The Rotation

by Jim Salisbury

  Kerrigan generally called the game from the dugout with the catcher getting the sign from him before every pitch. Worrell had enough of that. He told catcher Mike Lieberthal not to look into the dugout for Kerrigan’s signs under any circumstances. So Lieberthal didn’t, and Worrell blew a save in an 8-7 loss in 12 innings to the Marlins on April 21. The next day Bowa and Kerrigan called Worrell and Lieberthal into Bowa’s office. The players were sitting as Kerrigan stood over them, berating them, telling them how to do their jobs, telling them he knew best.

  Worrell got tired of what he heard, stood up, and did what most pitchers in the clubhouse had wanted to do: he popped Kerrigan.The blow hit Kerrigan’s glasses, cutting him. Phillies coaches Gary Varsho and Mick Billmeyer sprinted into the office to help break up the one-sided fight. Kerrigan and Worrell left Bowa’s office through a rear exit, so they wouldn’t be detected by reporters.

  The Phillies enjoyed their fight against the Giants as much as Worrell enjoyed his against Kerrigan. While the Giants barely said a word about the brawl in their clubhouse—other than suggesting that Jimmy Rollins’ stolen base in the top of the sixth inning with a six-run lead could have prompted Ramirez to throw at Victorino—the Phillies happily recalled the action, often laughing and joking about it.

  “Vic almost has to go, unless he wants his teammates to call him chicken,” Charlie Manuel said.

  “I had no intentions of charging the mound and escalating the fight for no reason,” Victorino said. “It was the heat of the moment, and I just wanted to step forward and be like, ‘What was the purpose? Obviously, Eli, I guess from looking at his reaction, thought I was going to and he started jumping around. Obviously, Polanco came in and he tackled Polanco.”

  Polanco heard Victorino’s words behind a circle of reporters.

  THE PRYIN’ HAWAIIAN

  Shane Victorino found himself with nothing to do at Citizens Bank Park on August 18 when he served the first game of his two-game suspension for his role in the brawl in San Francisco. The frenetic Victorino and oodles of free time? That could be trouble.

  Before the game, pop singer Ke$ha visited the clubhouse, and Victorino made sure she was aware of his presence.

  “Tik, tok, tik, tok, tik, tok!” Victorino screamed in her direction, referring to her hit song, “Tik Tok.”

  She looked down the corridor to see who was yelling at her.

  “My name is Ryan Madson!” he said laughing.

  “No, it isn’t,” Madson said. “That was Shane Victorino making all those noises.”

  Suspended players cannot watch the game from the dugout, so Victorino watched the Phillies’ 4-1 victory over Arizona from a suite. But he got bored during a two-hour, 17-minute rain delay and made his way into the radio broadcast booth, where he hopped on the air with Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen. After getting bored of being on the air, he made his way into the press club, where he sat in the dining room and chatted for awhile. Then he made his way into the press box to slum it with reporters. He started to ask about the official scorer, who on this night was Jay Dunn.

  “Are you the official scorer?” he said.

  Dunn looked startled. Why in the hell was Victorino standing behind him?

  “I’ve got to be extra nice to you, so you can turn some of those errors into hits when I’m batting,” Victorino said cackling.

  He turned around, noticed broadcaster Gary Matthews, and started giving him a hard time.

  “The game looks real easy from up here, huh?” he said. “You forget what it’s like to strike out.”

  The press box windows were closed because of the rain, but Victorino noticed fans walking in front. So like an orangutan at the zoo, Victorino started pounding on the glass to get their attention. He started to wave and fans started to realize the Flyin’ Hawaiian was in the press box, in street clothes, waving at them.

  A crowd started to gather.

  “OK, let’s get him out of there,” said Anthony Morrison, a ballpark operations employee.

  Whoosh, he was off.

  “He didn’t tackle me!” Polanco said loud enough to draw a smile from Victorino.

  Ryan Howard, who sprinted onto the field from the batting cage only after he heard the roar of the crowd, asked if the Phillies beat writers had started fighting the Giants beat writers in the press box. Vance Worley laughed at how he got startled once he realized how big some Giants players were compared to him. Cliff Lee joked that instead of taking a couple shots at some of the Giants pitchers he decided to take a couple shots at Kyle Kendrick, everybody’s little brother on the club.

