Fastball

TAMPA, Fla. - Do not be fooled. Roy Oswalt might be a 33-year-old man who has not publicly ruled out retirement at the end of this season, but he still has the same gunslinger mentality that carried him into the big leagues 10 years ago. "You gotta pitch off your fastball," the veteran righthander said yesterday as he stood in the visitors' clubhouse at Steinbrenner Field. The only member of the Phillies' rotation who did it more often last season was Cliff Lee. Roy Halladay has his cutter.

It is the sound that accompanies a live fastball. It is the clap of the catcher's mitt, almost like the sharp boom of thunder. Years ago, in the sports hyperbole of the time, fastballs were described by how they "trailed sparks" or how they "smoked. " It was, of course, nonsense. But as long as the game has been played, a good fastball has made that distinctive sound. It is the same sound that perks the scout's ears, that brings the smile to the coach, that draws the attention of even the casual fan. And it is the sound being heard at Malvern Prep right now, the sweet smack that separates the merely functional fastball from something special.

When Roy Oswalt had subjected the 191st consecutive sellout at Citizens Bank Park to enough carnage for one night, the fans cheered Friday when Phillies manager Charlie Manuel emerged to yank one of the Four Aces. When the 6-5 defeat by the last-place Florida Marlins ended, Manuel had enough concern to find his losing pitcher and ask the question on everyone's mind after 52/3 listless innings. Are you healthy?   Oswalt's verbal answers were affirmative, but the results on the field were a resounding no . Just six days earlier, he had regained form as a dominant strikeout pitcher able to blow a fastball by hitters in any count.

SAN DIEGO - Another day of failure complete, John Mayberry Jr. plopped down at a laptop and began scrolling through the video. He saw the 87 m.p.h. fastball he popped to second base with the bases loaded in the first inning. Then there was another fastball he skied to right to begin the fourth. He swung and missed at a curveball and fastball in the sixth and then took a 93 m.p.h. fastball for strike three. And to top it off, he swung through another fastball in the ninth. But he at least took one pitch in that at-bat, a fastball that skipped past the catcher and allowed the Phillies to score an insurance run in Thursday's 2-0 victory.

MOOSIC, Pa. - Roy Oswalt was encouraged by his second rehabilitation start and expects his next start to be for keeps with the Phillies. Oswalt pitched six innings and allowed seven hits and two runs, both earned, as the Lehigh Valley IronPigs beat the host Scranton Wilkes-Barre Yankees, 4-2, in the first game of a doubleheader on Monday at PNC Field. He struck out four and walked two, throwing 94 pitches, 61 for strikes. When asked if he sees any reason why he shouldn't start in one of the weekend games in San Francisco against the Giants, Oswalt, not a man of many words, replied, "I don't think so. " Rehabilitating from a back injury, Oswalt consistently threw in the low 90s, topping out at 92 m.p.h.

When Roy Oswalt had subjected the 191st consecutive sellout at Citizens Bank Park to enough carnage for one night, the fans cheered Friday when Phillies manager Charlie Manuel emerged to yank one of the Four Aces. When the 6-5 defeat by the last-place Florida Marlins ended, Manuel had enough concern to find his losing pitcher and ask the question on everyone's mind after 52/3 listless innings. Are you healthy?   Oswalt's verbal answers were affirmative, but the results on the field were a resounding no . Just six days earlier, he had regained form as a dominant strikeout pitcher able to blow a fastball by hitters in any count.

IN THE SECOND inning of his 11th start in the Year of the Pitcher II, Roy Oswalt settled down. Good thing. This was his sixth start since the foreshadowing game in Arizona where he went out there without a fastball and the D-back broadcasters were effusively praising his "new changeup. " The new changeup fooled hitters used to his high cheese and biting 12-6 curve until he started getting whacked around. Roy left after three innings with five earned runs on his line and his second regular-season loss as a Phil.

LAKEWOOD, N.J. - In his quest to come back from the strained rotator-cuff injury that has sidelined him for the season and re-establish himself as the Phillies' closer, Brad Lidge turned in his second solid rehab effort for the Class A Lakewood BlueClaws Thursday night. Lidge worked the first inning against the Kannapolis Intimidators. He threw 13 pitches - 10 for strikes - and retired two of the three batters he faced on swinging strikes, the other on a groundout he fielded. Lidge expects to pitch again for Lakewood in 2 days out of the bullpen.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - The Phillies made a short road trip to Dunedin on Tuesday and crossed off another Grapefruit League game from the schedule. The more relevant event took place in Clearwater, where the guy charged with putting the finishing touches on the anticipated works of art by the four aces climbed back on the mound for the first time in 11 days. After being shut down by biceps tendinitis following a March 11 outing against Baltimore, Brad Lidge was encouraged by his one-inning stint against a group of Pittsburgh Pirates minor-leaguers.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - It was 2-for-1 drink night at Bright House Field as it is every Thursday when the Threshers play a home Florida State League game. But for five innings, it was far from a normal night on the farm. A few more fans than usual dotted the blue seats for Thirsty Thursday. Four TV cameras transmitted the action to the Philadelphia area, where fans could watch three rehabbing Phillies - Chase Utley, Roy Oswalt, and Carlos Ruiz - compete for Clearwater against players in their professional baseball infancy at single A. The results were a mix of promise and concern.

