Sam Donnellon | Jimmy's bad day affirms his value
HE WON the argument in the worst way possible, Jimmy Rollins did. He is the Most Valuable Player of the National League because of what he means to his team, because that contribution was more
crucial to his team getting to Game 1 of the National League Division Series than was the contribution of the other candidate across the field, the one who hit the insurance home run in Colorado's 4-2 win.
DAVID MAIALETTI/Daily News
Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley and Ryan Howard were a combined 0-for-11, with eight strikeouts.
I know. It sounds strange arguing for the hometown guy after he and his teammates were outplayed by Matt Holliday's Rockies. But that's precisely the point. If Rollins played this season the way he played yesterday, rolling over and under pitches after working favorable counts, the Phillies would have been near-misses the way they were in so many of Rollins' previous seasons.
"Yeah, definitely,'' the Phillies shortstop said when asked afterward if the premise made sense. "I was saying that to myself. If I just got a hit here, it would have changed things. Maybe Shane would have got rolling. Chase, Ryan, something would have happened. But I didn't. And besides the two home runs, nothing really went on today.''
That's not an understatement. Shane Victorino went hitless. Chase Utley struck out four times on only 13 pitches. Ryan Howard struck out three times.
Of the three, only Victorino batted with anyone in scoring position. That was after Rollins walked with two outs and Carlos Ruiz on second.
Victorino grounded out.
Otherwise, Rollins was 0-for-3, including two at-bats where he worked the count to 3-1 against Rockies starter Jeff Francis and still made an out.
"Just couldn't square one up,'' he said. "But take your hat off to him. He did a real good job.''
The Phillies' regulars entered the game with 20 hits in 38 at-bats against Francis. They got four hits and struck out eight times against him in six innings.
Rollins answered, "Not at all,'' when asked if the pressure of the day got to them, arguing that his team was simply "amped up.''
He was asked if there's not a fine line there.
"No, there's not a fine line,'' he said. "Pressure is when you go out and try to make things happen because things aren't going right, or you're trying too hard.
"Amped is just another word for excited. You're not trying to, but your swing is a little quicker. Your feet may be a little quicker. Your arm may be a little quicker, and you leave pitches up. You've got to just get that under control.''
The Phillies played their first playoff game in 14 seasons as if it was their first playoff game in 14 seasons. Amped, jumpy, whatever your favorite word, they acted like a team too eager to impress, too eager to show the world what they were about.
"Really, nothing happened for both sides,'' Rollins said. "They just had an inning where they were able to get far enough ahead to leave us behind.''
That was the second inning, when nine batters came to the plate against Phillies starter Cole Hamels. Hamels seemed rattled by consecutive extra-base hits by Todd Helton and Garrett Atkins, the Rockies' four and five hitters, and battled his control for the rest of the inning, even walking in what proved to be the winning run.
Holliday struck out with the bases loaded to end that inning, but that's hardly the point. He is undoubtedly a great offensive player. Not necessarily a great fielder, evidenced when he broke in on a ball that landed over his head in Monday's playoff with San Diego, evidenced again yesterday when he broke in on the ball Pat Burrell hit over the wall in left.
But he can hit. And hit and hit. Thirty-six home runs, 137 runs batted in, a .340 average. The guy's had a monster season on a team full of monster seasons.
That is the point. Before
Holliday got you with an eighth-inning bomb off Tom Gordon, Helton and Atkins had done
damage. The second-through-seventh hitters on the Rockies hit .291 or better this season, and four drove in at least 99 runs.
They would love leadoff hitter Kaz Matsui to set the table for them. But they don't need it. He was hitless in four at-bats yesterday, reaching base on a walk in that messy second inning.
Didn't matter. The Rockies are an eat-with-your-hands team. They don't nibble. They tear into you.
The Phillies need their table-setter. Now. They need the kind of game he gave them so often over these last frenetic weeks: a walk to start the game, or a single; a leadoff triple and home run in the mix there, too.
They need him to get that first run before the other guys get their first run.
"One game, four at-bats, three at-bats, we've all had these days,'' he said. "It's rare that we've had them all together, but we've all had those days. If the series is over, yeah, it's horrible. If we win the next three, we won't be talking about this anymore.'' *
Send e-mail to
For recent columns, go to