  “Nah, I hit him in the face,” Kendrick countered.

  The next day, Cole Hamels threw a complete game against the Giants in a 2-1 victory to give the Phillies a shot at a four-game sweep. Hunter Pence, who joined the team on July 30, going from last place to first place in the process, couldn’t have been happier. The Phillies were 8-0 since he arrived and eating everything in sight.

  “This is awesome,” he said. “This is baseball. I don’t know how much of a difference I’ve made, but I love it.”

  “Don’t kid yourself,” Victorino said. “You’re a big piece. You’ve made yourself better.You’ve made everybody around here better.”

  The Phillies lost the series finale against the Giants, and then headed down the coast to Los Angeles for a series at Dodger Stadium. SoCal guy Mike Lieberthal stopped by batting practice to visit with his former teammates before the first game. “Hey, bud,” said Charlie Manuel, greeting Lieberthal the way the former Phillies catcher greets everyone. Holding his young son in his arms, Lieberthal was all smiles. And, of course, he broke up a few people telling the old story about the Worrell-Kerrigan dustup years earlier.

  Roy Halladay and Lee beat the Dodgers in the first two games, with Kendrick getting the win in a wild series finale. The Phillies overcame a 6-0 deficit in the third inning and won, 9-8.They headed to LAX with a 9-1 road-trip record under the arm, completing their best 10-game trip in franchise history to maintain an 8½-game lead over the Atlanta Braves in the National League East.

  If 1967 was the Summer of Love in California, then August 2011 was the month of fun for the Phillies in California.

  “The Phillies are as good as any team I’ve seen,” said Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, who was following the Phillies’ run from the East Coast. “I’d put them up against any of those Yankees clubs of the late 1990s and early 2000s. That club has got it going on and they are flat out playing like it, day in and day out.”

  The Phillies were having a blast, finding different ways to entertain themselves along the way. Victorino worked a walk in the series opener in San Francisco, but instead of dropping his bat at home plate or flipping it toward the on-deck circle, carried it down the first-base line to have the batboy take it from him. The batboy, a Bay Area kid named Cameron Hansen, jogged out to meet Victorino, but slipped on the field and fell as he reached him, drawing laughter from the dugout and crowd. The next afternoon, there was a poster-size picture of Hansen’s gaffe, captured from TV, taped to a wall in the visitors’ clubhouse.

  Victorino signed it: To Cameron: Slow down . . . wet grass! Shane Victorino 8.

  Before games in San Francisco and Los Angeles, the players shelved Kanye West and Kings of Leon for “Do De Rubber Duck,” a reggae song by Ernie from Sesame Street. A couple players had stumbled across the song on Strength and Conditioning Coordinator Dong Lien’s iPod. Hip-hop or rock blaring over the clubhouse sound system made way when Roy Oswalt, wearing a mischievous smile, would scroll through the iPod and press play.

  The night Cliff Lee beat the Dodgers in Los Angeles he not only threw eight scoreless innings to give him 17 scoreless in August, he hit a solo home run in the seventh inning to give the Phillies a 2-0 lead. The homer proved to be the game winner. But Lee had other things on his mind as he crossed home plate with a huge, giddy smile on his face. As he trotted to the dugout, he looked toward the visitors’ bullpen in right field
and brushed his right hand with his left hand like he was doling out imaginary hundred dollar bills. He was letting Kendrick know he owed him money.

  Lee and Kendrick had made a wager on their offensive performance, and Lee had just scored big with that home run.

  Oswalt made sure Kendrick got the message. Shortly after Phillies Pitching Coach Rich Dubee called the bullpen to tell Bullpen Coach Mick Billmeyer to warm up Ryan Madson, Oswalt called down to the pen. Billmeyer assumed it was Dubee telling him to have Madson take a seat, but when he picked up the phone he heard Oswalt’s thick Mississippi drawl on the other end.

  “Tell Ken’rick that Cliff wants his money in hundreds.”

