- Sam Donnellon: Lee is the rock for Phillies
- Paul Hagen: It took a while, but Rollins gets the engine started
- Sam Donnellon: Phils win and now it’s Lee’s turn to clinch
- Victory on a night made for Utley
- Phillies Notebook: Hamels will be ready to deliver for Phillies in possible Game 5
- TALKING POINTS
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Victory on a night made for Utley
DENVER – It was the sort of night made for Chase Utley.
Made for his swing. Made for his reputation. Made for his demeanor.
It was cold.
Short, compact swings work in the cold.
It was a hard night to play baseball. Chase Utley, if nothing else, is a hard kind of baseball player.
It was unforgiving. Ask Utley about making a mistake, or watching one made, and you'll understand that parallel.
He made no mistakes last night. He had a hand in the scoring in three of the four innings in which the Phillies scored. He did it every which way; three hits, a walk and lots of chutzpah.
When hard-throwing, high-throwing Rockies starter Jason Hammel dropped a 1-0 fastball into the hitting zone in the first inning, Utley's samurai swat lost it into the Rockies' bullpen for a 1-0 lead, the breath of life the Phillies needed in Game 3 of the National League Division Series.
Thanks to a biting arctic blast that moved Game 3 from Saturday to last night, the Phillies had a full 2 days to stew over their one-run loss in Game 2. Utley's dinger, on a night only Brett Favre could love, certainly swung the momentum.
It was Favre-ian, to be sure.
Favre and Utley share warm-blooded roots, Favre from Mississippi, Utley from Southern California.
It was Utley saying, "Cold? What cold? We're here to win. Jump aboard, boys."
Utley's single in the fourth inning on a first-pitch, 90-mph meatball moved leadoff walker Shane Victorino to second, spurred a run of three consecutive Phillies to get on and helped chase Hammel before the lineup turned over that inning, in which the Phillies took a 4-3 lead.
His two-out walk in the fifth against reliever Matt Belisle ended Belisle's night; Rockies manager Jim Tracy promptly burned lefty reliever Joe Beimel to get slugger Ryan Howard.
His infield single in the ninth with a runner on second set up the winning run, Howard's sacrifice fly. It was pure hustle. Utley checked his swing on a changeup, just got a piece. The ball appeared to hit him on the leg in the batter's box, which would have made it a foul ball as it trickled in off the dirt in front of home plate. It was not called foul. Utley didn't wait.
Instead of freezing, instead of pleading his case, Utley busted out of the box. Closer Huston Street had a tough play to make, falling into foul territory and throwing over Utley. First-base umpire Ron Kulpa ruled that Todd Helton failed to hold the bag.
So, with one out, Howard was able to break a 5-5 tie with a flyball to left-center. Utley, of course, took second on the play.
That was that.
It was a must-win game, kind of, since a Phillies loss would give the Rockies a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five series.
It was time for Utley to produce, really.
He had been coincidental down the Phillies' stretch, when they sputtered into the NL East crown, going 3-for-30 in the eight games leading to the clincher.
He looked barely better when the postseason arrived, with a hit in each of the first two games...and three strikeouts. All of them, looking.
This is the man chasing Jeff Kent and Ryne Sandberg and Rogers Hornsby. The man with four straight All-Star games under his young belt.
The man with a .217 postseason average coming into last night's game.
Last night is the sort of night that will bolster the average and grow the legend.
Last night was perfect for that to happen.
