"I wasn't sure I was going to be in there. I hadn't been helping, and this is the time of year you've got to go with who's hot," Burrell said. "I understand that."
But he came to Miller Park early and went through the stretching and therapy he needs to unkink his troublesome back, and he took extra swings in the batting cage to tighten his stroke, and then he waited for the batting practice schedule to be posted. If his name was listed in the second hitting group, along with the other regulars, then he was still in the lineup.
And there it was.
"That's what you want as a player," Burrell said. "And there's going to come a time when they have to pitch around people to get to you. You just hope you've got it together."
The answer to that question came in the third inning yesterday when the Brewers did, in fact, walk Howard to get to Burrell and he responded with a three-run home run. That was the biggest hit of the day as the Phillies took charge early and clinched a berth in the National League Championship Series with the 6-2 win over Milwaukee.
All the Phils' runs scored on home runs. Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth had solo shots, and Burrell added another homer in the eighth inning to finish the scoring.
"Yeah, I've stuck with him. I think part of being a leader is showing confidence in a guy, but it's also because he can do what he did today," manager Charlie Manuel said. "People come up to me and say, 'How can you play him today?' And I say, 'Yeah, well I've played him four years and I'm playing him today.' I stick with my players, the ones I think can put it on the board."
It has been a long trip for this team to make its way to the NLCS for the first time since 1993, but for none longer than Burrell, the overall No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft. He made the major-league team in 2000 and remains the longest tenured player on the roster. Jimmy Rollins joined the team as a call-up in 2000 and the two go back even further than that.