  Lee and Kendrick enjoy competing with one another. Inside the tiny visitors’ clubhouse at Wrigley Field in July, they had a contest a couple kids might have during a lazy summer afternoon. They took one of their red belts and bet who could hit the other the hardest. Kendrick went first. He smiled nervously as Lee stuck out his right forearm.

  Slap.

  The hit didn’t leave a mark.

  “That’s dumb,” Lee said with a tinge of disgust in his voice. “Why wouldn’t you hit me harder than that?”

  Kendrick knew he was screwed right then and there because Lee played to win and if he had a chance to win a belt-hitting contest, he sure as hell was going to win a belt-hitting contest. Kendrick stuck out his left forearm and Lee unleashed a vicious slap.

  THA-WHACK!

  Lee won.The prize went to the loser: a large red welt on Kendrick’s arm.

  Rookie reliever Mike Stutes had started carrying a pink Hello Kitty backpack and a long pink feather boa to the bullpen in Los Angeles. It is tradition for rookie relievers to wear an emasculating backpack, which is loaded with snacks and drinks for the game, and Brad Lidge has been the keeper of that tradition for the Phillies since he joined the team in 2008. He picked up the backpack and complimentary boa—you’ve got to accessorize—before the end of the Giants series.

  “That’s pretty readily available in San Francisco,” he joked.

  When Lee dozed on a couch in the visitors’ clubhouse during the series finale in Los Angeles, teammates used white athletic tape and made an outline of the pitcher’s supine body with the No. 33 in the center. It looked like a crime scene.

  The Phillies were 77-40 as they flew back to Philadelphia, the first time they had been 37 games over .500 since they finished 101-61 in 1977. The rotation was doing its job, and now the offense was coming around. The Phillies were averaging 5.31 runs per game since the end of June, which was the best mark in the National League in that stretch.

  They were winning and they were having a blast.

  So, naturally, everybody got a scare shortly after they got home. Cole Hamels pitched only five innings on August 12 in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Nationals at Citizens Bank Park. His fastball averaged just 88.6 mph after averaging 91.4 mph for the season. It was 91.4 mph on July 22 against San Diego, 91.2 mph on July 27 against San Francisco, 90.7 mph on August 1 at Colorado, and 90.2 mph on August 6 at San Francisco. It had been dropping for weeks, but this was significant. Something was wrong.

  Hamels revealed after the game he felt stiffness in his left shoulder.

  Shoulder problems? Oh, boy.

  A blown ligament in a pitcher’s elbow can be replaced, but shoulders are much trickier. A torn rotator cuff can end a pitcher’s career, even after surgery. Hamels, however, didn’t seem concerned as he spoke about it, which everybody inside the organization took as a good sign. Hamels suffered so many injuries early in his career, he is extra cautious whenever he feels a twinge or some sort of discomfort. He said that night he felt no pain in his shoulder.

  No pain. That was important.

  “It’s one of those times of the year,” he said nonchalantly. “Travelling, pitching a lot of innings—things kind of mount and you just have to battle through it. It just kind of comes up. You don’t ever know and you just try to do everything you can to get your body back . . . and I haven’t felt that yet. Once I start getting that jump, I think everything will smooth out.”

  But until Hamels had an MRI, nobody could be certain. There could be a tear in there. Teams announce injuries as stiffness or soreness and often they turn into something much worse. Chase Utley had “general soreness” in spring training only for everybody to learn a few days later he had major knee problems that could cost him his season and possibly his career. But good news for Hamels came following an MRI exam on August 15. He had no structural damage in the shoulder, and while the Phillies placed him on the disabled list to rest, he would return to the mound before the end of the month.

  The Phillies would be fine without him. They still had Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee pitching at full strength. Vance Worley was 6-0 with a 2.52 ERA in 10 starts since rejoining the rotation in June, and Roy Oswalt was back.

  The Phillies took two of three from the surging Arizona Diamondbacks the next week in Philly with their only loss coming in the series opener on August 16, when Halladay blew the first ninth-inning lead of his career in a 3-2 loss.

