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Brett Myers Version 4.0, debugged and upgraded, is turning out to be the keeper.
This is the righthanded pitcher who shows up in postseason games with big performances, the guy who challenges the opponent's best hitters and, as a bonus feature, frustrates the heck out of the opponent's best pitchers.
Myers Version 4.0 is 2-0 on the mound and 4-for-5 at the plate in this postseason. He startles Manny Ramirez with out-of-control fastballs, becomes the first pitcher ever to get three basehits in a league championship series game, and runs the bases like a gazelle.
Well, a gazelle strapped to the front fender of a Ford pickup truck.
Myers Version 4.0 had the unflappable Joe Torre flapped. Torre has managed somewhere around 3 billion postseason games and seen everything at least five times. But he found himself muttering about the impact Myers had on his Game 2 starter, Chad Billingsley.
"He got the catcher (Carlos Ruiz) and he pitched to the pitcher," Torre said, explaining Billingsley's disastrous third inning. "I think (Myers) had four hits all year and he gets three in this game. So that's tough to sort of count on and defend against."
Myers Version 4.0 pretended to be annoyed after his first-round start, when questions centered on his two epic at-bats against Milwaukee ace CC Sabathia. Then he carried a bat on his shoulder into the interview room for his off-day press conference Thursday.
"I figured you guys wanted to ask me about my hitting," Myers teased.
Little did we - or he, for that matter - know.
Most of the questions about Myers' pitching last night revolved around the not-so-good ones he threw to (and at) Ramirez.
In the first inning, Myers threw an inside fastball to Ramirez. Then he threw a fastball so inside it was on the other side, sailing behind Ramirez's head and drawing the attention of Torre and the rest of the Dodgers.
"It's Manny Ramirez," Myers said. "I wanted to throw it 100 (mph). I threw the first one inside and I wanted to throw the next one even harder. To be successful, I have to throw inside. I don't want to hit their best player. If I hit their best player, they're going to throw at one of our best players. I don't want to get one of our guys hurt."
Because of the late-afternoon shadows, Myers' accidental purpose pitches - he dusted Russell Martin, the hitter before Ramirez - were especially troubling to Torre.
"The thing that worried me about that situation," Torre said, "was the fact it was so tough to see at that time of day. And we all know how aggressive Myers wants to be and how pumped up he gets. But the thing that frightened me more than anything was, it was tough to see."
Dodgers coach Mariano Duncan, the former Phillies infielder, gave Myers grief at the end of the inning. Myers said the ball was slick and got away from him.
Myers Version 1.0 - the brash young starter whose emotions were slick and got away from him - probably wouldn't have handled that well. Myers Version 2.0 - the temporary closer - wouldn't have had to worry about it.
Myers Version 3.0 - the glitch-ridden starter who kept crashing the mainframe early in this season - wouldn't have been in position to start Game 2 of the NL Championship Series.
It took a complete remaking of Myers' mechanics, Myers' attitude and, yes, Myers' hitting stance to produce Version 4.0, the postseason pitching and hitting star.
Myers stroked an RBI single on the first pitch he saw from Billingsley in the second inning. In the third, he again swung at the first pitch, this time dropping it in for a 2-run single.
The three postseason RBIs are one more than Ryan Howard's career total.
Myers turned his ankle running from first to third in the second inning. So naturally, in the third, he had to go from first to home on Shane Victorino's triple.
"You don't feel anything when you're out there and the fans are going," Myers said. "The adrenaline is pumping. I have a mild sprain. It's something you can get over."
There's no telling for sure what impact the ankle injury and the baserunning fatigue had on his pitching. Myers was good early and seemed to tire. He gave up a 3-run homer to Ramirez in the fourth, a ball that just cleared the fence in the shallowest part of left field.
Myers got the win. He drove in big runs. He continued to grow into the kind of postseason pitcher teams must have to win championships.
"I'd rather go out and pitch," Myers said, "then go out and get basehits."
Myers Version 4.0 does both, and the Phillies are halfway to the World Series because of it.
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