D4 Phillies vs.Reds


GAME 1 Wednesday


Phillies 4 Halladay (W, 1-0)


Reds 0 Volquez (L, 0-1)


GAME 2 Friday


Phillies 7


Contreras (W, 1-0)


Reds 4 Chapman (L, 0-1)


GAME 3 Yesterday


Phillies 2 Hamels (W, 1-0)


Reds 0 Cueto (L, 0-1)


GAME 1 Thursday


Giants 1 Lincecum (W, 1-0)


Braves 0 Lowe (L, 0-1)


EZ SU


KLMNO BASEBALL


Giants vs.Braves


GAME 2 Friday


Braves 5 Farnsworth (W, 1-0)


Giants 4 (11) Ramirez (L, 0-1)


GAME 3 Yesterday


Giants 3 Romo (W, 1-0)


Brave 2 Kimbrel (L, 0-1)


GAME 4 Today, 8:30


Giants Pitcher TBA


at Braves Lowe (0-1)


GAME 5* Wed., 9:30


Braves Pitcher TBA


at Giants Pitcher TBA


MONDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2010


Giants turn pitching, poor Braves’ fielding into 3-2 win, 2-1 series lead


BY DAVE SHEININ


atlanta—It must have seemed like a good idea at the time, when the bouncing baby boy was born on Jan. 16, 1980, for the baseball- loving Conrads, Jerry and Gail, of Spring Valley, Calif., to name the boy “Brooks,” anhomage to one of the great defensive players in baseball history, the Hall of Fam- er Brooks Robinson. By shortly before 8 o’clock


Sunday evening, as Brooks Con- rad was wishing the ground near second base at Turner Field would open up and swallow him whole, his name seemed like the cruelest of ironies. Conrad is no Brooks Robinson, as anyone who witnessed the Atlanta Braves’ gruesome 3-2 loss to the San Francisco Giants in Game 3 of the National League Division Series will attest. Perhaps Buckner Conrad was


already taken. Conrad, the bench-player-


turned-starting-second-baseman on the Braves’ injury-depleted roster, made three ghastly, costly errors in the loss—none more so than the sharp grounder off the bat of Giants catcherBusterPosey that went through his legs, with two outs in the top of the ninth inning, allowing the winning run to score and ensuring Conrad a measure of baseball infamy. “I’m embarrassed,” said Con-


rad, pale and blank-faced in the Braves’ near-silent clubhouse. “I feel like I let those guys down. It’s tough.” It was the cruel turning point


to a soul-crushing loss for the Braves, who were one strike away from completing their own im- probable comeback. Instead, the loss put them in a two-games-to- one hole to the pitching-rich Gi- ants, with Game 4 on Monday night. The Braves will throw veteran


right-hander Derek Lowe on three days’ rest in Game 4, while the Giants — who were prepared to start ace Tim Lincecum on three days’ rest had they lost — will instead go with rookie left- handerMadison Bumgarner. Handcuffed for most of the


night by Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez, the Braves took a 2-1


PLAYOFFNOTEBOOK Atlanta deactivates closer Wagner


BY DAVE SHEININ AND ADAM KILGORE


The Atlanta Braves deactivat-


ed injured closer Billy Wagner before Sunday’s Game 3 of the Division Series, replacing him with reliever Takashi Saito — a move that deepened their bull- pen, but may have signaled the end ofWagner’s career. Wagner, who saved 37 games


for the Braves during an all-star season, strained his left oblique muscle making a throw to first base in Friday night’s Game 2. The decision to deactivate him was made Sunday afternoon, af- ter Wagner couldn’t finish a throwing session in an indoor batting cage. “It’s painful,” Wagner said.


“There are just certain move- ments you can’tmake.” The Braves were reluctant to


deactivateWagner because doing so, by rule, makes him ineligible


not only for the rest of the Divi- sion Series, but also for the Na- tional League Championship Se- ries, should the Braves advance. “It was so bad today,” Braves


Manager Bobby Cox said Sunday of the decision, “there’s noway he could possibly be ready for the next round — maybe [even] the World Series.” Wagner has said he intends to


retire following this season, which means he may have thrown his final pitch. “Everybody’s askedme all year


why am I retiring,” Wagner said. “Well, it didn’t have anything to dowithwhether I pitchedwell or didn’t pitch well. It was to go out and compete and have a chance towin a ring.Maybe it’s not going to happen the way I want it to, and that’s just life.” Saito, the Braves’ primary set-


up man for most of the season, has been hampered by a sore shoulder and has pitched only once in the past three weeks. . . .


The Giants jolted their lineup


Sunday by benching third base- man Pablo Sandoval and replac- ing him with Mike Fontenot, essentially acknowledging that Sandoval’s slumping bat andme- diocre defense were making him a liability. “I think it’s fair to say Pablo is


searching a little bit with his swing,” Giants Manager Bruce Bochy said.


