Phillies bats not playing nine innings

ST. LOUIS - They had a four-run lead with the beloved Cliff Lee on the mound in Game 2 and Chris Carpenter off it and somehow didn't score a run the rest of the way. They had Edwin Jackson spitting up blood after only three batters last night, and they managed just one more run after that, seven innings later, on a balk and a wild pitch.

In their fifth straight season of playoff baseball, the Phillies will finally feel the heat of a deciding game tomorrow night. They are not entering it well. They are chasing bad balls and fouling off juicy ones, and they are making the St. Louis Cardinals' bullpen look like the Yankees' from the late 1990s. And if they don't stop real soon, they are likely to hear a whole lot of comparisons to the Atlanta Braves teams of that era.

Like it or not.

Ryan Howard struck out three times in Game 4, caught looking the first time as Hunter Pence broke on a 3-2 pitch, a perfect time to put the ball in play. It short-circuited a first inning that could have been so much more than it was, that could have turned the night into one of those funfests the Phillies so often conjured up back in the days when they were a hit-first, pitch-later team.

This form is supposed to be better. Not more fun, but better. And maybe it would be if two of their big four had pitched their resumes in this series. Roy Oswalt couldn't get David Freese out and it cost him four runs. By the end of the sixth inning, a two-run lead after three batters had flipped to a three-run deficit that ended in a 5-3, series-tying defeat.

But the Phillies' lineup is healthier than it's been all season, the Cardinals were supposed to have the most hittable staff of any of the contenders, so there's no excuse really for this sickly display. The Phillies have scored runs in just three of the last 26 innings.

Think about it: They could be cleaning out their lockers today if not for Ben Francisco.

So what is it? Do they relax too much after taking a lead? After all the heartache of last year, and the previous one?

Or is what we are watching a byproduct of that, of a team well aware that its legacy will be forever tarnished if it is eliminated from the postseason at home for the second straight season?

"Tonight, especially there at the end . . . it looked like some of our guys started swinging pretty hard," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "So that's a sign of a little bit overanxious. Trying to do too much."

Case in point: Shane Victorino started the ninth with a 3-0 count, watched a 3-1 fastball right in his zone, and grounded out on a borderline-low pitch. Representing the tying run in the eighth, Howard struck out on three pitches. Thrown by Marc Rzepczynski, Tony La Russa's last available lefty.

In between, there were half-swings, bad swings, and no swings by the back of the lineup when there should have been swings.

"I think when we fell behind, there was a little bit of each guy trying to be the guy to pick everybody up with one swing," hitting coach Greg Gross said. "There was a little bit of that. I think that's sort of natural."

One by one, reporters asked Gross about Howard, who began this series in such grand fashion with that three-run bomb off Kyle Lohse in Game 1 and a two-RBI effort in Game 2. Howard still has more runs batted in than anyone in this series (six), but struck out five times in the two games here, often in run-producing situations.

"It's always going to be the same with Ryan," Gross said. "When he gets in these streaks where the results aren't there, it's because he expands the strike zone."

Asked about it afterward, Howard agreed. "I've been jumping out trying to go get pitches instead of letting them come to me," he said. "I have to be a little more patient. Sit back a little bit."

He paused, then said, "Easier said than done."

You want hope? The table setters give you hope. Jimmy Rollins, continuing his hot end of season, reached base twice last night. Chase Utley was on four times, Pence twice, although once at Utley's expense.

But after that . . . ugh. Howard is the most visible culprit, but not the only one. Raul Ibanez struck out three times, Victorino took the collar. There were two hits in the order after Howard, one from pinch-hitter Ross Gload in the eighth. It resulted in a run.

Think about that: six runs in two games here, four produced by the much-maligned bench.

The postseason is all about compartmentalizing things, about reducing the bigness of the moment. Freese was a struggling puppy before his big night in Game 4. Players call it staying within themselves, not trying to do too much. Right now, whether we are talking about the Big Piece or the satellites after him, they are expanding right out of their socks.

Does it change tomorrow? Or will there be another winter of pondering how to upgrade a team built to not be in this position?

"I think if we have trouble getting up for Game 5, I think that's not good," Manuel said. "I think if we can't get up for Game 5, well, I say it all the time:

"If you don't like to play in Philadelphia, something is wrong with you."

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