The Rotation (37 page)

October couldn't come fast enough.

September would be the longest Christmas Eve these guys had ever lived through.

“Win games,” Charlie Manuel said after completing that sweep in Cincinnati. “Keep winning.”

Despite a clear path to the postseason, there was plenty the cruising Phillies could still accomplish in September:

Never had a Phillies team been 42 games over .500. Getting there would mean something.

No Phillies team had ever won more than 101 games. Eclipsing that mark would mean something.

Individually, September would be an important month for a key member of The Rotation. Roy Oswalt had recovered fully from the back injury that had marred his season and was ready to build the arm strength that would bring the crackle back to his fastball and put him in position to be the October contributor Phillies officials thought he'd be when they dealt for him more than a year earlier.

In addition to all this, Manuel wanted to make sure his club finished with
the best record in the majors for the second-straight year. That, coupled with the NL's win in the All-Star Game, would ensure the Phils home-field advantage throughout the postseason. For even as they chugged toward 100 regular-season wins, what mattered most was the 11 postseason wins it would take to win the World Series. Being able to open three separate series in front of home crowds at Citizens Bank Park would be a huge benefit to the team. Or so everyone thought.

Ultimately, what should have been the Phillies' easiest month turned out to be their most difficult. A series of August rainouts eliminated the off days that can refresh a body and a string of lackluster performances, culminating with an embarrassing eight-game losing streak following the division clincher, caused angst in the streets and resulted in more than a few boos in the stands.

Manuel resisted laying into his team during the losing streak. For one thing, he knew a post-clinch hangover was pretty much inevitable for a team riding as high as the Phillies. For another, he wasn't playing his big guns every night. Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley were working their way back from a groin injury and a concussion, respectively, Hunter Pence had a cranky knee, and Ryan Howard needed time off because of a sore ankle. The Phillies played their regular eight position players in the same lineup just four times in September. What was Manuel supposed to do, air out the Lehigh Valley IronPigs?

Clubhouse eruptions have to be carefully timed and executed. Manuel had chewed out his club a week earlier after a pair of uninspiring efforts in Houston and he knew the surest way to have tirades fall on deaf ears was to have too many of them. This is not to say Manuel is against an old-fashioned airing out. In late August 2010, as the team was being swept at home by Houston, Manuel blasted his players behind closed doors and called them “yesterday's All-Stars.” The Phils reacted positively to the spanking and went 27-8 the rest of the way. A season later, the Phillies were a lot closer to the regular-season finish line and were physically bruised and banged-up. Manuel, 67 years old and nearing a half century in the game, knew this was the time for a softer touch. He sent messages through the press that the team needed to pick up its play, but no one got scalded.

“People think you can jump around and scream and kick them in the ass, and they're going to react, but let me tell you something, that ain't going to do anything at all,” Manuel said during the losing streak. “I can scream with the best of them, and I can get just as tough as anyone, but believe me, sometimes that ain't the way.

“Players nowadays can tune you out. I can get a response from my players, and I think I have the respect of my players, but at the same time we just got through clinching and we got home-field advantage. We came out the last few days and haven't played good. Now is not the time for me to go in there and start hollering at people.”

The Phillies eventually ended the eight-game skid and finished the regular season with four straight wins. In those final days of the regular season, The Rotation served notice it was ready for October. In their final starts of the regular season, the Big Four starters—Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, and Roy Oswalt—combined to pitch 25 innings and allow just three earned runs for a 1.08 ERA.

For the season, the Phillies starting pitchers had an ERA of 2.86, the best in baseball since 1985. Through all the injuries and all the offensive ups and downs, they were the team's one great consistency—just as expected.

One day in late September, someone asked Manuel where the team would be without its starting pitchers.

“I'd say that we might be getting ready to go home,” he said.

After completing their sweep of the Reds to open September, the Phillies flew to Miami for a weekend series against the Marlins. For much of the season, the club had three pitchers in the discussion to be the NL Cy Young winner. A bout of shoulder inflammation knocked Cole Hamels out of the race in August, but Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee remained very much in the hunt, along with Dodgers lefty Clayton Kershaw.

While the NL Cy Young race lined up for a close finish, the competition in the American League was turning into a runaway. Detroit's Justin Verlander won his 20
^th
game on August 27 en route to leading the majors with 24 wins. Verlander also led the majors with 251 innings and 250 strikeouts.

Checking into a Miami hotel before that weekend series against the Marlins, a Philadelphia writer bumped into a scout from an AL club. The scout had just seen one of Verlander's starts.

“He's the best pitcher in baseball,” the scout said.

“Verlander's the best,” the scout said emphatically. “Detroit's going to be a bitch if they can get to the World Series and he can pitch three times.”

It was difficult to argue with the scout's assessment of Verlander. The right-hander's fastball approaches 100 mph and he commands it like a finesse guy. He walked just 57 in those 251 innings. He changes speeds. He's a horse. Maybe he had indeed usurped Halladay's throne.

“Don't get me wrong,” the scout said. “Halladay's great. I mean great. He's done it for a long time, and that means a lot. But right now,Verlander's the best. He's got weapons. He beats you with his stuff. Halladay beats you with his smarts, his pitchability, his mind. He wears you down and never gives in.

