the National League Championship Series about the Dodgers, feeding directly into why the Phillies completed a 4-games-to-1 romp Wednesday night, this while rowdies tried to climb greased lightpoles and frothed to finally resolve a lifelong inferiority complex against New York in the World Series. All you need to know about the Phillies is that every player crowded on the top step of the dugout when it mattered most, symbolizing the unity and camaraderie of the first team to win a repeat NL pennant in 13 years.
"We have one more step," said Ryan Howard, the series MVP. "Then we got action."
Playoff Pulse is our morning rundown of the night that was and the night that will be during the MLB postseason.
Looking Forward ...
With the World Series matchup almost a foregone conclusion, here's a question to ponder. A-Rod or Ryan Howard? Who's having the better postseason?
Rodriguez joined Howard and Lou Gehrig as the only players to drive in a run in eight straight postseason games Tuesday night, making it a perfect time to draw the comparison.
PHILADELPHIA -- The Phillies' incredible victory in Game 4 of the NLCS on Monday started not with Matt Stairs' walk, but in the last week of the 2006 season.
That's when the team's confidence began to coalesce, and it eventually cemented into a feeling of near-invincibility that has manifested itself so often the past two seasons.
And peaked Monday.
"We believe in ourselves," Jimmy Rollins said after his two-out, two-run, ninth-inning double off a 99 mph Jonathan Broxton fastball put the Dodgers in a 3-1 series hole. "We believe in our ability. ... About the seventh inning is when we start really getting, I guess, locked in, if it hasn't happened earlier.
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