Utley struck out three times in Game 5. Twice looking.
"He's not hurt," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel insisted yesterday. "He's just not seeing the ball well right now.
"It's a feel. It's hard to explain to somebody. Even when I was a hitting coach, it's hard for somebody to explain the feel. Every day is different. Some days when you pick up a bat, you feel like you can hit anybody. Actually, the first thing you do when you get to the ballpark, can't wait to pick up a bat and see how it feels to you. But that's kind of what it is.
"You go through streaks where you're just not hitting. I'm sure pitchers go through it, too. That's just how it goes."
Ah, but there is more intrigue. There always seems to be with the elusive Utley, one of two players the Phillies made available after yesterday's practice/simulated game at Citizens Bank Park. If it were just his hitting, just a minislump in a short series, just a temporary drought of power, then Manuel's mantra makes total sense.
But we've seen the what-else. We all saw the wild throwing error in Game 2 of the League Championship series, which followed a wild throw on a similar play in Game 1. We all read Mitch Williams' comments, that he believes the Phillies' second baseman is favoring a right foot that may have been injured when Utley fouled a ball off it in the final weeks of the regular season.
In Philadelphia, the day after his error cost the Phillies Game 2 of the Dodgers series, Utley took ground balls and relay throws at second under the watchful eye of third-base coach Sam Perlozzo, who has worked diligently on Ryan Howard's technique this season.
