Phillies' Title Swagger Is Years in Making

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.

---

---

"All it takes is a slip-up of a pitch, one swing of the bat, an error -- anything to get the ball rolling. And as long as you continue to believe in good things, I believe, and I think we believe, that good things will happen."

The Phillies have now won twice this postseason when trailing after eight innings, and another game by breaking a tie with a run in the ninth. During the regular season, Philadelphia came from behind in 43 of its 93 wins.

"We definitely have the resilience to know, hey, we're never out of a game 'till the last out's made," said Shane Victorino, who tripled and scored in the sixth to cut the Dodgers lead to one. "That's what this ballclub has done all along since I've been here, especially the last couple of years."


Closer Brad Lidge called it a "borderline extremely cocky" attitude.

Said Eric Bruntlett, who pinch ran for Stairs on Monday after Broxton walked him and scored the first of the runs on Rollins' double: "Everybody says it, but we really feel like we're never out of the game. We've had so many of these late-inning wins. ... Everybody says it, but we keep doing it, so it's hard not to believe we're going to win."

It helps, of course, to have the deepest lineup in the NL and a top six that stacks up with any AL team as well.

Ryan Howard called Monday's win the biggest of the year for the Phillies. Even bigger, Howard said, than Game 4 of last year's NLCS, when Matt Stairs homered off Broxton in a four-run eighth-inning rally. This time it was the ninth inning, and had the Dodgers forced a 2-2 tie, they would have had the extra boost of knowing they would get at least one more home game.

Now they may fly home Wednesday night to pack for the winter.

Because, like many other teams, they could not put away the Phillies.

"All it takes is a slip-up of a pitch, one swing of the bat, an error -- anything to get the ball rolling. And as long as you continue to believe in good things, I believe, and I think we believe, that good things will happen."
- Jimmy Rollins on the Phillies' resiliency But three years ago, it was the Phillies who could not close. With seven games to go, they had a 1/2-game lead over the Dodgers for the NL wild card. Then Philadelphia lost three of four and fell out of the playoffs.

"I've never been in our clubhouse and seen them so pissed off," general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. recalled Monday.

The Phillies were angry at themselves, feeling they were good enough to win and hadn't.

A year later, they stormed back to overtake the Mets -- but lost to the Rockies in the Division Series. Another step.

"They grew up a lot" that year, Amaro said.

"That definitely kind of catapulted us," Victorino said.

Then, of course, in '08 came another sprint past the Mets and a World Series championship.

"After '07 it was just kind of a feeling of unfinished business when we went into last year," Howard said.

"We've kind of come into it [this year] with a business-like mindset -- just going in there, trying to handle your business, and try to get back there and try to do it again."

That's the chronological genesis of the Phillies' aura. From whom it sprang is less definitive.

"I think it's collective," Amaro said. "The guys just believe they're good."

Said reliever Scott Eyre: "I think it starts with Charlie [Manuel, the manager]. I really do. Charlie's attitude is, go out and play hard every day and the results will be what you put forth."

Said Howard: "I think it's just the core group of guys that have been here over the last three or four years. And then all the additions that come in pick up on it real quick and want to be a part of it. It's kind of what we're known for."

No one exudes (and talks) more confidence than Rollins. And this postseason he is 6-for-11 (.545) from the seventh inning on.

Broxton, though, is a tough task. He had never blown a postseason save and had gotten out of an eighth-inning jam by throwing 101- and 99-mph fastballs to Jayson Werth.

"It's one of those situations where I wasn't afraid," Rollins said. "I've faced him a number of times before, and that always helps when you're familiar with the guy, his movement, what his ball is going to do, and he's pretty much thrown me all fastballs. I've fouled off a couple sliders in the past. But the fact that he's a closer, 100 mph, he's going to give you his best. If he's going to lose, he's going to lose with his best.

"I was able to catch one in the gap perfectly. They were kind of squeezing the gap, but that ball just came out far enough to beat everybody."

As Rollins rounded second, he saw Carlos Ruiz score the winning run and raised his arm in victory. Another celebration was on.

"We're just hoping he can come through and just get a base hit," Howard said. "He exceeded expectations.

"He likes to be in that moment. He just likes to be in that situation."

None of the Phillies really mind it.