Phillies and Cardinals need to find their Man among men in Game 5

No nation ever turned its lonely eyes to Tommy Henrich, who played alongside Joltin' Joe DiMaggio for years in the Yankee Stadium outfield. When Mighty Casey struck out, no one called the Mudville sports-talk station and griped about the Nos. 2 and 3 hitters' lack of run production. When it was Vern Bickford's turn to pitch, fans of Spahn and Sain were praying for rain.

That is the difference between being a major-league player, even a very good one, and being The Man.

As Philadelphia braces for the stress test of Friday's Game 5 between the Phillies and the St. Louis Cardinals, the city's lonely eyes are turned toward two Men.

Ryan Howard.

Roy Halladay.

One is The Man in the middle of the Phillies lineup, the homegrown slugger who has anchored this team throughout its five-year run of success.

One is The Man who will take the ball to start this decisive Game 5, the ace di tutti aces, who came to Philadelphia to accessorize his personal laurels with a championship ring.

All of the Phillies are under pressure to win this game and live up to the sky-high expectations that rightly have been pinned to this team. But the pressure is very different when you are The Man.

With apologies to the late Harry Kalas, whose refrain of "Chase Utley, you are the man!" spiced his calls during the 2008 championship season, Howard is and has been The Man here. Utley is an excellent player. Jimmy Rollins has set the tone. Jayson Werth and now Hunter Pence have provided some pop. But everyone in the lineup operates, to some degree, a little more safely because Howard is the lightning rod.

He was The Man, in the best possible way, when this series started. Howard's towering, three-run home run gave the Phillies the lead after a rough start by Halladay and kicked off an 11-run fiesta. And he was The Man, in the Donovan McNabb way, when he struck out three times in Wednesday's Game 4 loss.

It is a series fraught with extra meaning for Howard. He is from St. Louis and, until going hitless in two nights at Busch Stadium, always performed well in his hometown. And he always has been compared, usually unfavorably, to Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols. It has to sting a bit that Pujols, The Man in the Cardinals lineup, is hitting .412 with three doubles in this series.

The beauty of Game 5 is that it provides a fresh sheet of paper to write a happy ending. This series has seen unexpected October heroes - Ben Francisco? David Freese? - rise to the moment. But the man, or The Man, who delivers in Game 5 will be remembered far longer.

It is a little different for Halladay. He takes the mound and becomes the focal point of every fifth game. But there's something different about being the acknowledged top gun on a staff - especially this staff. The atmosphere in the Phillies clubhouse after Game 4 wasn't as grim as you'd expect, for one reason. Twenty-four players could reassure themselves with three magic words: "Doc's got this."

It is baseball poetry that Halladay will face Chris Carpenter, who, apart from being The Man on the Cardinals staff, is also an old friend of Halladay's. They met before they were The Men, before they were even men. Just kids in the Toronto Blue Jays' minor-league system, trying to live up to expectations.

"Coming up," Halladay said, "we both kind of struggled with - we were supposed to come in and lead this team and be these great pitchers right out of the gate. I think it was tough for both of us, not really knowing how to go about that. But I really feel like we learned together, more mentally, how to approach the game and how to play the game."

Carpenter left Toronto earlier, signing with St. Louis as a free agent. He has won a Cy Young Award, while Halladay has won two. Carpenter, however, has the one thing that has eluded Halladay so far, the thing that led him to the Phillies in the first place. He threw eight innings of three-hit, shutout ball in his only World Series start in 2006. The Cards beat the favored Detroit Tigers in five games.

Halladay, of course, threw a no-hitter in his first postseason start last year. But he also took the loss in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, outdueled by Giants ace Tim Lincecum.

"The biggest thing is just having a healthy perspective on the whole thing," Halladay said. "If you go in thinking about the consequences and what could happen, it's distracting. So I think that's the one thing I learned last year was to go out and look at it as the challenge that it is."

It will be the biggest start of Halladay's career. It will be another night in the spotlight for Howard.

Who will be The Man?

To be The Man in the playoffs, a player has to come through in the clutch on a regular basis. So far, Albert Pujols has been a bit more clutch for the Cardinals in this NL division series than Ryan Howard has for the Phillies. Even though Howard clubbed a three-run homer in Saturday's 11-6 victory and has six RBIs, he has struck out twice as often as Pujols and has left nine runners on base.

Here is how the two compare through four games:

Player AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BB SO SB E Avg.

 Pujols 17 2 7 3 0 0 1 1 3 1 0 .412

Howard   15 1 2 0 0 1 6 1 6 0 0 .133

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