HE DID NOT get the win, and he did not get the save. He did not hit the home run that stayed inside the park, and he did not hit the one that went out of it.
What Chan Ho Park did do was pitch, and pitch well, for three pivotal innings, stomping on the brake pedal of a game that seemed on the verge of spiraling into one of those whoever-scores-last affairs.
Ten years from now, you might not remember he pitched, might not remember he performed. But if the Phillies again make the playoffs, and they do so again by the narrowest of margins, performances like Park's, in an action-packed, 9-6 win over the visiting Reds last night, will have mattered most.
"Chan Ho tonight was on a mission," said closer Brad Lidge, who followed Park's three scoreless innings by pitching the ninth for his 17th save of the season. "That was one of the better pitching [performances] I have seen out of any set-up guy or whatever. Whatever his role, he went out there and dominated tonight."
Whatever his role.
Lidge may not have realized when he uttered the words - after all, he was trapped by a horde of media en route to the shower, looking for a quick exit to escape the postgame-fireworks traffic - but they perfectly summed up Park's existence since signing with the Phillies as a free agent in the offseason. He was promised a chance to start, and he got that chance, but it quickly became apparent to the Phillies that he belonged in the bullpen. Not just because of his rocky performance in seven starts, when he posted a 7.29 ERA and allowed opponents to hit .311, but also the tantalizing possibility of bottling up his wicked but inconsistent stuff and putting it in a smaller vessel of innings that would be more conducive to a 36-year-old on the downslope of his career.
Park was not happy at first, but it's tough to argue with the results.
Take last night, for example, when veteran lefthander Jamie Moyer labored through five innings, allowing six runs, three of them coming on home runs by Edwin Encarnacion and Brandon Phillips. The Reds took a 3-0 lead in the second inning, before Chase Utley lit the Phillies' fuse with the second inside-the-park home run of his career. Utley's romp around the bases came in the third, when a line drive to centerfield caromed off the 409-foot mark and rolled into a vast piece of grass in right-center. Ryan Howard followed with a two-out double, then scored on a double by Jayson Werth.
With that, both teams were off. Cincinnati added a run in the top of the fourth, which was countered by a two-run single from Shane Victorino in the bottom of the frame. Moyer left after he allowed two runs in the fifth, but was put in position for his eighth victory when the Phillies exploded for four in the bottom of the frame, getting the go-ahead run on a single by the once-slumping Jimmy Rollins.
Enter Park.
The veteran righthander cruised through the next three innings, allowing his only baserunner on a one-out walk to Paul Janish in the sixth. He allowed no runs, no hits and struck out four before finally turning over a beleaguered Reds offense to Lidge in the ninth.
"He threw the ball quite well," said Moyer, who improved to 8-6 even as his ERA rose to 5.99. "It's kind of an unsung hero job. I guess he's kind of a long man, middle man, and he's fit into that role quite well."
Since allowing four runs in one inning of a blowout win over the Padres on June 2, Park has been nearly untouchable, allowing four earned runs and striking out 21 in 19 2/3 innings.
Last night, he played as big of a role as any in the Phillies' sixth win in seven games, which improved them to 45-38.
There were plenty of other stars. Utley's inside-the-park home run was his first since September 2005. Werth homered for the fourth straight game. It was also his 20th home run, making the Phillies just the second team in MLB history to have four players with 20-plus home runs at the All-Star break (the 2000 Blue Jays were the others). Rollins went 2-for-4 to improve his batting average to .227.
But it might have all been for naught without Park's performance.
"He did outstanding," manager Charlie Manuel said.
He didn't get the win. But the Phillies will take theirs. *
