No worry about the Phillies yet, with series tied

ST. LOUIS - It's because of the way the last one slipped away, a greased pig that squirted through their hands when they were already imagining that sumptuous ham dinner with all the trimmings.

It's because, to the Phillies, Cardinals lefthander Jaime Garcia is a fright-night trifecta of Darth Vader in the first "Star Wars," the Wicked Witch of the West skywriting over Oz and "Terror Behind the Walls" at the Eastern State Penitentiary.

It's because the best-of-five Division Series format creates a plausible scenario in which a bad bounce here, a bloop hit there can send the team with the best record in baseball packing and the club that snuck into the postseason on the last day of the season one step closer to the World Series.

The Phillies and Cardinals are knotted up, one game apiece, in the NLDS with play set to resume tonight at Busch Stadium. But, yeah, there are reasons it feels like the favorites are playing from behind here.

Civic sporting angst may or may not have begun with the infamous '64 Phillies collapse, but it is firmly embedded into the regional culture by now. Michael Jack Schmidt once famously wondered aloud if it was something in the Philadelphia air, something in the upbringing of the citizens, or "too many hoagies, too much cream cheese, too much W.C. Fields."

Some of the handwringing is justified. Some is just because that's what we do.

It would be a stretch to say the Phillies are in trouble. They aren't, not yet at least. Instead, think of Sunday night's meltdown - which had as much to do with the Phillies' bats going dormant as Cliff Lee turning mortal after being handed a substantial lead - as a bit of a gut check. After all, this is a team that hasn't had to face a real challenge in months.

So while the Game 2 loss still stinks like uncollected garbage in July, it will have way more impact on the psyche of the fans than it will on the players when the shadows begin creeping across the Busch Stadium grass late this afternoon.

This crew has been pretty adept at not allowing one setback to create another. Especially with a day off in between. Especially with one of the aces, in this case Cole Hamels, starting the following game.