The Slide
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The Slide
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
By DAVID MURPHY
dmurphy@phillynews.com
SAN DIEGO, Calif. – Jimmy Rollins wasn’t just dead. He was Fredo Corleone dead. He was William Wallace dead. He was 12-point-buck-on-Roy-Oswalt’s-ranch dead.
“There’s a lot that goes through your mind when you know you are out,” Rollins said. “And it’s not good. It’s really like two words. The first one is ‘Oh.’ And you can guess what the second one is.”
Truth be told, Rollins doesn’t know what happened next. One minute, he was rounding third and sprinting toward home, sure as the pleasant SoCal weather that Yorvit Torrealba had caught the throw from center field in perfect position to make the tag. The next, he was flying by the catcher’s outstretched glove, twisting his torso and raising his arm and then slapping the corner of the plate with his hand.
He called it his Karate Kid fly-catcher move. Chad Durbin said it looked like something out of The Matrix. Brad Lidge, whose blown save on a bases loaded balk forced home the tying run in the ninth and led to the circumstances that unfolded in the 12th, called it the most athletic slide he’d ever seen.
Whatever the description, it resulted in the run that lifted the Phillies to a 3-2 victory over the Padres, in the run that snapped their four-game losing streak, in the run that cut their deficit behind the Braves in the National League East to two games.
Right up until the point he popped up from the dirt with an emphatic pump of the fist in the shadow of umpire James Hoye’s safe call, Rollins and the Phillies seemed destined to lose another heartbreaker. In the eighth, after seven innings of frustration at the hands of 22-year-old Padres righty Mat Latos, they’d taken a 2-1 lead on Raul Ibanez’s RBI single off of reliever Joe Thatcher. But like most of their leads this week, it evaporated quickly, this time in an excruciating ninth inning in which Brad Lidge hit Ryan Ludwick with a 2-2 pitch to load the bases with two out, then balked the tying run home.
It never would have happened if it were up to Roy Oswalt. The veteran righthander dominated the Padres for eight innings, allowing his only run and one of five hits on a solo home run to Yorvit Torrealba in the third. By the end of the eighth, he had thrown 102 pitches and retired 13 consecutive batters. Relying heavily on his fastball, he struck out six and walked none, throwing 78 strikes and just 24 balls. After retiring the eighth in order, catcher Carlos Ruiz egged him on.
“Carlos told me, ‘You’re going to finish this game.’ And I’m like, ‘Yeah, I’m going to try to,” Oswalt said.
But Charlie Manuel scuttled that plan, pinch-hitting Domonic Brown for Oswalt to lead off the ninth with the hope of adding another run.
“At that point in the game, he was leading off the inning, I wanted to send someone up to hit,” Manuel said. “We had the top of the line-up coming up, and also he had already did his job.”
Oswalt, whose season high is 119 pitches, wanted to stay in the game.
“I felt like I could have probably finished the game,” Oswalt said. “I lobbied for it a little bit. I mean, I understand, as far as trying to get the leadoff man on, maybe score another run, get a little more cushion. . .But I felt like I had good enough stuff that I could go back out there and finish it.”
Lidge entered the night having thrown 10 straight scoreless outings, seven of which resulted in saves. After allowing a leadoff single to Matt Stairs a sacrifice bunt to David Eckstein, he got Miguel Tejada to ground out. But with two out, things unraveled. He intentionally walked Padres star Adrian Gonzalez, then hit Ludwick. Then came the balk, which Lidge said happened because he lost his grip on the ball at the beginning of his delivery, which started his momentum toward home.
“When I was taking (the ball) to my glove to get my grip, it started coming out, and I had to look down to get my grip, otherwise the ball probably would have fallen out of my glove,” Lidge said. “By that time, my momentum was taking me forward, so I basically I had to step off or I would have fallen on my face. Kind of hard to explain. It happened pretty quick. But suffice it to say, I wasn’t thrilled about that, and probably in million more wind-ups, something like that would never happen.”
The damage was limited to three extra innings by the bullpen, the last two coming from Durbin. Rollins led off the 12th with a double off the wall in right. Then, Placido Polanco singled up the middle, and third base coach Sam Perlozzo waived Rollins home. Center fielder Luis Durango charged the ball and unleashed a laser to home plate, where Torrealba appeared to have the sprinting Rollins lined up.
But then came the slide.
“I was really just trying to avoid him,” Rollins said. “It’s just a bad feeling, going ‘Oh. . .’ And he started to swing the glove around, and by the time I looked back, he was behind me. Somehow I ended up in front of him. I don’t know what I did. And then I just tapped the plate. I’d given up. Not given up, but as in, ‘I’m out.’ Until he didn’t tag me.’”
Ive honestly had enough of Uncle Charlie. Yeah I know, his team won a world series (of course Barry Switzer won a superbowl with the cowboys)so we have to have Philly fan guilt and not be critical of him, right? Im just tired of his bone-headed decisions. He was well known to be a butcher at running the pitching staff during games going years back and that hasn't changed one bit. He'll talk about not wearing out his key bullpen guys but will pitch Madson game after game, even when up 5 or 6 to nothing. In those games you throw the scrub out there and if he gets in trouble then bring in the stoppers. This team is in the midst of a month of playing with no days off and the team isnt scoring runs so you'll need the stoppers almost every night. When its 5-0, give them a chance to rest! When Oswalt is mowing down 14 in a row against a weak hitting san diego lineup, dont go by the book and take him out because "bedeep bedepp bedeep, Oswalt had already done good, so like, he done did his job".You're putting the game into the hands ofa shaky Bradley Lidge in a game that you MUST have after the houston debacle. I dont care that Oswalt is leading off ina 1 run game. That 1 run is like 5 against that weak lineup that he was mowing down. They are lucky Lidge only gave up the tying run. If they lose that game they might go in the tank after that heartbreak instead of sweeping the Padres. Its like letting Pedro get to 135 pitches last year. This guy has no instinct to run a pitching staff. His daily "go by the book" decsions and "I wanted to put the righty on a lefty" simple-minded logic are tiresome. That is exactly why they hired Jimmy Williams to help Manuel out that first year he took over. Its nice that the players like him but he's a dope when it comes to strategy. Everyone knows it but they won't say it since he won a title.— Sewellmatt
I was brilliant because it worked. For the same reason Manuel gets a pass from me. Whatever he asks that team to do, they try hard to do it. They love Manuel, and the results redeem him from any questionable calls. Nothing is a sure thing, playing by the book or going with your gut, either way will blow up on your face eventually. Manual's teams win. Real fans appreciate him, to the bandwagon fans, this is your stop! Don't let the door hit you in your sorry asses on the out.- When are all you people going to figure it out and give it up. 30 years from now when people are asked who the starting left fielder was on the last phillies team that won a world series it will be Pat Burrell. The Oswalt trade, the Lee trade, the Halladay trade are going to destroy this organization for years to come. Along with Amaro the disaster, and his wonderful Ryan Howard contract. In two years the Phillies will no longer have any money to even keep any good players they do get lucky enough to stumble on in the draft because they will not average 45,000 per homestand. So give it up now because your wasting your time.— rich729
