Matt Holliday

Jimmy Rollins 162   716   139   212   38   20   30   94   49   85   41   6   .344   .531   .296    Matt Holliday 158   636   120   216   50   6   36   137   63   126   11   4   .405   .607   .340   

Those seeking both similarities and differences in the two teams that will meet in the 2009 National League division series, which begins today at Citizens Bank Park, don't need to look any further than left field. This off-season, for different reasons, the Phillies and Rockies both unloaded longtime, power-hitting leftfielders. But the teams filled the vacancies created by the departures of Pat Burrell and Matt Holliday in very different ways. Ruben Amaro Jr. signed Raul Ibanez to be the Phils' everyday leftfielder.

Chase Utley went 3 for 5 with two home runs and five RBIs, including a grand slam in the fourth inning, as the Phillies beat the Rockies, 10-8, Friday night. Pat Burrell and Aaron Rowand also homered. The Phillies had a 10-4 lead in the bottom of the ninth, and it looked like they would cruise to an easy victory and save the back end of their bullpen. But Julio Santana loaded the bases and allowed a bases-clearing double to Matt Holliday to make it 10-7. That forced manager Charlie Manuel to use setup man Arthur Rhodes and closer Tom Gordon.

For the first game after an all-star break, there usually is no question whether a relief pitcher is available for duty. But Phillies manager Charlie Manuel wasn't completely sure whether Brad Lidge would be available for work when the all-star closer reported to Dolphin Stadium for last night's game against the Florida Marlins. "We've got to see how he feels when he plays catch," Manuel said. Lidge warmed up six times before entering Tuesday night's All-Star Game in the 15th inning.

The Colorado Rockies are closing in on a record-breaking contract extension with shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, the Denver Post reported yesterday. The Rockies and their shortstop have agreed to the framework of a six-year, $30 million contract, which would be the largest extension ever given to a major-league player with fewer than two years of experience. Tulowitzki finished second in the rookie-of-the-year voting, behind Milwaukee's Ryan Braun. The Rockies star hit .291 with 24 home runs and 99 RBIs as Colorado reached the World Series.

The Colorado Rockies want to lock up Matt Holliday with a long-term deal. For now, they've settled on 2 years. The All-Star leftfielder agreed to a $23 million, 2-year contract with Colorado yesterday, avoiding arbitration only hours before players and teams exchanged salary figures. "This is the first step in a process we hope will lead to a long-term relationship with him," Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd said. Holliday, runner-up for the NL MVP award last season, hit .340 with 137 RBI, becoming the third player since 1967 to lead a league in both categories.

Joe Maddon had a good reason for interrupting his honeymoon. About an hour after he landed in Rome, Maddon easily won the American League Manager of the Year award yesterday for guiding Tampa Bay from baseball's basement to the World Series in one astonishing season. Lou Piniella took the NL honor after leading the Chicago Cubs to the league's best record. Maddon, who succeeded Piniella as Tampa Bay manager in 2006, was a runaway winner in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

FIRST BASE   Rockies: Todd Helton. He has played in five All-Star Games, is a .332 lifetime hitter and has 303 career homers. He's also above average on defense. But, maybe since he's also played in 1,578 games without making the postseason before this, Helton's profile isn't as high as it should be. He's the player the Rockies rally around. "When you have a player who has meant as much to a franchise as Todd has meant to the Rockies . . . it makes what we are going through that much more meaningful," Matt Holliday said recently.

Some neophyte - better run for cover soon Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez insists he's still learning his craft. But seeing as how he's got that vicious, 100 m.p.h. fastball dialed in tight and has a solid handle on the top hitters, the rest of the league better hope there's not much real estate left ahead of him on the old learning curve. "I'm still learning how to pitch; I don't know how to pitch yet," Jimenez insisted. "There's a lot of things about pitching that I need to get better at. " His amazing 1.12 ERA leads the majors.

For years, they have been saying that good things happen to those who wait. For years, Colorado's Todd Helton has been waiting to get into the playoffs. Yesterday, he made the wait seem worthwhile. Helton, 34, ripped a triple in the first playoff at-bat of his 11-year career, triggering a three-run second inning that propelled the sizzling Rockies to a 4-2 win over the Phillies in the opening game of the National League division series. "I felt much more comfortable today than I have in the last two weeks," Helton said.

