Ryan Howard.
Roy Halladay.
One is The Man in the middle of the Phillies lineup, the homegrown slugger who has anchored this team throughout its five-year run of success.
One is The Man who will take the ball to start this decisive Game 5, the ace di tutti aces, who came to Philadelphia to accessorize his personal laurels with a championship ring.
All of the Phillies are under pressure to win this game and live up to the sky-high expectations that rightly have been pinned to this team. But the pressure is very different when you are The Man.
With apologies to the late Harry Kalas, whose refrain of "Chase Utley, you are the man!" spiced his calls during the 2008 championship season, Howard is and has been The Man here. Utley is an excellent player. Jimmy Rollins has set the tone. Jayson Werth and now Hunter Pence have provided some pop. But everyone in the lineup operates, to some degree, a little more safely because Howard is the lightning rod.
He was The Man, in the best possible way, when this series started. Howard's towering, three-run home run gave the Phillies the lead after a rough start by Halladay and kicked off an 11-run fiesta. And he was The Man, in the Donovan McNabb way, when he struck out three times in Wednesday's Game 4 loss.
It is a series fraught with extra meaning for Howard. He is from St. Louis and, until going hitless in two nights at Busch Stadium, always performed well in his hometown. And he always has been compared, usually unfavorably, to Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols. It has to sting a bit that Pujols, The Man in the Cardinals lineup, is hitting .412 with three doubles in this series.
