--1B Ryan Howard leads the majors with 43 home runs and 129 RBIs, but in the last 12 games, he has seven homers and 17 RBIs. In the last six games, Howard is 10-for-24 (.417) with four home runs and 10 RBIs. He may even be slugging his way into NL MVP consideration. "It's September," said Howard, a .314 hitter with 39 homers and 94 RBIs during his career in the season's final month. "You're trying to make the playoffs. I would hope everybody gets a little more excited. If you're not feeling it, then I don't know what's wrong. You must want to go home." Despite his latest surge, Howard is enduring the worst of his three full major-league seasons. His on-base percentage has dropped to .330, lowest since his 2005 rookie season (.356). His batting average has declined to .243 after a brutal start in which he bottomed out at .163 on May 7. Even his slugging percentage has dipped to .525, far from his .586 career mark. Then, there are the strikeouts. Howard has whiffed a majors-leading 189 times and is on pace to become the first player to strike out 200 times in a season. He set the single-season record last season with 199 punch-outs. But manager Charlie Manuel prefers to focus on his RBI total and proficiency with runners in scoring position. Howard is batting .307 (51-for-166) with 81 RBIs with runners on second and third base. When it counts most, he makes contact. "With nobody on, the pitcher can kind of pitch around him more," Manuel said. "They're not out to throw him strikes. With guys on base, they reach a point where they may make mistakes because they're trying to be too fine, and they'll get the ball over the part of the plate where he has something to hit."
--RHP Brett Myers will be starting on three days of rest Sunday for the second time in his career and the first since Oct. 3, 2004. In that start, he allowed three runs in five innings and threw 61 pitches in a 10-4 victory over the Marlins at Citizens Bank Park. "I don't want to talk about it," Myers said. "Just another day." Since his three-week minor-league stint in July, Myers has revived his season. Over his last nine starts, he's 6-2 with a 1.64 ERA. "It just goes to show you how things can change quick," manager Charlie Manuel said. "A few months ago, I wouldn't have thought of sending him out there on three days' rest." --LHP Cole Hamels lacked his usual fastball last Sunday in New York, and when he tried to overthrow it and lost command, the Mets sat on his breaking stuff. Pitching coach Rich Dubee reminded Hamels of his first game after the All-Star break when he didn't have his best fastball but got by on guts, guile and good breaking pitches. "He doesn't have to throw 92 or 93 because of the separation (in velocity) between his fastball and his changeup," Dubee said. "That's what this game is all about, especially when you've got his repertoire." Hamels (12-9, 3.10 ERA) will start Saturday against the Brewers.
--C Carlos Ruiz's suicide squeeze bunt in the eighth inning Thursday night was only the Phillies' second in Manuel's four seasons as manager. Ruiz also dropped a squeeze bunt May 12, 2007, against the Cubs. The Cubs' pitcher: LHP Scott Eyre, traded to the Phillies last month.
--SS Jimmy Rollins and LF Pat Burrell have been teammates for nine consecutive seasons. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Atlanta's Chipper Jones and John Smoltz are the only NL tandem that has been together longer.
BY THE NUMBERS: 2 -- Times during Charlie Manuel's four-year tenure as Phillies manager that the team has scored a run via sacrifice bunt or a bunt single. Both times, C Carlos Ruiz has dropped a sacrifice bunt. Ruiz pulled off the squeeze play May 12, 2007, and again last Thursday night.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "We'll get (the umpires) a lot of cheesesteaks. Make sure we keep them happy." -- Manager Charlie Manuel, upon learning that the Phillies won all four coin tosses to assure any possible tie-breaker games against the Mets, Brewers, Astros or Cardinals for the right to advance to the playoffs will be played at Citizens Bank Park.
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