Toomuch rest? The Philadelphia Phillies’


dominance in the Division Series may lead to an unusual-yet-wel- come obstacle. After themonoto- ny and routine of the regular season, their postseason is start- ing to feel like a lull interrupted by the occasional game. The Phillies completed a three-


game sweep of theReds, knowing that a victory Sunday would lead to a five-day layoff before Game 1 of the NLCS. In all, the Phillies will play only three games in the


12 days between the final day of the regular season and Oct. 16, the day the NLCS begins. “I don’t know what can be


done,” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said before Game 3. “If you advance to the next round, you do good, nobody says noth- ing. But if you don’t, people say the resthurt ’em. Idon’t know. It’s part of the game.” With the Phillies victory, ace


Roy Halladay gets nine days of rest between his no-hitter in Game 1 of the NLDS and his next start. But if you think the extra rest could slowdown the Phillies’ vaunted 1-2-3 of Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, their history puts that theory to rest. In the past five years,Halladay,


Oswalt and Hamels have started nine, 17 and 18 games on six or more days of rest. Their respec- tive ERAs in such games: 2.48, 2.74 and 4.46. sheinind@washpost.com, kilgorea@washpost.com


GIANTS 3 BRAVES 2


to a walk as he got halfway to the Braves’ dugout, descending the steps and going over to a solitary spot in the corner. Teammates came by to whisper encourage- ment, but Conrad could barely acknowledge them. “We’re behind him,” Braves


starter Tim Hudson said. “We love him.We love him more now than we ever have.” The Braves have other things


toworry about,namelyanoffense that—Hinske’s homer aside—is abysmal. They have managed to score just one earned run in 23 innings against Giants starters, and overall in the series they have drawnjust four walks while strik- ing out 37 times. “We’re not the best team in


baseball, okay?” Cox said defen- sively. “But we can compete against anybody.” Conrad had committed an


DAVE MARTIN/ASSOCIATED PRESS


Atlanta second baseman Brooks Conrad ponders his third error of the game in the ninth inning, which let in the go-ahead run.


lead in the bottom of the eighth— igniting a sell-out, tomahawk- chopping crowd of 53,284 — when Eric Hinske hooked a two- run, pinch-hit home run around the right field foul pole off Giants reliever Sergio Romo. Romo had been summoned by Giants Man- ager Bruce Bochy in relief of Sanchez after the Braves an- nounced Troy Glaus as a pinch hitter, and Braves Manager Bob- by Cox pulled Glaus back in favor ofHinske. But the Braves’ bullpen—and


Conrad’s leaky glove — handed the lead right back. Without vet- erancloser BillyWagner,whowas deactivated before the game be- cause of a strained muscle in his side, Cox mixed and matched in the ninth, using four relievers to try to piece together the three outs. And he still couldn’t do it. “We’re playing it by ear the


whole way,” Cox said of his ninth- inning options.


Pinch hitter Travis Ishikawa


drew a one-out walk off flame- throwing rookie Craig Kimbrel, and Freddy Sanchez lifted a soft single to center with two outs. Cox went to left-hander Mike Dunn to face Aubrey Huff, and Huff lined a single to right, bring- ing home the tying run. The air went out of the stadi-


um, but the Braves were still in a tie game. Up came Posey, who hit a scorching grounder at Conrad. But Conrad’s viewof the ball may have been blocked temporarily by the second base umpire, and when he went down to field it, he didn’t get down far enough and the ball shot through his legs into right-center field, as Sanchez came around and scored the go- ahead run. “I was trying to keep it front of


me,” said Conrad. “It just seemed to go right through me.” When the inning ended, Con- rad began jogging in, but slowed


error in each of the Braves’ last four regular season games, plus one in the series openerThursday night. By the second inning Sun- day, after he bobbled a potential double-play grounder in the first and dropped a pop-up in shallow right field in the second, he was up to three errors in the series, and seven in his last seven games. “You hurt for him,” outfielder


Matt Diaz said. For a while this summer,


Conrad was an inspiring story for the Braves — a career minor leaguer summoned to Atlanta amid all the injuries, and a versa- tile player with a knack for dra- matic hits, including a pair of pinch-hit grand slams. But now, facing elimination,


the Braves have to decide wheth- er they can afford to put Conrad back out there onMonday night. “I’ll have to sleep on it,” Cox


said. They say in baseball you can’t


hide anyone out there — the ball will always find them. But it doesn’t always find them in such a cold-hearted, evil manner. That awful fate, for whatever reason, was reserved solely for poor Brooks Conrad.


sheinind@washpost.com JONATHAN DANIEL/GETTY IMAGES


ColeHamels doesn’t quite throw a no-hitter as teammate Roy Halladay did in Game 1, but he blanks Cincinnati in Game 3.


