Bob Ford: Pat Burrell finally has his day

MILWAUKEE - Pat Burrell wasn't sure he would be in the lineup yesterday when the Phillies tried once again to close out the National League division series against the Brewers.

With another loss, the Phillies would be facing a deciding Game 5 and maybe it wasn't time for the manager to shake up his snoozing offense a little bit, but, then again, maybe it was. Burrell was hitless in the series and his struggles allowed the Brewers to pitch carefully to Chase Utley and Ryan Howard without worrying what would happen next.

"I wasn't sure I was going to be in there. I hadn't been helping, and this is the time of year you've got to go with who's hot," Burrell said. "I understand that."

But he came to Miller Park early and went through the stretching and therapy he needs to unkink his troublesome back, and he took extra swings in the batting cage to tighten his stroke, and then he waited for the batting practice schedule to be posted. If his name was listed in the second hitting group, along with the other regulars, then he was still in the lineup.

And there it was.

"That's what you want as a player," Burrell said. "And there's going to come a time when they have to pitch around people to get to you. You just hope you've got it together."

The answer to that question came in the third inning yesterday when the Brewers did, in fact, walk Howard to get to Burrell and he responded with a three-run home run. That was the biggest hit of the day as the Phillies took charge early and clinched a berth in the National League Championship Series with the 6-2 win over Milwaukee.

All the Phils' runs scored on home runs. Jimmy Rollins and Jayson Werth had solo shots, and Burrell added another homer in the eighth inning to finish the scoring.

"Yeah, I've stuck with him. I think part of being a leader is showing confidence in a guy, but it's also because he can do what he did today," manager Charlie Manuel said. "People come up to me and say, 'How can you play him today?' And I say, 'Yeah, well I've played him four years and I'm playing him today.' I stick with my players, the ones I think can put it on the board."

It has been a long trip for this team to make its way to the NLCS for the first time since 1993, but for none longer than Burrell, the overall No. 1 pick in the 1998 draft. He made the major-league team in 2000 and remains the longest tenured player on the roster. Jimmy Rollins joined the team as a call-up in 2000 and the two go back even further than that.

"I met Pat when I was a high school junior and he was a senior. We met at Area Code Games, which are talent shows, basically," Rollins said. "We were playing dice, and he came in and we showed him how to play and he put his money in, and three rolls later he was sitting on the bed watching us play."

Yesterday, after the batting practice schedule had been posted, Burrell told Rollins that he was about to have a good day.

"He only did that once before, a long time ago, and he was right then, too," Rollins said. "He said, 'I feel good, my back's all right, I worked out some things in the cage. They're pitching around the big guy and Chase, and I'm going to get 'em today.' "

There were no guarantees Burrell was right when Milwaukee starter Jeff Suppan had a two-out situation with Shane Victorino on third base in the third inning, and interim manager Dale Sveum chose to walk Howard intentionally.

"It's not that difficult a decision," Sveum said. "Burrell came into the series hitting .170 against righties the last 30 days."

Suppan worked to a 2-and-2 count against Burrell, receiving a questionable low strike call to get ahead of him.

"Everybody in the dugout jumps up, but Pat just stepped back and collected himself," Rollins said. "He got a fastball, and he wasn't going to let it go by."

Burrell drove the pitch into the left-field stands and as the ball rose, the crowd in Miller Park stopped screaming, stopped crashing their Thunderstix, stopped everything.

"I thought, 'Oh, man, that's got a chance,' " Burrell said. "And it was so quiet, I knew something good was happening."

He reprised that in the eighth inning, just to make sure the Brewers, who had drawn within 5-2 at that point, didn't get any ideas. And then his afternoon was finally finished. Eric Bruntlett replaced him in left field, and Burrell had to wait for the final outs.

"You don't get nervous when you're playing, but once you come out, you get nervous and the panic sets in and it's like, oh my God, is this going to happen?" Burrell said.

In the bottom of the ninth, as Brad Lidge closed it out and all the Phillies were on the top step of the dugout, Burrell hung back a little, away from the others.

"It's not that my back is bothering me but I didn't want somebody grabbing me and tweaking me," Burrell said.

When it was over, he went carefully up the steps, hung around the fringes of the celebration, exchanged some hugs and then took his leave of the Miller Park field. It had been a good day, particularly for someone who wasn't sure he would be playing.

"It's very fulfilling," said Burrell, who has waited for the moment longer than the others. "What we've gone through to get here, this makes it worthwhile."