Jonathan Papelbon is in the century club. According to baseball-almanac.com, there is video evidence of his fastball being clocked at 100 m.p.h. during an April 22, 2008 game at Fenway Park. It's a cool accomplishment because there are so few people on this planet who can generate that kind of arm speed. But velocity is like good looks. Eventually, unless you're a super freak like Nolan Ryan, the speed of a pitcher's fastball is going to decline. Papelbon, in his second season with the Phillies, decided last year to take that matter into his own hands in an effort to prolong his career.

LAKELAND, Fla. - The one thing no player or team wants the day before it leaves spring training is an injury. Phillies infielder Kevin Frandsen believes he barely avoided one Wednesday. Facing Detroit's Justin Verlander in the top of the third inning, Frandsen was hit in the left wrist by a fastball. He went to first base and remained in the game through the top of the inning but was removed by manager Charlie Manuel before the Tigers batted in the bottom of the third. "It's not like it's painful, but sore," Frandsen said after revealing the baseball stitch marks imprinted on his wrist.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Cole Hamels had rebuffed overtures from the baseball people who wanted him to pitch for his country in the World Baseball Classic. And Hamels is not alone; the top names on Team USA's pitching staff are R.A. Dickey and Ryan Vogelsong. On Tuesday afternoon, Hamels presented Exhibit A for why he probably wouldn't be a great fit for the WBC. In his third start of the spring, Hamels yielded eight runs on 12 hits in 2 2/3 innings as the Dominican Republic blasted the Phillies lefty in an exhibition game at Bright House Field.

CLEARWATER, Fla. - Domonic Brown knows this is his moment. He has been blessed with great talent and cursed with great expectations, set back by injuries and set aside by a franchise in constant win-now mode. "I think I've been through a lot," Brown said Tuesday afternoon. About 90 minutes earlier, he had hit a baseball about as hard as a man can hit a baseball. It was a 2-2 pitch from Yankees prospect Zach Nuding, and it soared over the batters' eye that looms behind the center-field wall.

READING, Pa. - The Phillies introduced Jonathan Pettibone to the two-seam fastball late last season and he fell in love. "I wanted to pick up that fourth pitch, and the two-seamer gave me a pitch that I could throw in to righties and away from lefties," Pettibone said last week before a double-A Reading game. "I wanted more run than my straight four-seam fastball was giving me. " Pettibone, 21, had always excelled at throwing strikes during his climb through the Phillies' farm system, but a two-seam fastball - the pitch that has helped make Vance Worley a success at the big-league level - is not nearly as easy to control as the four-seam fastball.

SAN DIEGO - Another day of failure complete, John Mayberry Jr. plopped down at a laptop and began scrolling through the video. He saw the 87 m.p.h. fastball he popped to second base with the bases loaded in the first inning. Then there was another fastball he skied to right to begin the fourth. He swung and missed at a curveball and fastball in the sixth and then took a 93 m.p.h. fastball for strike three. And to top it off, he swung through another fastball in the ninth. But he at least took one pitch in that at-bat, a fastball that skipped past the catcher and allowed the Phillies to score an insurance run in Thursday's 2-0 victory.

ST. LOUIS - For one inning Wednesday night, Roy Oswalt and catcher Carlos Ruiz fell in love with the pitcher's soft stuff, and it proved fatal for the Phillies. So now, after the St. Louis Cardinals staved off elimination with a 5-3 victory in Game 4 at Busch Stadium, the teams will play a do-or-die Game 5 on Friday night at Citizens Bank Park. The winner advances to the National League Championship Series. Oswalt, pitching in the park where he thought his career might be in jeopardy because of a back injury earlier this season, had good velocity in Game 4 and probably would not have allowed a run through the first three innings if not for an unfortunate slip by centerfielder Shane Victorino in the bottom of the first.

ST. LOUIS - Hunter Pence has seen Jaime Garcia more than any other Phillies hitter, and that apparently means little. Garcia is the sort of pitcher the Phillies despise He throws with his left hand, averages no more than 89 m.p.h. on his fastball, and is usually unafraid to throw any pitch in any count. Long before Pence arrived, Garcia handcuffed the Phillies. He didn't bring an answer for Garcia's modest success. "It's tough to explain," Pence said. "He's got a fastball that's a little different.

When Roy Oswalt had subjected the 191st consecutive sellout at Citizens Bank Park to enough carnage for one night, the fans cheered Friday when Phillies manager Charlie Manuel emerged to yank one of the Four Aces. When the 6-5 defeat by the last-place Florida Marlins ended, Manuel had enough concern to find his losing pitcher and ask the question on everyone's mind after 52/3 listless innings. Are you healthy?   Oswalt's verbal answers were affirmative, but the results on the field were a resounding no . Just six days earlier, he had regained form as a dominant strikeout pitcher able to blow a fastball by hitters in any count.