Phillies eliminate Reds in 3 games


phillies from D1


final stomach punch on a day of perfect weather and rotten sports results. In the afternoon, sullen Bengals fans walked out of Paul Brown Stadium after a gut-wrenching loss to the Tam- pa Bay Buccaneers and either passed or joined Reds fansmak- ing theirway to Great American Ball Park. A stadium record 44,599 packed the place, re- charged and waving white tow- els. The fans went bonkers as Joe Morgan threw out the first pitch.


Once the game started, the


Phillies – primarily Hamels – squashed any reason for opti- mism. He struck out nine and threw 82 of his 119 pitches for strikes. He surrendered no walks and only four hits, three of which were singles. All of the singles were ground balls, and twohitaninfielder’s glove. Only two runners made it to second base, and none made it past. Through six innings, Hamels had used 61 pitches – the same number Halladay needed through six innings during his no-hitter. Hamels nailed the corners


with 96-mph fastballs and forced swings with a mid-80s change-up that made the lung- ing Reds look like novices in a Pilates class. His fastball and change-up were so effective, Hamels hardly needed his sweeping breaking ball. The Reds swung and missed 12 times at his change-up alone. The overwhelming perfor-


mancestood in stark contract to Hamels’s work a year ago. Last October, as he compiled a 7.58 ERA in four starts, Hamels openly yearned for the offsea- son to arrive, a statement that earned him a heavy dose of vitriol in Philadelphia. Back in April, which he finished with a 5.28 ERA, one Phillies staff memberwonderedwhyHamels could no longer throw his fast- balls in the mid-90s and if that velocity would ever come back. As the Phillies won fourth


straight division crown,Hamels turned from a worry to a cer- tainty. He 6-4 with a 2.18 ERA from July 6 on, the league bat- ting .221 against him. Intandem with Halladay and Roy Oswalt, his rejuvenated left arm on the staff hardly seems fair.


Late in the night, RedsMan-


ager Dusty Baker fired his final bullet and brought into the game Aroldis Chapman to pitch the ninth inning. Manuel al- lowed Hamels, sitting on 106 pitches, to bat against him. He flied to deep left-center on a 101-mph fastball. And then trot- ted back out to the mound for one more inning, the last in- ning. Brandon Phillips reached


withasingle,andupcamelikely most valuable player JoeyVotto. On the 115th pitch he threw, Hamels made Votto rollover on a change-up, his most devastat- ing pitch, and into a 4-6-3 dou- ble play. Four pitches later, Hamels blazed a 95-mph fast- ball past Scott Rolen. He ended his night with an emphatic fist pump, a final show of his team’s superiority. Early in the game, the Reds


did not help themselves. In the first inning, after PlacidoPolan- co singled and moved to third on Ryan Howard’s single, Jay- son Werth grounded to short- stop. Orlando Cabrera, who late in the afternoon talked his way into the lineup despite a strained left oblique muscle, made a soft, errant throw to first. Votto leapt off the bag, allowing Werth to reach and Polanco to score. The Phillies tacked on their


final run in the fifth, when Chase Utley flied a deep fly to center. He put his head down and jogged to first, as if he thought he hit a can of corn. But the ball cleared the fence, a solo home run. Center fielder Drew Stubbs pointed at the crowd, specifically at the be-gloved fan who reached up to catch the ball. Replays showed the ball quite clearly traveled a few feet beyond the fence. Baker re- quested the umpires at least look at those replays. When the umpires emerged 1


minute 13 seconds later, the Phillies officially had a 2-0 lead and Utley had a pair of mile- stones. He had entered the night with nine postseason homeruns, which tied him with Werth for the all-time Phillies record and with Jeff Kent for the all-time mark among sec- ond basemen. No. 10 sent him past both.


kilgorea@washpost.com


Rays vs.Rangers


GAME 1 Wednesday


Rangers 5 Lee (W, 1-0)


Rays 1 Price (L, 0-1)


(Game 5 on TBS)


GAME 2 Thursday


Rangers 6 Wilson (W, 1-0)


Rays 0 Shields (L, 0-1)


GAME 3 Saturday


Rays 6 Benoit (W, 1-0)


Rangers 3 Oliver (L, 0-1)


GAME 4 Yesterday


Rays 5 Davis (W, 1-0)


Rangers 2 Hunter (L, 0-1)


GAME 5 Tomorrow, 8:07


Rangers Lee (1-0)


at Rays Price (0-1)


GAME 1 Wednesday


Yankees 6 Sabathia (W, 1-0)


Twins 4 Crain (L, 0-1)


Twins vs.Yankees


GAME 2 Thursday


Yankees 5 Pettitte (W, 1-0)


Twins 2 Pavano (L, 0-1)


GAME 3 Saturday


Twins 1 Duensing (L, 0-1)


Yankees 6 Hughes (W, 1-0)


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