"Pretty much," Howard said. "We had played them just before [in September], not too long ago, and I pretty much knew that they were going to come out and try and pitch very careful to me. It's just a matter of going out there and being patient and trying to get pitches to hit."
In this ongoing tug of war with the concept of superstardom, Howard now bears an interesting burden. Because of his monster September - 32 RBI, the new club record - there is no chance anybody is thinking about taking any chances with him. Because this is the biggest stage, any tendency toward caution is just magnified.
It leaves him battling, and not always successfully, in the middle of what has been a pretty quiet Phillies lineup, despite their 2-0 lead over the Brewers in the best-of-five series. Howard has gotten this kind of treatment before from opposing managers, and at least has some experience dealing with the emotions. But that doesn't mean the emotions aren't there, because they are.
"It's still a little bit frustrating," Howard said. "But having gone through it, you have the understanding for it. You know how to deal with it. You're equipped to deal with it."
And the thing is, it isn't likely to change with tonight's Game 3 against the Brewers, Jamie Moyer against Dave Bush. Milwaukee manager Dave Sveum might not like where his team stands today, but he has to see his Howard strategy as a success. There is no reason for him to make any alterations.
"What he's done in the last month or whatever, you know, you just try to keep that guy in the ballpark," Sveum said. "And we've done that and . . . we've just had two bad innings. Other than that, we've kept a big-time power-hitting team in the ballpark. We had a couple of unfortunate innings."