“They're both great,” the scout said in the lobby of that Miami hotel on that Friday afternoon in early September. “But Verlander's the best.”

Charlie Manuel makes his off-season home in Florida. He loves the state. But if he had his druthers, he'd never take a team to Miami on a weekend.

“I don't like those Sunday afternoon games,” he said. “Not only is it hot, but you run into that South Beach problem.”

Yes, players have always liked “taking their talents” to South Beach on Saturday nights, and sometimes it shows in their play on Sunday afternoons. In former Phillie Lenny Dykstra's case, it was his non-play. On May 9, 1994, a Sunday afternoon, the Phils were set to play the finale of a series in Miami. Dykstra, as they say in baseball parlance, could “run it” with the best of them, and on that Sunday afternoon, he looked like a man who was in no shape to play a ball game and had no interest in doing so. Manager Jim Fregosi knew this but had Dykstra in the lineup anyway, leading off. With no day off, Dykstra orchestrated his own. He led off the game by taking a called third strike, instigated an argument with home plate umpire Angel Hernandez, and was quickly ejected. Mission accomplished. The Dude spent the rest of the day chilling in the air-conditioned clubhouse.

This trip to Florida marked the Phillies' last to the stadium that the Marlins had shared with the NFL's Dolphins since Major League Baseball came to Florida in 1993. Though two World Series championship teams called the stadium home, it had always been a bad fit for baseball, a garish teal and orange behemoth that lacked baseball charm because it had been built for football. Rain delays were frequent at the ballpark, which has had six different names over the years, and fans were few. The Marlins believe things will change on both counts when they move into their new, retractable-roof, baseball-only stadium in 2012.

In addition to Dykstra's day off, the Phillies had some memorable visits to Sun Life Stadium, as it was known in 2011, over 19 seasons. During one trip there, Phillies second baseman Mickey Morandini threatened to knock out the organ player if he didn't stop playing the theme to
The Mickey Mouse Club
when he batted. Bobby Munoz two-hit the Marlins in one hour and 54 minutes on July 27, 1994 (the guys must have been in a hurry to get to South Beach that night). Curt Schilling struck out his 300
^th
batter in his final start of the 1998 season in the ballpark, becoming just the fifth pitcher in big-league history to have back-to-back 300-strikeout seasons. Hurricane Georges forced two postponements that weekend. Phillies players busied themselves by playing paintball throughout the stadium one night—Schilling bought all the supplies—and that didn't make the cleanup crew very happy.

On the final day of the 2002 season, the Phils were bidding to finish with a winning record and the game went into extra innings. Finishing with a winning record meant a lot to Manager Larry Bowa, but not first baseman Travis Lee. The Marlins scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10
^th
. Lee made a catch in foul territory down the right-field line to allow the winning run to score. He could have let the ball drop into foul territory and prolonged the game and the Phillies' chances of winning it, but his forgettable three-season stint with the team was coming to an end. He made the catch and barely broke stride as he hailed a cab to the airport and out of a Phillies uniform. The Phils finished 80-81.

In 2006, Manuel's second as skipper, the Phillies were eliminated from wild-card contention on the final weekend of that season in the Miami ballpark. The Phils' playoff drought grew to 13 years with the elimination. Sitting in the dugout on the final day of the season, the day after the Phils were eliminated, General Manager Pat Gillick tap-danced around questions about Manuel's future. Gillick was clearly thinking of firing Manuel. In the end, he stuck with Manuel and the Phillies have gone on to win the NL East five straight times. They won the World Series in 2008. In December 2010, Gillick was elected to the Hall of Fame. Asked at the time what his best move as Phillies GM was, Gillick said, “Sticking with Charlie.”

Of course, the Phillies' finest moment in Sun Life Stadium came on May 29, 2010, when Halladay pitched just the second perfect game in team history. So it was kind of fitting he got the ball for the Phillies' final game ever in the stadium on September 4. It was a Sunday afternoon game, and, to no one's surprise, strange things happened. The Phillies played the game under protest after the umpires took away a potential extra-base hit from Hunter
Pence because of a fan-interference infraction. The umpires made their call after watching video replays. The Phillies squawked because replays aren't supposed to be used to review defensive plays. The umpires said they determined the fan interference while trying to see if Pence's ball was a home run.

“Even if the umpires were wrong in their decision to go in and review it, they got the play right,” Florida Manager Jack McKeon said. “Isn't that what we want from the umpires—to get it right? That's like a ballplayer who misses a sign and then hits a home run. He screwed up, yet he got it right and hit it out of the park.”

The Phillies lost the protest and the game, 5-4. Halladay was long gone by the time David Herndon walked in the winning run in the bottom of the 14
^th
inning. The game lasted four hours, 47 minutes and finished with only a smattering of fans in the stadium. The Phils ended up going 74-78 in the Marlins' starter house. Even Halladay, who had authored a great personal memory in the stadium, was happy to put the place in his rearview mirror.

“I'll be glad to get out of here,” he said as he headed to the team bus for the flight back to Philadelphia and a brief, three-game home stand against the second-place Atlanta Braves.

Lenny Dykstra could not be reached for comment.