Utley struck out swinging.
Ryan Howard struck out swinging.
At that early point, you might have muttered an unprintable word modified by the words "Same old . . . ''
Clueless Charlie . . . Didn't we beg him all year to split lefthanded-swinging Utley and Howard with a righthanded bat? The manager finally started doing it in August, but Pat Burrell went as cold as yesterday's campfire ashes.
However, Ryan Howard had his hottest stretch of the season, including a player of the month September to remember, after Jayson Werth was plugged into the No. 3 hole between Utley and Howard. Utley soldiered on despite a swing-altering problem that never has been revealed. And there was a reason for Werth getting the nod. Once on base, he is a serious stolen-base threat. He is adventurous and unpredictable. Jayson causes pitchers to step off, to throw over. He makes them hurry their deliveries with a slide step. A slide-step fastball is often a half-fastball. Ask Mitch Williams.
So I would have batted Werth No. 3 against Sabathia, whose stretch move is somewhere between Friday night shore traffic and an uphill lava flow. His average move to the plate from the stretch last night was 1.75 seconds. On a fourth-inning double steal by Jimmy Rollins and Victorino, his time was 1.9. One pitch later, he was out of the game with the ugliest line by far of his exhilarating time as Milwaukee Brewers Messiah. And the Phillies were unleashing a broadside of extra-base hits.
Shows what I know . . .
Both Utley and Howard struck out three times and walked once.
This was the result Milwaukee manager Dale Sveum expected from Sabathia, who was pitching on 3 days' rest a fourth straight start 5 days before the 31st anniversary of Black Friday and the Ten Minute Collapse that left the town numb and desolate.
What Sveum definitely did not expect was the way the rest of the plan blew up in CC's face.
