Howard quietly stirring to life
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Howard quietly stirring to life
Ryan Lawrence, Daily News Staff Writer
Roy Halladay was in the middle of talking about the balanced, one-through-nine offensive attack from the Phillies last night, a performance he called the best of the season, when he decided to single one player out.
"Howie - I feel like he's really been swinging the bat better in the last few days," Halladay said.
"Howie," of course is Ryan Howard. The same Ryan Howard who was mired in a nightmare of a slump during the last Phillies homestand.
Quietly, the big piece at the center of the Phillies batting order has stirred to life lately. Yes, he homered on Monday; but he also collected his third straight two-hit game.
In his last 12 games, Howard is hitting .347 with a 1.058 OPS, four doubles, four home runs and 13 RBIs.
An encouraging sign of his return was the respect the Reds showed him Monday: Howard was intentionally walked in the fifth inning. The free pass was followed by a John Mayberry Jr. run-scoring single in the midst of an inning that saw the Phils bat around and score four times.
Howard has come a long way in the last two weeks.
On August 5, in the middle of a stretch that saw him hit .150 (6-for-40) with 20 strikeouts in an 11-game stretch, Howard was on the other end of the intentional walk. With the game tied in the bottom of the ninth, the Arizona Diamondbacks walked Chase Utley intentionally to take their chances with Howard.
Howard responded with the game-ending hit.
Since that walk-off single, Howard is hitting .321 (17-for-53), raising his season average from .198 to .254.
"I think he’s getting to play more," manager Charlie Manuel said of Howard, who missed spring training and the first four months of the season while recovering from left Achilles surgery.
"And the more he gets to play," Manuel continued, "he’s playing himself into good condition, good shape and he’s getting his swings. He’s getting his swing back, his timing and everything. He missed spring training. And there’s a big difference between playing in Clearwater in the A-league and in the major leagues – the pitching is better. (The pitching is) sharper, the command’s better, everything about it is better. It’s a faster game."
Howard should have been brought back slower during the first month of his comeback. I dont know if it's loyalty or laziness on Manuel's part to play him every day.— AvoidSundanceVacations- angry al, 8 home runs in 6 weeks is close to 50 for the year. Not saying he is going to return to 50, but those are good power numbers
— kgood - I usually rip the guy, but it's nice to see he's making contact and spraying some hits around.— dogman5
- Just think of this entire season as an extended spring training.— p-diddy
- Get off his back, hes still hurt and really shouldnt be playing, but he is and i thank him for that. I just hope he dont overdue it!!— huntnmike3666
- to angry al and the community, my math was wrong in my earlier comment. it would be 32 homers for the year that his 6 week pace shows. But i think if he can be a 30 homer, 100 rbi guy for the remainder of the contract, that provides a solid power bat for the middle of the lineup— kgood
- Agree with "s" -- next year is what matters -- and I'd take a 2011 season from Howard going forward. Something like .265, 35 HR and 110 RBI. You give me that for the next three years and I'd sign up right now. Is that worth $25 million per? No. Would I take it? Way.— eman
- If you toss out the first 5 games back, Howard is hitting .276 and would project to 42 HR and 121 RBI. (Of course he would also project to about 240 Ks as well.)
Oh yes. Given the correlation between hostility and anger on the one hand, and heart disease on the other, Angry Al might do well to get some help.— judas_priest - Ryan Howard - the Phillies worst fielding First baseman since Dick Stuart. Dr. StrangeGlove 2 !— candidly
- Angry Al is a dope...if you look at Howard's current numbers, even as hobbled as he is, they project out to mid-30s home runs and over 100 RBIs...like he has been doing that year after year after year, at a rate exceeding anyone else in baseball.— 2dsacker
- Psycho, Howard was at 87.29% on August 16th at 3:33 PM EST. As we speak, he is at 90.05%!— onthebucks
- Nice to see the big guy making contact. Still think he shouldn't have cut the relay throw off last night. His defensive play needs attention.— dogman5
- dude skins - do some homework. Do you remember Ryan Howard winning you a WS? Do you remember Howards 3 run bomb to win game 1 against cards, then his bases loaded hit in game 2 to give us 4-0 lead? Series shoulda been over at that point. he led all of MLB in go ahead rbis 4 yrs straight before gettingn hurt. Why cant you enjoy having a great player? Did you boo Schmidt?— Logical1
- He's having a good August with a 0.355 wOBA, but alarmingly his walk rate is down and his strikeout rate is up. It is more likely due to his very high and unsustainable 0.425 BABIP (i.e. he's getting lucky where some of hits are to). Look for that to flatten out unless his walk rate increases. Fact is, his plate discipline has been pretty poor recently.— 46 and 2
