Ryan Howard has torn Achilles' tendon, Phillies confirm

Ryan Howard has a torn Achilles' tendon and might not be back in time for spring training next year, the Philadelphia Phillies announced Saturday.

It was more bad news for the 102-win Phillies a day after they were eliminated from the postseason by the wild-card St. Louis Cardinals.

Howard was injured while making the final out of the season-ending loss in Game 5 of the National League division series Friday night, falling as he ran out of the batter's box on a ground ball. An MRI exam on Saturday showed a rupture of the left Achilles' tendon, which will require surgery once the swelling goes down.

Those types of injuries often require at least six months to recover, meaning Howard could start his five-year, $125-million contract extension on the disabled list.

It was the second year in a row Howard made the final out of the Phillies' season. A year ago, the first baseman struck out looking to end the deciding Game 6 of the NLCS against the San Francisco Giants.

“You don't want to be a part of that,” Howard said about making the final out of the season.

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In baseball, balls and strikes are still in the eye of the beholder

Milwaukee beats Arizona, 3-2, in Game 5 of their National League division series

-- Chuck Schilken

Photo: Ryan Howard reacts after falling down on his way to first base with an Achilles' tendon rupture while making the final out in Game 5 of the National League division series against the St. Louis Cardinals on Friday night. Credit: Alex Brandon / Associated Press

Phillies' Roy Halladay wins NL Cy Young award

Roy Halladay, who pitched a perfect game and a no-hitter in his first season in the National League, won the NL Cy Young Award on Tuesday.

Halladay won unanimously. He became the fifth pitcher to win a Cy Young Award in each league, joining Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Gaylord Perry.

Adam Wainwright of the St. Louis Cardinals finished second, followed in order by Ubaldo Jimenez of the Colorado Rockies, Tim Hudson of the Atlanta Braves and Josh Johnson of the Florida Marlins.

No Dodger was among the 13 pitchers to receive a vote. Each of the 32 voters -- two in each NL city -- ranked five pitchers on his ballot.

Halladay went 21-10 with a 2.44 earned-run average. He led the NL in victories, innings pitched, complete games and shutouts, ranking second in strikeouts and third in shutouts.

Halladay pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays from 1998 to 2009, winning the American League Cy Young award in 2003 and finishing in the top five in Cy Young voting in four other seasons. However, the Blue Jays never appeared in the playoffs during Halladay's tenure, so he let them know he would not sign another contract extension.

The Jays traded him to the Phillies last winter -- and, in the first postseason appearance of Halladay's career, he pitched a no-hitter against the Cincinnati Reds. The ballots for the Cy Young award are due at the end of the regular season, so the no-hitter did not figure in the voting. His perfect game did, thrown against the Florida Marlins on May 29.

-- Bill Shaikin

Photo: Roy Halladay. Credit: Matt Slocum / Associated Press

Posey, Uribe are a hit for Giants and TV ratings

A little drama is good for ratings.

After Buster Posey capped a four-hit night with a key single in the bottom of the ninth inning, Juan Uribe lofted the game-winning sacrifice fly that plated Aubrey Huff, giving San Francisco a 6-5 victory and a 3-games-to-1 NLCS lead over Philadelphia. That helped Fox gain a 6.6 overnight Nielsen television rating on Wednesday night.

That overall rating is nothing though compared to what it did in Philadelphia (29.8 rating) and in the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose market, where it earned a 23.3 rating. That's the highest Bay Area rating for a Major League Baseball game since the 2004 World Series.

Ratings are also up for both the National and American League championship series in total. Through Tuesday's game, the Giants and Phils and the Yankees and Texas Rangers have averaged 7.7 million viewers on Fox (the NL) and TBS (the AL). That's 12% better than last year.

-- Diane Pucin

 

 

NLCS Game 3: They still love Barry Bonds in San Francisco

Barry Bonds raised his hands high above his head. He took off his cap and blew kisses at the crowd. The fans chanted, "Bar-ry! Bar-ry!"

