THE STORY GOES that Mohammed once ordered Mount Safa to come to him. When the mountain did not oblige, the prophet raised his arms and gave thanks to God. Because, after all, if the mountain had obeyed, it would have crushed him and his people. Then, according to lore, he announced, "I will therefore go to the mountain and thank God that he has had mercy on a stiff-necked generation."
The Phillies need to play better.
"The mountain didn't come to Mohammed, did it?" manager Charlie Manuel asked 3 hours before game time, just moments after he asked his players a similar question in a brief team meeting in the Phillies clubhouse. "What happened? He had to go to the mountain. And he had to take it."
Last night, for the first time since their magic number dropped to three, the Phillies took the mountain. Third baseman Pedro Feliz led the charge, hitting a grand slam in the fourth inning, and Ryan Madson closed it out with an electric six-out save to lift them to a 7-4 victory that clinched a tie for the National League East title.
By the end of the night, thanks in part to the Braves' loss to the Marlins, the Phillies magic number had dwindled to one, meaning any loss by Atlanta or victory of their own over the next 5 days will clinch their third consecutive division title.
But 7 hours earlier, the situation was much different.
When players arrived at Citizens Bank Park, a message on the dry erase board in the center of the clubhouse announced a team meeting at 3:50. The Phillies entered the night having lost five of their previous seven games while averaging 4.6 runs per game. Their pitchers had not fared much better, allowing an average of six runs per game. But Manuel is a firm believer in the healing power of good hitting, and after watching his team struggle against 25-year-old journeyman Yorman Bazardo in an 8-2 loss Monday night, he decided it was time for an intercession.
The players congregated in front of their lockers and listened as their manager urged them to regain the focus that had carried them through the first 156 games of an injury-riddled season.
He told them that while they were the most talented team in the division, they still had business to finish. He urged them to battle through the fatigue they were experiencing after having played 27 games in 27 days.
"I didn't want nothing about our meeting to be a negative - nothing at all," Manuel said later. "You won't see me panic or anything. I've been in the game a long time. I love everything about the game, getting slapped, getting knocked down, losing, that's all part of getting up. That's all part of having a good life in it. Believe me, that's what it's all about.
"You've got to be tough, and you've got to be mentally tough. I think that's one thing in common I've got with Philadelphia. They always say how mentally tough, or how tough they are, how rough they are? I belong here, then. Because I've been tough, and ever since I've been in baseball, I've been a fighter, and I come to whip your [butt] every day. If I can beat you 100-0 I will everyday."
It is impossible to tell what effect Manuel's words had on his players. After all, they were facing a righthander in Wilton Lopez who was making his first major league start. Feliz welcomed him to the big leagues with a grand slam that broke open a 1-1 game. Jayson Werth added a two-run homer in the fifth, and from there the game belonged to a pair of gutsy relief efforts.
Lefthander J.A. Happ struggled with his command at times, but pitched effectively through 5 2/3 innings, one of his few mistakes coming on his last pitch, which Lance Berkman drilled for a two-run homer.
Happ (12-4) left after throwing 119 pitches, leaving the game hanging in the balance of a paper-thin bullpen. Veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer finished the sixth and pitched a scoreless seventh, but strained his left groin on his final pitch and limped off the field with the help of catcher Paul Bako.
From there, Madson took charge. It took him just nine pitches to shut down the eighth. Then, after allowing a pair of singles in the ninth, he struck out Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence to record his 10th save.
"We've been waiting for a day like this for a while," Madson said. "We still haven't accomplished anything yet. Just going around the clubhouse, that's what we're thinking. We haven't accomplished anything yet."
The Phillies want to clinch as soon as possible so they can turn their attention toward pursuing homefield advantage and giving some rest to their weary regulars. The Phillies finished the night a game ahead of the Cardinals for the second seed in the NL, and they entered it two games behind the Dodgers for the top seed.
The Phillies are 91-66 and five games up with five to play. They have not yet reached the mountain. But it is getting close.
Phillers
The severity of Jamie Moyer's groin injury was not immediately known . . . Catcher Carlos Ruiz was scratched from the lineup because team doctors had not yet cleared him to play.
For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.
