Pat's bat showing some signs of life

LOS ANGELES - In June, last night's game was exactly the kind that Pat Burrell would be watching from the bench.

Burrell was 3-for-18 against Dodgers ace Brad Penny, dating back through 2003.

Burrell slumped mightily from June 8 through the month's end: 4-for-41 - that's .098 - with one homer and six RBI. After a 2-for-22 skid from June 8-16, Phillies games largely became a spectator sport for Burrell. He was benched for nine of 13 games. He finished June hitting .203 for the season.

Then came July and, with it, a fresh chance from manager Charlie Manuel. Burrell responded: 11-for-24, three homers, 10 RBI entering last night, when Burrell started for the ninth time in 12 games and for the fifth game in a row.

Manuel sees Burrell as tenuously holding on to a confidence that he sometimes loses, simply because he tries too hard to do too much to quiet those who question his worth - especially in light of the 6-year, $50 million deal he signed after his breakout 2002 season, as well as the emergence of Ryan Howard and Chase Utley as the club's hitting stars.

"He wants to show the fans in Philadelphia, and the media, how good he is," Manuel observed. "He wants to keep up with other guys on our team. He wants to show people he's deserving of his financial success."

Burrell doesn't buy it. Give him playing time, he insists, and he'd be fine.

"When you start, and play every day, regardless of how you're doing, you get opportunities to do something. Or, maybe something triggers," Burrell said.

That said, Burrell, 30, doesn't begrudge Manuel's limiting him to 462 at-bats last season, as he again struggled with a right foot injury. Those 100 at-bats he didn't get, he says, would have moved his 29 homers to 32, his 2005 level, and his 95 RBI to around the career-high 117 he posted in 2005.

Burrell understands that in June, Manuel believed Michael Bourn, Greg Dobbs and Jayson Werth sometimes gave the Phillies a better chance to win - even if it put Burrell on a track to compile about 435 at-bats with 20 homers and 78 RBI.

"The bottom line is this: When you're in the game, you're consistently given opportunities to drive guys in. If you don't . . . it makes it difficult on everybody," Burrell said. "When you're not producing, the manager has to try to find somebody who can."

As for keeping up with the ultra-efficient Utley, an MVP candidate this season, and Howard, the reigning MVP and perhaps the game's most feared slugger, Burrell scoffs. He's never matched 2002's 37 homers and .282 average that made the Phillies lock him up through 2008.

"Keeping up with these two? There aren't many guys in the game who are. I'm just trying to help," Burrell said. "There's nobody in the game with power like Howard. Nobody. He's on a different level from everybody else.

"And Chase – he's hitting [.333]. I've never hit .300. I'm certainly not trying to keep up with them."

Really, for Burrell and Manuel and the rest of the organization, it's not about Burrell keeping up with them or justifying the $13 million he'll make this season or the $14 million he's guaranteed in 2008. It's about driving in runs. To do that, he needs to swing the bat.

Last season, he led the majors with 63 strikeouts looking. This season, his bugaboo generally is taking too many walks, if that makes sense; heading into last night, he had 21 walks with runners in scoring position. And 18 hits.

Perhaps that has to do with a lack of aggressiveness?

"There's such a fine line between being aggressive and swinging at pitches that are good pitches to hit and being patient, getting ahead in the count and making the guy throw it where you want it," Burrell said.

"I don't know why I'm walking so much with guys on base. That's good. You're prolonging the inning. Giving the next guy a chance to do something."

Perhaps . . . but Burrell clearly seems to be more aggressive since the start of July. For instance, with bases loaded in the sixth inning of Saturday's win over the Cardinals, Burrell muscled a high, inside, 0-1 fastball to rightfield to put the game out of reach.

Then again, he worked a 1-2 count into a two-out walk with a runner on second in the second inning with a two-run lead. Wes Helms followed with a groundout.

"It seems like he looks for the perfect pitch to hit," Manuel said. "He gets too fine. He takes too many strikes."

Other hitters approach RBI situations with greater abandon: Utley, for instance. He entered last night with a league-high 74 RBI. He had 35 hits with runners in scoring position – and 10 walks.

The difference?

"Utley has a lot of self-confidence. He doesn't get caught up. He doesn't get caught up in what people are saying; he couldn't care less what people are saying, about being in the paper, about getting on TV," Manuel said.

He paused, then finished: "But then, you're talking about two different people."

Not too different - at least, not the way Burrell presents himself.

"I'll tell you this: Regardless of how much money you make, regardless of how guys around you are doing, you have to have pride in what you're doing," Burrell said. "That's the name of my game: driving guys in. Flat-out, I've got to do a better job."

Lately, Burrell has. So, lately, he's played.

Catcher Rod Barajas was excused from the team to attend the birth of his sixth child in Arizona . . . Catcher Carlos Ruiz, who started none of the Phillies' last five games before the All-Star break because of tendinitis in his right knee, started last night for the third time in four games since the break. *

Catcher was excused from the team to attend the birth of his sixth child in Arizona . . . Catcher who started none of the Phillies' last five games before the All-Star break because of tendinitis in his right knee, started last night for the third time in four games since the break. *