  It was Halladay’s 65th career complete game and just the 15th he had lost, but none had happened like this. He had a 2-1 lead entering the top of the ninth. He thought he had struck out Justin Upton on an 0-2 pitch, but home plate umpire Vic Carapazza called the changeup a ball. Upton singled on the next pitch and Miguel Montero followed with a single to left field to put runners on first and second with nobody out.

  IT’S DOC’S GAME

  Jimmy Rollins had a big smile on his face when he found Roy Halladay at Citizens Bank Park on August 18.

  “You made it, dog,” Rollins said.

  Huh?

  Rollins had been searching for new music for the Phillies clubhouse playlist when he checked out Game’s new CD, The R.E.D. Album. Rollins was clicking through the songs on iTunes when he started track 17—“All I Know”—which took full artistic license in connecting Halladay’s ability to throw a “K” with two of history’s biggest villains.

  The song is hardly PG material—it’s more like NC-17—but Halladay had made his way into a rap song by a famous rapper. Yahoo! Sports’ David Brown described the lyrics best:

  “Hey, wait a second. Associating the Good Doctor with an alleged financial criminal such as Bernie Madoff—that ain’t cool. And how can this be a Phillies song and a Mets song? However, comparing Halladay ripping off a knuckle-curve or a cutter to firing a ‘K’—an AK-47 (Evan Longoria’s former gun of choice)—that seems like a reasonable metaphor. And the Hitler thing . . . whatever.”

  Following batting practice before that night’s game against the Arizona Diamondbacks, Rollins played the song through the clubhouse speakers. As the bass thumped and Game rapped, Halladay blushed.

  “He turned so red,” Rollins said.

  Rollins announced his discovery later that night on Twitter, eventually striking up a brief conversation with Game.

  Game: dat boy cold JR

  Rollins: straight up beast

  Halladay previously had made his way into a country Christmas song: “Baseball Glove” by Gord Bamford. That was family friendly, although Halladay isn’t the type of guy to be listening to a Christmas song about himself while his children open their Christmas presents.

  “I’m not sure what to think about it,” Halladay said about “All I Know.” “Unfortunately, I can’t let my kids listen to it. Yeah, it’s cool, I guess. It’s definitely interesting, you know?”

  Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel had Ryan Madson and Antonio Bastardo warming up in the bullpen, but they remained there. This was Doc’s game to finish.

  “That’s my ace,” Manuel said.

  Halladay rewarded Manuel for his faith under similar circumstances in Washington on April 13, when he carried a 3-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth at Nationals Park. He had allowed two runs to score and had runners on second and third with one out, but struck out the final two batters he faced to win the game. Manuel expecte
d more of the same from Halladay against the Diamondbacks. He struck out Chris Young for the first out, but Lyle Overbay ripped a double off the right-field wall to clear the bases to give Arizona the lead.

  “It can be a little tougher to swallow sometimes in the ninth,” Halladay said.

  Halladay blew a 3-2 lead in the eighth inning in Cincinnati on June 30, 2010. He allowed a run in the ninth in a 1-0 loss in Boston on April 29, 2008. They were the only other times he suffered a similar fate. Fans criticized Manuel for leaving Halladay in the game, which was ridiculous. Had Manuel pulled Halladay for Madson or Bastardo and they had lost the lead, the same fans would have angrily questioned Manuel for pulling his ace. Manuel stuck with his horse. He would do it again if he had the chance.

  “There’s never been the perfect pitcher or the perfect player,” he said.

  Cliff Lee kept trying to prove Manuel’s theory wrong. He came close in June and he was trying to replicate his success in August. He allowed two runs in seven innings in a 9-2 victory over the Diamondbacks on August 17. At the time, no one thought much about Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt’s two-run homer in that game, but it was significant. Those turned out to be the only runs Lee would allow in five starts and 39⅔ innings in the month of August.

  Roy Oswalt spent July recovering from the pain in his lower back, but a second cortisone injection had him feeling like himself again. He rejoined the rotation on August 7, allowing 12 hits and three runs in six innings in San Francisco. He looked better on August 13 against Washington, allowing six hits and three runs while striking out five in seven innings.