Robinson Cano followed with a humpbacked line drive toward shortstop Jimmy Rollins. And that's where the play started to turn strange.

Instead of taking a step forward and catching the ball cleanly, Rollins hung back. With his glove on the ground he received the ball in a scooping motion, ran to tag second base then threw to first.

Second base umpire Brian Gorman jerked his thumb in the air, signaling an out, but it wasn't immediately clear whether he meant that Rollins had caught the ball in the air or that Matsui had been forced at second. First base umpire Jeff Nelson indicated that Rollins' throw had pulled first baseman Ryan Howard off the bag. Rollins ran toward Howard, yelling and gesturing that he should tag Matsui, who was wandering back in the direction of the dugout.

Confused? The umpires were. As they huddled, the television replay clearly showed that Cano's popup had been caught before hitting the ground. That meant he was out. And, since Howard had tagged Matsui, it should be a doubleplay. After a brief discussion, that's exactly what the umps decided.

"I was trying to let it hit the ground," Rollins said. "I looked up and I saw Robinson kind of halfway. Worst-case scenario is

I catch the ball and that's what happened. Gorman, from the time I caught the ball, started yelling, 'Catch! Catch!' And I was kind of disappointed. I was like, 'Nooooo.'

"So I went ahead and went through it anyway and Matsui was walking back with his head down. I was trying to yell at Ryan to make sure he tagged him. And he did. So I turned around to Gorman and said, 'That's two outs.' And he was like, 'Let's talk about it.' Once I caught it and we tagged him, it was kind of automatic. There was nothing to mess up there."

It may not have made a difference. But in what was still a 1-0 game at the time, it also just might have.

Ever since his proclamation before the 2007 season that the Phillies - not the Mets - were the team to beat in the National League East, Rollins has been a special target of New York fans.

And last night's 6-1 Phillies' win in Game 1 of the World Series was no exception.

"You know, fans do what they do," he said with a shrug. "I really enjoy when they get on us as a visiting team. They should. This is their field, their home field. So they have to make it as tough as they can for us. When the game starts, you really don't hear all that stuff anyway.

"It's not about me. Everyone in this clubhouse understands that it's a baseball game, not a talking battle."

Hero

 

Chase Utley had a terrific game, but pitching rules in the postseason. So the nod goes to lefthander Cliff Lee, the before-the-trading deadline acquisition who threw a blanket over the powerful Yankees lineup. You can't do much better than a complete game, six-hitter with 10 strikeouts and no walks. The only run he allowed was unearned.

Goat

 

Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez was batting .438 in the postseason. But in his first World Series game ever, A-Rod went 0-for-4 and struck out three times for just the third time this year and the first time since July 30.