Phils Loss a Nightmare on Broad Street

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.

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"We had 'em where we wanted for a hot minute," Rollins said of the Phillies' 3-0 lead in the second. "Oh well. You gotta have a short memory. Just throw this one away. ... It wasn't something dramatic where you sit down at your locker and said 'Oh well, if we had done this.' It wasn't that kind of game."

Now, while the Phillies are trying to forget that one, they have to consider how deep a 2-1 hole in the series seems to be. In Game 4, CC Sabathia starts against Joe Blanton, a clear mismatch in favor of the Yankees. If the Phillies can somehow get off the mat in this series, they'll have to win at least one game in New York.


And if it goes to Game 7, they'll be probably be giving the ball to Hamels, a pitcher who is clearly just a shell of the guy who won the MVP of the World Series last year. While Hamels said he's still confident, he also said that he "can't wait for the season to end. It's been mentally draining."

That's because he's endured a nightmare on a loop. The same thing has happened over and over. He'll be doing well, then he'll fall apart all at once. On Saturday night he hadn't allowed a hit through the first three innings, then he walked Mark Teixeira and gave up a two-run homer to Alex Rodriguez.

Bang.

An inning later, the Yankees smacked him for three runs in a span of four pitches, including a hanging curve that pitcher Andy Pettitte surprisingly swung at, and a misplaced fastball to Johnny Damon.

Boom.

"That's kind of the story of my whole season," Hamels said. "I don't hit a small speed bump. I hit a big one."

Even after Hamels had been yanked, with the game still within the reach, at 5-3, the Phillies couldn't do much right. Their entire offense the rest of the night consisted of solo homers, Werth's second of the game and an oh-by-the-way shot by Carlos Ruiz in the ninth, which served mostly to force Mariano Rivera to fire some of his precious bullets.

"That's kind of the story of my whole season. I don't hit a small speed bump. I hit a big one."
-- Cole Hamels None of the Phillies relievers until Ryan Madson in the ninth could put up a zero. That's been an issue all year, so it shouldn't really set off many new alarm bells.

The other big concern, the elephant in the middle of the room, was Howard. The Phillies' cleanup hitter went hitless in four at-bats, with three more strikeouts. Howard is now 2-for-13 in the series with nine strikeouts. When reporters approached him after the game, Howard first issued a dismissive "Get away from my locker." He then cooled off and returned to the clubhouse, ploppping himself on a table in the middle of room and facing the music, so to speak: "Hit me with your best shot."

Howard admitted to being "a little too anxious at the plate" and said that in his last two at-bats, he was feeling better about being relaxed, even though he still managed only a popup and another strikeout. He said he doesn't plan to over-analyze what's happened to him in the World Series after winning the MVP of the National League Championship Series.

"I don't know," he said. "Sometimes you get hits. Sometimes you don't. I may take a look at it once in a while, but I'm not going to go sit there for three hours after a game and try to dissect tape."

Essentially, Howard was right there with the company line: Forget this one. And the best way to do that? "Go home and go to sleep."

While he and his Phillies teammates slept on Saturday night -- at least they got an extra hour -- they may have had visions of a big left-hander with a crooked hat, an extra-large uniform and an assortment of nasty pitches. Although it's true that the Phillies beat Sabathia in Game 1, they didn't so much beat him as Cliff Lee outpitched him. This time, it will be Blanton, not Lee, facing Sabathia.

This time, the odds don't seem so good.

The Phillies, obviously, aren't interested in the odds, though. Although they now trail for the first time in their past six postseason series, they still have no shortage of confidence. When Rollins was asked about last week's prediction that the Phillies would win the series in five games, he grudgingly amended it.

"Looks like Phillies in six."