Phillies Revert to Early-Season Woes in Game 1

Oct 03, 10:00 PM

Current Headlines: PHILADELPHIA _ So the Phillies finally get to October and a bad case of April breaks out.

The Phillies' stumbling start _ four wins and 11 losses in their first 15 games _ has become part of this team's story in a positive way. It is one item in the litany of things they overcame to win the National League East title and earn their first playoff berth since 1993.

We bring up April not to dwell on a negative, but to look for a lesson that could turn around this division series after the Phillies' 4-2 loss to the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday in Game 1.

In those first few weeks as The Team to Beat, the Phillies appeared overwhelmed by expectations. Chase Utley and Ryan Howard had identical .213 batting averages at the end of that 15-game stretch. Howard, coming off his 58-homer, MVP season, had just three home runs.

Utley got hot first. Howard struggled a while, went on the disabled list, and came back in his 2006 form. The Phillies began the trek toward the postseason.

Well, they're here now. It is the first time in the playoffs for most of these Phillies. It wouldn't be surprising if they faced another adjustment.

"I think some of our hitters might have been a little uptight," manager Charlie Manuel said. He credited Colorado starter Jeff Francis with an excellent performance. "You put those two together, his pitching and the fact that we might have been a little uptight and trying too hard" and you get a Colorado victory.

So here's the lesson. It took the heart of the Phillies' lineup three weeks to adjust in April. They have about three hours to adjust this time. The postseason is cruel that way. In this best-of-five series, there is no margin for error.

"We have to put this game behind us, learn from our mistakes, and move on," said Utley, who struck out four times on 13 pitches.

They have to move on quickly, even instantly.

Game 1 was a textbook case of how narrow the margin between victory and defeat is in the playoffs. Both pitchers, Francis and the Phillies' Cole Hamels, pitched exceptionally well. Hamels had one rough inning, giving up three runs in the second, but was otherwise nearly unhittable. Francis looked as if he might literally be unhittable until Hamels himself laced a single to left in the third inning.

Players from both clubs pointed to the reason. The unusual start time of 3 p.m., dictated by Major League Baseball's postseason television-rights contract with TBS, meant the hitters would be in shadows during most of the game.

"Network baseball stinks," Phillies centerfielder Aaron Rowand said. "I'll have to have a talk with the president of TBS."

Rowand, who set the 45,655 hearts in Citizens Bank Park racing with a leadoff home run in the fifth inning, was quick to point out that both teams faced the same conditions.

"It's not an excuse," Rowand said. "It's not an issue. They had to deal with the same stuff we did and they did a better job with it. People were talking about how this was going to be a high-scoring series, and I was telling them it won't be as high-scoring as you think in these first two games. But that's why there were so few hits from the two best offenses in the National League."

"It was a little tough to see early on," Howard said.

Garrett Atkins, who drove in Colorado's first run with a double in Hamels' nightmare second inning, seconded that emotion.

"The shadows obviously were not ideal hitting conditions," he said. "I felt like I saw the ball all right those last of couple at-bats. ... I wouldn't mind if there was a cloud cover (for Game 2 on Thursday)."

Cumulus. Stratus. Nimbus. The hitters aren't fussy.

The Phillies knew coming into this series that they would have to outslug the prolific Rockies offense. Mustering two runs on four hits is not what they had in mind.

"When our offense scores two runs," Manuel said, "more than likely we lose the game."

Resilience has been this team's most important and likable characteristic. The bad start, the injuries, the crash-and-burn starting rotation _ whatever was thrown at them, the Phillies responded by hitting it out of the park.

That's why it was so exciting to imagine this team in the postseason spotlight. Which of them would rise to the occasion? Which would write his name in the permanent ink of playoff greatness? We'll have to wait at least another day for the answers.

The leading candidates, Utley and Howard and Jimmy Rollins, have one day to break out of Wednesday's funk. If they can't, this October will give way to another April all too soon.

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