By John Klima
October 26, 2008
The warning sign was when Ryan Howard reached down to the outer-half of the plate, the end of his bat digging out Andy Sonnanstine's pitch like a Pennsylvania coal miner's shovel knocking something loose.
Howard, Philadelphia's left-hook, was never truly in a slump, but in a brief power outage that naturally gets confused with such. After his two home runs Sunday night, in which he knocked in five runs and lifted his team to a demonstrative 10-2 victory in Game 4 of the World Series to lead the Phillies to a 3-1 lead over the suddenly weary Rays, Howard's power has been safely proven to be saved from the mines. This means the Rays have their backs against the proverbial shaft...er, wall.
Yes, starting pitcher Joe Blanton (Joe Blanton!) hit the home run that most fans will remember as the moment when it seemed like the Phillies had the series won. Of all improbabilities to come true, Blanton hitting his first major league home run in a World Series game seemed as unlikely as Joe Morgan rooting for the American League.
But the real news was Howard's two home runs, his opposite field blast in the fourth that built a 5-1 lead the greatest indicator that he has found himself, his moon shot reminiscent of Willie Stargell in the 1979 World Series for the Pirates. It is not very often that Pennsylvania is so relevant in October baseball, but Howard makes them relevant by his mere presence in the lineup.
“Last series, where everyone was talking about (David Ortiz) being off his game, I kept saying, 'I don't trust him,” Rays manager Joe Maddon said. Not even the earflaps on his hat could hide the sound of Howard making contact. “Guys like that, those big power guys, when they hit them, it normally comes in bunches. They get the feel working and all of the sudden every ball looks big.”
And now the Rays are feeling smaller. As Howard's tape measure home runs unfurl, unlocking his team's home run mojo (Joe Blanton!), the Rays continue to be done in by an inch here, an inch there, a rundown here, a ball in the dirt there. They reek of a team that peeked against the Red Sox, and in the intense personal close-ups the good folks at Fox provide, dare I say, it, the blissfully ignorant Rays finally look scared.
You can thank Howard for such horrors. The media cried slump for him, yet he enters Game 5 on the verge of racking in this World Series, batting .286 with three home runs and nine RBIs.
“When you go through a cool spell, that's part of the game,” Howard said. You have your ups and downs, your good days and your bad days. You have to go through those.”
And when he comes out of that dark mountain, look out. Howard is often characterized as a poor all-around player who produces, but strikes out. That doesn't do him justice. He's a better hitter than he's given credit for, and as he ages and discovers how to more consistently hit to the opposite field, he's begun to elevate his game to the next level. That is a terrifying thought, considering he knocked in 146 runs in 2008, hitting many balls back to the stone age.
“Part of it is power, part of it is having natural ability,” Jimmy Rollins said. “He's in the cage, sometimes he does his one-hand drill, sometimes he's hitting off a tee, other times hitting off the machine. That's trying to find a consistent stroke. That's not for power, that's just trying to find a stroke that keeps his bat in the zone.”
When Howard achieves this, he's going to be better than he already is. Woe the Rays, who have seen the future.
“When you have hands and arms as big and strong as his, all he has to do is hit the barrel,” Rollins said.
Now, Howard and the Phillies have the Rays over one.
“Every once in a while he'll get away from it and wants to hit the home run,” Rollins said, and it's hard not to be tempted by power when you can hit a ball to the other side of the state. “When he's hitting line drives, they're going to go out of the ballpark.”
And if the Rays aren't careful, Howard's homers will take them along, and all they will be left with is a lump of coal instead of a diamond ring.
John@Klimaink.com
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