The San Francisco Giants brought Bonds back to AT&T Park on Tuesday, to throw out a ceremonial first pitch before Game 3 of the National League Championship series against the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Giants curiously forced Bonds to share the spotlight with three other members of the 2002 National League championship team, Shawon Dunston, Robb Nen and J.T. Snow. The four players each threw out a ceremonial first pitch, but Bonds got by far the loudest reaction from the crowd.

Bonds set the all-time home run record here three years ago, and the feat is commemorated on an outfield wall. However, the commemorative sign is dwarfed by ads for Bank of America and Comcast.

-- Bill Shaikin in San Francisco

John Smoltz blasts 'computer guy' pitch-count mentality

John Smoltz on Friday blasted what he called the "computer guy" mentality that he says has prompted teams to remove a pitcher too soon for the good of the pitcher or the team.

"There's no excuse to not be able to be in shape to throw 130, 140 pitches, but we've gotten into this mindset from some computer guy that thinks there's a way to save the investment of a pitcher. And it's backfiring, and it will backfire," Smoltz said during a Major League Baseball conference call.

Smoltz, a Cy Young Award winner and eight-time All-Star for the Atlanta Braves, spoke one day before Philadelphia Phillies ace Roy Halladay and San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum were scheduled to face each other in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series. In the first round of the playoffs, Halladay threw a no-hitter and made 104 pitches; Lincecum threw a two-hitter -- with 14 strikeouts -- and made 119 pitches.

"When a guy is dominating a game, it's a manager's job, and the hardest job is sometimes, even though you've got a great closer, that team had no chance against Lincecum. And sometimes when you bring in a change, you give the team the feeling like, 'Well, now we've got a chance,'" Smolz said.

Smoltz, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine formed the core of a rotation that made the Braves a perennial postseason entrant. But Smoltz said the Phillies' H2O trio -- Halladay, Cole Hamels and Roy Oswalt -- more than favorably compares to Atlanta's big three.

"They have much better stuff than we did, and that's stating the obvious," Smoltz said. "They have dominated games; we dominated games in a different way. The only thing I'll say is, if they can stick together, then they've got a chance to shatter a lot of pitching records."

-- Bill Shaikin

Orlando Cabrera back in the lineup for desperate Reds

Knowing that his Reds have no tomorrow if they lose today, Cincinnati Manager Dusty Baker pulled Paul Janish from his starting lineup and inserted the injured Orlando Cabrera in his place less than two hours before Sunday's third game of the National League Division Series.

The most experienced Red in terms of the playoff, having played in 34 postseason games for Boston, the Angels, the White Sox and Minnesota, Cabrera was pulled from Friday's Game 2 with soreness in his left ribcage. Cabrera missed 27 games in August and September with a muscle strain there.

But after Cabrera met with a team doctor, then took batting and infield practice, Baker was convinced the former Gold Glove shortstop was well enough to play. The Reds were so uncertain of Cabrera's status during Saturday's workout they summoned minor leaguer Chris Valaika from Arizona in case they had to replace Cabrera on their roster.

-- Kevin Baxter in Cincinnati

Bet you haven't seen this before

The National League division series between the Philladelphia Phillies and Cincinnati Reds isn't even two games old yet and it's already produced a number of rare moments.

In the opener there was Roy Halladay's no-hitter, just the second postseason no-hitter in history. But in Game 2, Cincinnati leadoff hitter Brandon Phillips nearly went that one better, hitting a home run, a single and a double in his first three at-bats. That left him a triple shy of the first postseason cycle when he came to bat in the seventh and popped out.

But wait, there's more.

The Reds committed a league-low 72 errors during the regular season but made two on consecutive two-out plays in the fifth inning Friday, leading to a pair of unearned runs for Philadelphia. Then they made two on the same play in the seventh, when Jay Bruce missed Jimmy Rollins' line drive to right and Phillips dropped the relay at second, allowing two unearned runs to score.

Three innings earlier the Reds got a free run of their own when Chase Utley committed two errors, sandwiched around a Roy Oswalt wild pitch.

But wait, there's even more.

