--1B Ryan Howard didn't get many pitches to hit during the NL Division Series against the Brewers. For most of the NL Championship Series, the Dodgers handled him with care. But Howard is 10-for-40 and hasn't homered in the postseason, prompting questions about whether the Tampa Bay Rays may begin pitching around hot-hitting Chase Utley to face Howard in the World Series. "Pitch around him," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "Howard didn't get those 146 RBIs for nothing. I don't think anybody gave him any of those. And those 48 home runs he hit? If you go back and look, some of those were with guys on base and some of them won games and some of them went a long (expletive) way." Howard went 2-for-5 with a double in Game 2.
--RHP Ryan Madson heeded a spring training challenge from pitching coach Rich Dubee and has emerged as a dominant setup reliever in the eighth inning for the Phillies. Dubee, tired of Madson's maddening inconsistency, summoned him for a stern lecture early in spring training. "I challenged him," Dubee recalled. "I told him he's cheating his family, cheating himself. I said, 'You've got so much upside that you owe it to yourself to do what you need to do to be the guy you should be. You could be the biggest piece we have here to get the ball to Brad Lidge. But you have to change your ways.'" Since he surrendered three runs in the eighth inning Aug. 28 at Wrigley Field, Madson has yielded two earned runs in 24 1/3 innings, including one in 10 innings in the postseason. His fastball velocity has surged into the mid-90s, even reaching 97 mph. He said he was told he lit the radar gun at 99 mph once at Dodger Stadium last week during the League Championship Series. He also has honed a cutter that helps him get out left-handed hitters, and he has improved his changeup.
"He's really gotten to the point where he commands his pitches," Lidge said. "That takes a lot of pressure off me. I know if we've got a one-run lead, all I have to do is get three guys out in the ninth inning. He's got the eighth inning covered."
--RHP Brett Myers thought he struck out Tampa Bay's Rocco Baldelli in the second inning of Game 2 of the World Series on Thursday night. But as plate umpire Kerwin Danley was calling Baldelli out, first base umpire Fieldin Culbreth ruled that Baldelli checked his swing. Three batters later, B.J. Upton laced an RBI single. "(Culbreth) makes the call, and you can't instant replay that stuff," Myers said. "It cost me a run, but you've got to keep pitching."
--3B Pedro Feliz might not have played Thursday night against Rays RHP James Shields. But manager Charlie Manuel wanted Feliz, defensively superior to lefty-hitting Greg Dobbs, to play third base on the tricky artificial turf at Tropicana Field. So Dobbs served as the designated hitter. Feliz went 0-for-4, while Dobbs went 1-for-3. "I thought about the field. I thought about my defense," Manuel said. "I know Dobbs hadn't played on turf in more than two years. With the turf and the quickness of the field, I wanted Feliz at third base."
BY THE NUMBERS: 22 -- Pinch-hit home runs in World Series history. The Phillies' Eric Bruntlett belted No. 22 in the eighth inning of Game 2.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We came here on the road, hoping to win at least one. We definitely accomplished that. We don't want to come home down 2-0. But we had our chances to win both. We need to do a better job, no doubt about that." -- Phillies SS Jimmy Rollins.
