"No pressure," Victorino said. Brown smiled.
In the second inning, the 22-year-old came to bat in front of a standing ovation at Citizens Bank Park. He stepped in, shook his head, and smiled again. His first swing was at the third pitch he saw from Arizona righthander Edwin Jackson, a hanging, 86 m.p.h. change-up. The ball smacked the right-field wall, three feet shy of a two-run home run.
Brown was running so hard he nearly overslid second base. He settled for an RBI double. The fans stood and cheered between innings when Brown returned to his spot in right field.
No pressure, right?
"Of course, there's pressure there," Brown said. "I'm trying to keep that in the back of my mind like I've been doing all year."
Brown, a 20th-round pick in the 2006 draft, came to Philadelphia with enormous expectations. For the last year, he was the untouchable in the Phillies' system, the one player Ruben Amaro Jr. would not trade for Roy Halladay. ("I'm glad they didn't trade him," Halladay said.) A few weeks ago, Baseball America rated Brown as the best prospect in the minors.
He did not disappoint. Brown was 2 for 3 with the run-scoring double, a single and a sacrifice fly, two runs batted in and two runs scored.
"A couple of bombs would have been nice," Brown said with a smirk. "But no, it went great."
It's possible he will spend the remainder of the season with the Phillies. Victorino, who is out with a left abdominal strain, could miss at least three weeks. On Sept. 1, rosters expand to 40 and the Phillies could conceivably keep Brown the entire time.
