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Ryan Howard: ST. LOUIS For as long as he has been in the middle of their lineup, and certainly for as long as he has been at the top of their payroll, Ryan Howard has endured as the Phillies’ most reliable measuring device.
When he’s hot, chances are they will be too. And when he wastes a two-game postseason road trip without providing a hit, chances are the Phillies will be drenched only in questions, not champagne.
So it was Wednesday as they retreated from Busch Stadium in hopes of salvaging a season Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Despite a career-long tendency to torment the Cardinals in his hometown, Howard was subdued in Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis, going 0-for-8 and striking out five times. And while the Phillies did manage a split here to rescue their home-field advantage, it will not likely matter if the Cardinals truly do have Howard figured out.
“It’s always going to be something similar with Ryan,” hitting coach Greg Gross was saying afterward, outside a quiet clubhouse that might otherwise have been a party scene. “When he gets in streaks where he is not as productive or the results aren’t there, it is usually because of the expanding of the strike zone. And the last two nights he is expanding the strike zone. So obviously he gets behind in the count and has a tendency to chase at times like that. But its nothing that hasn’t happened before. So he has to try to be more patient in the zone. That’s all.”
It has happened before, as Howard owns the world record for strikeouts in a World Series with 13, established in 2009. Yet success has happened, too. In Game 1, his three-run homer gave the Phillies a lead.
The problem for the Phillies is that they have been wrestled into a one-game season, thus eliminating any correction time.
If it matters, he does think he has the problem surrounded.
“I feel like I have been jumping out, trying to go get pitches instead of just letting them come to me,” Howard said. “For me, I think I just have to be a little bit more patient and sit back a little bit.
When he’s hot, chances are they will be too. And when he wastes a two-game postseason road trip without providing a hit, chances are the Phillies will be drenched only in questions, not champagne.
So it was Wednesday as they retreated from Busch Stadium in hopes of salvaging a season Friday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Despite a career-long tendency to torment the Cardinals in his hometown, Howard was subdued in Games 3 and 4 in St. Louis, going 0-for-8 and striking out five times. And while the Phillies did manage a split here to rescue their home-field advantage, it will not likely matter if the Cardinals truly do have Howard figured out.
“It’s always going to be something similar with Ryan,” hitting coach Greg Gross was saying afterward, outside a quiet clubhouse that might otherwise have been a party scene. “When he gets in streaks where he is not as productive or the results aren’t there, it is usually because of the expanding of the strike zone. And the last two nights he is expanding the strike zone. So obviously he gets behind in the count and has a tendency to chase at times like that. But its nothing that hasn’t happened before. So he has to try to be more patient in the zone. That’s all.”
It has happened before, as Howard owns the world record for strikeouts in a World Series with 13, established in 2009. Yet success has happened, too. In Game 1, his three-run homer gave the Phillies a lead.
The problem for the Phillies is that they have been wrestled into a one-game season, thus eliminating any correction time.
If it matters, he does think he has the problem surrounded.
“I feel like I have been jumping out, trying to go get pitches instead of just letting them come to me,” Howard said. “For me, I think I just have to be a little bit more patient and sit back a little bit.
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