Phils Gift-Wrap Game 2

The good news is that the Phillies beat themselves. If they can get out of their own way, they can and should win this series. The 1975-76 Reds are getting a lot of attention these days in conjunction with the defending champs. The Phillies are trying to become the 1st NL team since those Reds to win the World Series back-to-back.

For them to do it, they will need to beat the Dodgers 3 more times. They will have 3 chances in-a-row at the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park.

Did Utley cost the Phillies a Game 2 victory with his unprompted throwing error to give away the lead? Yes. Will he come back to make the Dodgers pay? You have to think, with every ounce of his amazing talent, that he will. Heroes make mistakes.

"Errors are part of the game,'' said Dodgers manager Joe Torre regarding Utley. "I mean, I'd certainly like to have his problems. He's pretty damned special."

Perhaps it was his own personal nightmare. Utley was born and raised in Southern California. He was born in Pasadena, attended high school in Long Beach, then was drafted by the Dodgers. Utley decided not to advance to the Major Leagues at that time. Instead, he attended UCLA college, staying close to home while honoring his father, a lawyer, in the family value of higher education.

Utley always had a sweet swing. Today, it is known as the textbook swing in all of baseball with perfect form and often superb execution. Utley is also a smart hitter and a perennial league leader in on-base-percentage, a key to successful batting.

There have been so many times he has won games for the Phils or bailed them out of a jam, both with his bat and his glove. Some of his most dynamic plays in the field came in last year's postseason. There's the now legendary fake to 1st and throw home for an out that helped seal the final Game of the 2008 World Series. Who can forget Utley's dive back to the bag to just beat Rafael Furcal for a force-out that completed an unassisted double play during the 2008 NLCS? Furcal, who made 3 errors in 1 inning in a game in that series became a goat in the Dodgers untimely playoff exit.

The early read on Utley was that he would never play in the major leagues, because he just didn't have the fielding to back up his golden swing. Teammates of Utley's at the college level remain shocked that he became the gold-glove caliber fielder that he did. He showed no signs of it, they claim. Hard work paid off dividends. Utley not only shed the skin of being a liability in the field, he has grown into a 1st-rate talent there. John Dewan has ranked Utley No. 1 among NL 2nd-basemen 3 years in-a-row in his definitive book, "The Fielding Bible: Volume 2." He lauds Utley for his anomalous range, which Dewan asserts has a huge impact on the number of baseruners and therefore runs his team allows each game. (Read Dewan's argument by clicking here.)

Utley has made his share of mistakes. On June 15th, 2008, there were 2 out in the 10th inning with the score tied at 6 in St. Louis when Rick Ankiel hit a routine ground ball to Chase Utley at 2nd Base. Utley scooped cleanly, but then made a throw wide of Ryan Howard at 1st, which cost the Phillies the game. There have been other costly errors, but none like the one he made Friday against the Dodgers, the error of his life.

Pedro Martinez's remarkable effort, recalling even his 3-time Cy Young best, was wasted as a result. Pedro reached into the past and pulled a gem out of his hat, his best game in years. In his 17 seasons as a pitcher, Martinez relied on his dazzling fastball. On Friday, he used his fastball, but relied more on superb location with a curveball and a changeup thrown with startling accuracy.

"Only an old goat like me can pull that trick," Martinez said. "And only Charlie [Manuel] would trust an old goat like me."

He allowed just 2 hits, no walks and no runs in 7 strong innings. Manuel pulled him, despite an extremely low pitch count and resounding dominance on the mound. That was a game-altering decision Manuel and Pedro will have all weekend to think about.

There was Madson walking a batter to load the bases and J.A. Happ, who had done that the night before, walking the very next batter to force in the game-winning run and cause the Dodgers to win, entirely as a result of Philly's miscues and bad decisions, 2-1.

There was the Phillies' offense, so overpowering 14 hours before, which managed only 4 hits, 2 of them by Ryan Howard. The offenses tendency to disappear has plagued the team all year. They are hot or cold, but seldom in between.

However, make no mistake, like the ball that hit Matt Holiday in the chest with 2 out in the 9th that allowed the Dodgers to come back and beat St. Louis, who would never win again this year, this loss belongs to Chase Utley. To his credit, he acknowledged it plainly:

“Pedro had given me a great feed and I made a bad throw. I thought Chan Ho did a good job of getting a ground ball there, and I just wasn’t able to turn it.”

Asked whether Belliard’s bearing down on him had an effect on his throw, Utley said, “None whatsoever. I had plenty of time to turn it, I just didn’t make a good throw. They capitalized on it. Now we’re going back to Philly, we’ll enjoy being off tomorrow and be back ready to go on Sunday,” Utley said.

It was the deciding game for the Dodgers. Had they gone on to lose, were it not for Utley's gift, Happ's free pass and Manuel's inexplicable decision to abruptly terminate Pedro's overwhelming dominance, the Dodgers would be down 0-2 and headed to Philly, where they'd be forced to win 2 of 3 just to stay alive. In short, the Phillies would own them and be headed to their 2nd-straight World Series. Instead? Clean slate, momentum shifts in L.A.'s favor, and the series is tied 1-game-apiece in the best-of-7. If the Dodgers can win 1 in Philly, they still have ample opportunity to take the series when it goes back to L.A. for Games 6 and 7.

However, this is the World Champions. They must hit better than they did today in the coming days. Utley will have plenty of chances at redemption, both in the field and at the plate. He must shake this, whatever it is. In Game 1, he made a costly error, throwing the ball away. However, it appeared to be caused by a bad feed from Rollins, who bobbled the ball before throwing to Utley. That was also how the post-game analysts read it across the journalistic world. This time, he was all alone. No take out slides, no bad feeds. It was only him.

"It surprised me, very much so," Utley's long-time double-play partner, Jimmy Rollins, said of Utley's errors on those double-play balls. "He's done it before. But he usually makes the correction right away. … One thing you know about Chase: He'll make sure to work on it till he fixes it."

Manager Charlie Manuel added: "If there's one guy in the world who will work on it and correct it, it's Chase Utley."

Utley is a hero. His teammates would do well to remind him that, to prevent a Furcal implosion of the mind. It's time to take a deep breath, to place that ring on your finger and take a look in the mirror. Then move on. Utley will do that. He, like the rest of this incarnation of Phillies, is a winner.

"He lost his grip on the ball," Howard said. "That's baseball. It's really simple. Real-ly sim-ple."

“We have a resilient ballclub, there’s a lot of heart on this team, so it’s not going to get us down,” Utley said.

"I like the way we're playing," Rollins said. "It's 1-1. We've been here before. In the grand scheme of things, we accomplished what we needed to, to make sure we got a split on the road."

Utley will likely make the Dodgers pay for his mistake when the teams resume play in Philadelphia on Sunday. Today, he knows how Matt Holiday feels. Hopefully, by the end of the series, that will all be water under the bridge as the Phillies head to their 2nd-straight World Series to defend their title.