Said Howard: "Maybe, but now the focus is here.''
Game l of the 2009 National League Championship Series had a lot of bubble and boil, a lot of fun stuff. Carlos Ruiz hit a three-run home run. Chase Utley made what amounted to be a three-run error. Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw, after being spot-on perfect over the first four innings, set a record with three wild pitches in the fifth.
Another two-run, two-out double by Howard - almost identical to the ninth-inning hit that tied Game 4 in Colorado - should have locked up this game. That is, if Cole Hamels was the same ice-in-his-veins ace from a year ago and not the expressive diva who continues to show up teammates and melts down at the most inopportune times.
Amid all that lava (and much, much more), Howard's new-found "chill mode" should not go overlooked or underestimated. His subtle little at-bat in the fourth inning with two outs and no one on, when he fought back from a 1-2 count to take his walk, seemed to predicate what followed.
Kershaw had thrown just under 50 pitches before the big man's at-bat, had allowed just one hit. He threw two balls to Jayson Werth, then held his breath as Manny Ramirez ran down a ball at the track in left.
Kershaw is 21, in his first postseason as a starter, so what happened next inning is understandable. Raul Ibanez singled to left. Pedro Feliz walked on five pitches, one wild. After a visit from Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, Kershaw fell behind Ruiz, 2-0. Two pitches later, Ruiz sent a fastball into the leftfield seats, and a game that had all the markings of a pitcher's duel rolled backwards the other way, and fast.
