Waiting for Howard
to strike fear, not strike out

In the Batter’s Box
By Matt Godfrey

Residents of the San Francisco Bay Area had to have felt something out of the ordinary on Sunday.
The bay area, which is no stranger to the occasional earthquake, experienced what must have felt at least like a minor quake.
For about 30 seconds, they surely felt some tremors.
The cause?
Ryan Howard hit a triple.
The Phillies’ 6-foot-4, 255-pound first baseman roped a ball off the centerfield wall and rumbled all 270 feet around the infield to third base.
That’s something he hasn’t done in some time — almost two years, to be exact — and something he has done only four times in his career.
Whenever Howard has to run past second base, it’s typically done at a more leisurely pace after knocking the ball out of the park.
A more fleet-footed individual — Jimmy Rollins or Shane Victorino, for example — may have been able to stretch it into an inside-the-park home run. But seeing Howard’s determination on that play was refreshing for a former Silver Slugger who is hitting well below .200 on the season.
What may have been the most promising aspect of that triple was the swing Howard put on the ball before chugging around the bases.
Before his recent benching for a couple games, a move designed to give him refuge from a worsening slump at the plate, Howard looked like a guy who’d forgotten all the techniques that made him a hitting machine. He wasn’t watching the ball to the plate. He was rushing things, flailing away at junk pitches he didn’t have a prayer of hitting, and leaving runners on base. He looked uncomfortable.
On Sunday — on that big swing, at least — Howard’s eyes were focused on the ball, his hands were back, and he plowed right through the ball.
And no defensive shift was going to catch it.
The result was an RBI to tie the game at two, and then Howard was in position to score the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly by Pat Burrell.
Howard’s slow starts at the plate have been well-documented over his short career. This one is real slow, especially since he’s on a pace to break a season strikeout record — the record that he established last year.
It’d be nice if the beauty of that triple — Howard’s concentration, his timing, his swing — is a sign of more potent days ahead. The opposite-field homer he slugged the day before, on Saturday, certainly helps reinforce the possibility that the real Howard will soon be with us.
The past week also saw the return of Rollins to the starting lineup in a big way. If you’ve been preoccupied with checking your mailbox for that stimulus check, Rollins was out for 28 games while nursing a sprained ankle.
He returned to the starting lineup on Friday and fell one hit shy of the cycle — oddly enough, he needed a triple.
With Victorino also back from an injury, the lineup pretty much has been restored to how it was envisioned in the pre-season. But the absence of Rollins and Victorino did give Charlie Manuel a dilemma worth smiling about.
The Phils manager now has outfielder Jayson Werth, who took over during Victorino’s absence, making a strong case for a daily assignment.
Werth has been known for his athletic ability in the outfield. However, during Victorino’s time on the disabled list, Werth regularly strolled to the plate and asserted himself as one of the team’s more consistent hitters. In fact, he leads the team in stolen bases.
Victorino probably hasn’t lost his starting job in centerfield. But Werth likely is becoming the main man in the rightfield platoon that was pegged to feature him and Geoff Jenkins as the season got underway.
Manuel also has to be pleased with utility infielder Eric Bruntlett, who filled in capably for Rollins while the Phils star coped with his ankle sprain.
While Bruntlett’s obviously not going to boot the reigning National League MVP from his deserved spot at shortstop, he has shown the fans and his manager that he’s a very capable defensive and offensive player.
The Werth and Bruntlett situations can only be good issues for Manuel. And if Howard is awakening from his lumber slumber at the plate, things can only get better for a Phillies team that is off to its most respectable start in recent years. ••