Few Mysteries as Phils Abdicate Throne

NEW YORK -- This was not the type of World Series that the Phillies are going to spend much time replaying in their minds. Not long after they watched the Yankees celebrate on the field, taking the title that they won last year, the Phillies were already in full shoulder-shrug mode.

Regrets? Not really.

"They got the hits and we didn't," Jimmy Rollins said. "Simple. There's no science other than that. Get a hit or you don't. And they did."

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Reliever Scott Eyre: "They got hits when they really needed 'em, and that's what it takes to win. That's what we did last year against the Rays. Sometimes you have to step back and say 'Hey, we got beat.' It's not like we made errors or threw the ball around the park. We left it out there."

The Phillies had one major gaffe in the series -- Brad Lidge's failure to cover third base on Johnny Damon's now famous double-steal in Game 4 -- but it's debatable whether that even cost them a game. Although it was certainly a punch in the gut, Damon would have been in scoring position for Alex Rodriguez's ensuing hit, regardless of the extra base."Are [the Yankees] better than we are? This series they were. They got the trophy. We don't. We gave it up. But we're going to get it back."
-- Charlie Manuel

The simple reason the Phillies lost, as Rollins said, was that their hitters consistently failed in the clutch. So, for that matter, did their pitchers. Whether it was what the Yankees did right or they did wrong is impossible to know, and if anyone in the Phillies clubhouse knew, they weren't saying.

"I felt like every game was a pretty good game," said Chase Utley, whose record-tying five-homer series was in a losing effort. "Both teams had opportunities to win at different times. The Yankees were just able to win more than we were."

Although the Yankees had the best offense in the majors this season, the Phillies were right up there. They had an American League-type offense, full of power hitters. Indeed, they delivered on the power, hitting 11 homers -- just one shy of the World Series record. The problem was that nine of them were solo homers. Utley hit a key three-run homer that sparked a victory in Game 5. Otherwise, the only homer with a man aboard was Ryan Howard's oh-by-the-way two-run shot in Game 6.

All told, the Phillies were 11 for 44 (.250) with runners in scoring position, but four of those hits were in the Game 1 victory. In the final five games, they were 7 for 35 (.200), including 4 for 28 (.143) in the four losses.

Howard had a particularly miserable series. He was 4 for 23 (.174) with a World Series-record 13 strikeouts. This came just after he had won the MVP award in the National League Championship Series against the Dodgers.

Even Utley, if you can believe, was practically invisible other than his five homers. He hit four of them in the two Phillies victories. In the other four games, he was 2 for 15. Rollins (.217) and Shane Victorino (.182) were not the sparkplugs they are supposed to be at the top of the order.


"Their left-handed pitchers, I felt like did a good job on our left-handed hitting and stopped them," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "That is a big part of our offense."

The Phillies also didn't pitch. The only pitcher who proved to be consistently reliable in the series for Philadelphia was Cliff Lee, who started both victories. Lee had a 2.81 ERA in the series, and the other Phillies pitchers had a 6.50 ERA.

After Lee's Game 1 effort, none of the starters got through a game without giving up at least three runs. None of the starters other than Lee got an out in the seventh inning, and none of them gave up fewer than three runs.

One of the worst performances came at the end, with Pedro Martinez getting whacked for four runs in four innings of Game 6. Martinez, who had pitched a credible six innings, allowing three runs, in Game 2, had no velocity at all. And he didn't have much to begin with. Although Martinez bolted from the clubhouse before reporters were allowed in, the word was that he had reported he still felt a little under the weather, just as he was in Game 2.

He made a mistake that Hideki Matsui deposited into the left-field bleachers for a two-run homer in the second, and he allowed Matsui to bang a two-run single in the third. That put the Yankees up 4-1. Against a wobbly Andy Pettitte on three days rest, the Phillies still might have had a chance to come back, but the Yankees tacked on three more runs charged to Chad Durbin in the fifth.

"We just got beat," Joe Blanton said. "Coming into the series it was two pretty even teams. I thought it was 50-50 or 55-45. They just won four games before we did."

The Phillies could swallow all of this a little more easily because they know they are a team that is pretty young, with most of their key players back for next year.

"Are they better than we are? This series they were," Manuel said. "They got the trophy. We don't. We gave it up. But we're going to get it back."

Rollins, who had talked in the past about the Phillies becoming a dynasty, said he still has hopes of that.

"It would have been nice to win two in a row," he said, "but San Antonio is pretty good winning every other year."