Before Game 6, Andy Pettitte had offered his theory, basic as it was, for how Yankees pitchers had consistently shut down Howard in the World Series: "I don't think that there's been a whole lot of balls left in the middle of the plate for him to hit."
Maybe the Yankees lefthander was right. Maybe Pettitte proved the theory last night in the sixth inning by doing just that - leaving a first-pitch slider over the plate. Howard sent it over Yankee Stadium's left-field wall.
More than giving the Phillies a momentary lift, the two-run homer served as a reminder of how this World Series could have been different if Howard had been himself.
"That's baseball," Howard said. "It can happen. You see when guys are going good and guys are going bad. It's nothing new. It's nothing that surprises anybody. That's just the game."
Charlie Manuel is the Phillies' manager, but at heart he is a hitting coach.
"I can sit here and tell you exactly what gets Ryan in trouble," Manuel said before the game. "It's kind of up to him. The pitcher doesn't have nothing to do with it. Basically he's just [not] completely following the ball. [If] he's staying on the ball . . . usually things come around for him."
But from his first at-bat in the World Series, Howard had been a dead spot. Before that homer, Howard had hit just .143, going 3 for 21 with no homers and one RBI.
In his career, Howard has gone through slumps - even mega-slumps - but this one showed up all of the sudden. Before getting to Yankee Stadium, Howard had been the hottest hitter in the postseason, in either league. He had tied a Lou Gehrig record by getting RBIs in eight straight playoff games, after a regular season with 45 home runs. His 141 RBIs tied for the major-league high.
Still, Howard can struggle against lefthanders, and that's mostly what he saw. He was 1 for 11 against Pettitte before last night's game.