Taken simply for what it was, a 9-1 road trip is impressive enough. Account for the fact that it was a journey through the lefthanded time zones and it takes on added luster. Factor in that it was 10 uninterrupted days of hotel-and-suitcase living that followed 10 straight days at home without a break in between and the accomplishment moves to an even higher level. And that might not even be the most winsome part of the Phillies' triumphant junket through Colorado, San Francisco and Los Angeles that ended Wednesday.

ST. LOUIS - Untouchable in April, Marlins ace Josh Johnson was battered for five runs Thursday in his first start of the month as the St. Louis Cardinals beat Florida, 6-3. Matt Holliday had two hits and two RBIs, and Albert Pujols singled three times against Johnson (3-1), the National League pitcher of the month who had an 0.88 ERA in April. Holliday fought off an inside pitch for the tying hit with one out in the eighth, chasing Johnson after 114 pitches, and Lance Berkman greeted Mike Dunn with a three-run homer.

SAN FRANCISCO - Kyle Lohse and David Freese provided just the kind of performance the struggling St. Louis Cardinals needed to get out of their early-season rut. Lohse allowed one run in eight sharp innings and Freese went 3 for 4 with a homer and three RBIs to help the Cardinals snap a three-game losing streak with a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday. "You can't get too worried about the way things are going this early," Lohse said. "Obviously you don't want it to turn into a trend.

Some neophyte - better run for cover soon Rockies pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez insists he's still learning his craft. But seeing as how he's got that vicious, 100 m.p.h. fastball dialed in tight and has a solid handle on the top hitters, the rest of the league better hope there's not much real estate left ahead of him on the old learning curve. "I'm still learning how to pitch; I don't know how to pitch yet," Jimenez insisted. "There's a lot of things about pitching that I need to get better at. " His amazing 1.12 ERA leads the majors.

Colorado Rockies manager Jim Tracy has described outfielder Carlos Gonzalez as ?an electric player.? He endured growing pains during the regular season, found his footing in its second half and has given the Rockies a high-voltage jolt at the top of the lineup during the National League Division Series against the Phillies. The Rockies went 53-19 when the multitalented Gonzalez started at any outfield spot during the regular season. He started in the leadoff position in 27 games, 20 of which the Rockies won. So when Tracy moved Gonzalez from the second spot to leadoff in his lineup for Game 2 of NLDS, Tracy wasn?t making a square-peg-in-a-round-hole move.

Like Chad Billingsley of the Los Angeles Dodgers a year ago, Colorado's Rafael Betancourt did not respond to a knock-down pitch from Brett Myers of the Phillies in a postseason game. Unlike the Dodgers, the Rockies were happy that Betancourt did not retaliate. In the eighth inning of Thursday's second game of the National League division series, Myers hit Colorado's Troy Tulowitzki in the right elbow. On the previous pitch, Tulowitzki had what would have been an epic homer hook foul.

There are a lot of similarities between Colorado Rockies closer Huston Street and Brad Lidge of the Phillies. Except the parallels are all between the Street of right now - the one ready to pitch against the Phillies in the National League division series - and the perfect Phillies closer from 2008. Like Lidge last year, Street showed up in Colorado coming off some struggles with his previous club. Injuries played a part in those struggles, Street said, but only a small part.

Those seeking both similarities and differences in the two teams that will meet in the 2009 National League division series, which begins today at Citizens Bank Park, don't need to look any further than left field. This off-season, for different reasons, the Phillies and Rockies both unloaded longtime, power-hitting leftfielders. But the teams filled the vacancies created by the departures of Pat Burrell and Matt Holliday in very different ways. Ruben Amaro Jr. signed Raul Ibanez to be the Phils' everyday leftfielder.

OUTSIDE THE LOOP, it almost looked like one of those white-flag moves that out-of-contention teams make right before the trading deadline in July. Except that the Rockies sent star outfielder Matt Holliday to Oakland last November, shortly after the Phillies popped their corks at the end of the World Series. A year before that, Holliday finished second in the National League MVP voting. So that left the team with first baseman Todd Helton and, and . . . well, and a bunch of guys few people who don't live in the metro Denver area had heard of. That much, at least, hasn't really changed.