In the sixth inning, Cincinnati relievers Arthur Rhodes and Logan Ondrusek hit consecutive batters to load the bases. An inning later flame-thrower Aroldis Chapman hit Utley on the hand with a 102-mph fastball. The Reds hit just 50 batters all season; only six L teams hit fewer. Yet on Friday they plunked three in the span of four lineup spots.

Chapman, by the way, threw 21 pitches in the seventh inning, reaching 100 mph or more on 10 of them and hitting 99 on six others. If the Phillies were intimidated they didn't show it, scoring three times off the Cuban defector to take their first lead of the night. 

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Philadelphia

Photo: Reds second baseman Brandon Phillips rounds the bases after hitting a home run against the Phillies on Friday night. Credit: Christopher Barth / EPA

Roy Halladay no-hitter could mean big bucks for MLB

First came the history ... followed shortly thereafter by the effort to cash in.

Less than 24 hours after the Phillies' Roy Halladay pitched the second no-hitter in Major League Baseball postseason history, MLB Properties and its licensees announced they have created "an assortment of special T-shirts and other items that will be available" before Friday's second National League Division Series game in Philadelphia.

Among those are "DOC-tober No-No" T-shirts, which play off Halladay's nickname, Doc, as well as pennants, towels, key chains and other items. Many of those items will be available at mlb.com.

Meanwhile, the jersey Halladay wore Wednesday is on its way to the Hall of Fame. And MLB authenticators marked several other items, certifying that they were used in the historic game against the Cincinnati Reds. Among the items authenticated were multiple game-used baseballs, home plate, the pitching rubber, the lineup card from the Phillies dugout, all three sets of bases used in the game, buckets of dirt removed from the mound and the uniform used by plate umpire John Hirshbeck.

And as cheesy as it sounds, MLB isn't the first organization to try to cash in on Halladay's brilliance this season. After the Phillies' right-hander pitched a perfect game in Miami in May, the Marlins sold unused tickets from that game as souvenirs. And the Marlins charged face value -- ranging from $12 to more than $300 -- for the tickets, which were for a game that HAD ALREADY BEEN PLAYED.

What's more, the Marlins said they will count all tickets sold for that game -- including ones purchased months later -- in the official attendance figure.

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Philadelphia

Beckham returns in time to see history

You're never supposed to leave a baseball game until both sides have at least one hit. Apparently no one told the Galaxy's David Beckhman that. Because after showing up early for Wednesday's  National League Division Series opener to meet some of the Phillies' players and coaches, Beckham left in the fifth inning with Philadelphia's Roy Halladay working on a no-hitter.

But he had a good reason: The Galaxy, who were in Philadelphia to play the expansion Union on Thursday night, had a mandatory team meal at their nearby hotel. And after eating, Beckham rushed back to the ballpark in time to catch the final out of Halladay's historic no-hitter.

He also got into the clubhouse afterward, where Phillies' first baseman Ryan Howard said he considered the Galaxy star to be the team's good-luck charm. Howard and his teammates will likely have to get along without Beckham in Game 2 of their series with the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, though, as the first-place Galaxy is scheduled to fly back to Southern California following Thursday's match.

-- Kevin Baxter, reporting from Philadelphia

Photo: Phillies first-baseman Ryan Howard, left, with Galaxy star David Beckham

Reds' Brandon Phillips now has a place in history

In the 20-plus hours since Brandon Phillips was thrown out at first to end Roy Halladay's no-hitter, that final out has been replayed on TV oh, probably a billion times.

And this is just the start, said Phillips' manager, Dusty Baker, who has experience in these matters. Baker was an outfielder with the Dodgers when he grounded to third to end Nolan Ryan's last National League no-hitter.  That was 29 seasons ago, but Baker said he stills sees replays of that at-bat.

"That's a bad feeling when you're about to touch first base and see the first baseman reaching for the ball and you're facing the reality that you're out," said Baker, whose Cincinnati Reds need a win over the Phillies on Friday in Philadelphia to even their National League Division Series. "I just told Brandon, just like me, I've seen that Nolan Ryan no-hitter about 72 times. And Brandon's going  to see that [Halladay at-bat] probably the rest of his life."

-- Kevin Baxter in Philadelphia