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08/12/2006 11:36 PM ET
Michalak saves the day for Cincinnati
Newcomer tosses 6 2/3 solid innings as Reds hang on
By Zachary Levine / MLB.com
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Called up earlier in the day, Chris Michalak earned his first victory since Sept. 2, 2001. (Tom Mihalek/AP)
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PHILADELPHIA -- When Chris Michalak woke up on Saturday, he was a 35-year-old Minor Leaguer in a hotel room in Charlotte, N.C. He'd bounced around 10 organizations and was without a whiff of the Majors in four years.
Saturday night at bedtime, Michalak was not only back in the Majors, but back in the win column for the first time since 2001, as the Reds beat the Phillies, 9-7, at Citizens Bank Park.
With the win, the Reds remained a half-game up in the National League Wild Card and moved to within 2 1/2 of the Cardinals in the NL Central.
Michalak, who left his Charlotte hotel room at 5:45 a.m. ET to fly to Philadelphia, came in on three days' rest and went 6 2/3 efficient innings, allowing one run on three hits to pick up his first victory since Sept. 2, 2001, when he was a member of the Rangers.
"It makes all the years, all the bus trips down in Triple-A, worthwhile to come here and help the team out during a pennant race," Michalak said. "That's what everyone plays for."
The 35-year-old left-hander retired the first 11 batters he faced after entering the game in relief of Elizardo Ramirez, who was pitching on the unconventional zero days' rest. Ramirez had thrown 15 pitches in relief during Friday's 14-inning affair and lasted just 38 on Saturday.
In 1 1/3 innings, Ramirez allowed a two-run homer to the Phillies' second batter, David Dellucci, and a three-run homer to Jimmy Rollins the next inning.
Manager Jerry Narron, who said he got a half-hour of sleep Friday night thinking about whether to start Michalak or Ramirez, said the decision worked out fine.
"A big part of it was, knowing what we had in the bullpen, I really felt better with Ramirez starting and being picked up by Michalak than the other way around," Narron said.
Given the state of the bullpen after Friday night, there was no help coming for the lefty if things didn't go well.
"Michalak would have been left out there to die if he didn't do the job that he did," Narron said.
Even after pitching a superb game, he was nearly denied the win by one swing of the bat.
Ryan Howard, the man who broke Michalak's string of 11 batters retired in a row, tied the ballgame at 6 with a towering home run off the facade of the second deck in right in the bottom of the eighth. It was Howard's league-leading 40th of the year.
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"It makes all the years, all the bus trips down in Triple-A, worthwhile to come here and help the team out during a pennant race. That's what everyone plays for."
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-- Chris Michalak
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But Michalak got three outs that inning, and the Reds responded in a big way in the ninth.
They got another shot at Phillies All-Star closer Tom Gordon after scoring two runs against him the night before. On Saturday, they did one better.
Ryan Freel led off with a four-pitch walk and stole second. Scott Hatteberg singled to move Freel to third and Edwin Encarnacion singled to left to drive in the go-ahead run. Javier Valentin followed an Adam Dunn popup with an RBI single to left that eventually became the game-winner.
"I loved the way we came out there in the ninth," Narron said. Encarnacion "is tremendous. [He] went down and got it for a base hit. It just shows you how far Eddie's come this year."
The Reds went on to score one more, but closer Eddie Guardado made Michalak sweat out the win a little longer. After two quick outs, Rollins hit his second home run of the game to close the gap to 9-7. Mike Lieberthal followed with a double, and Chase Utley was hit by a pitch. But Guardado struck out Howard with some high heat to end it.
Any discussion of intentionally walking the league's RBI leader like they did three times the night before?
"No sir," Narron said.
With that mighty swing from Howard and an emphatic fist pump from Valentin behind the plate, Michalak's first win in ages was sealed.
"He's real good," Valentin said of his new batterymate. "He changes speeds a lot."
"He kept everybody out of rhythm," Howard said. "When you get a guy who's throwing like that, who's not going to blow you away and throws kind of from the side, you see it so long, you just want to go out to hit it. You get overanxious or overaggressive."
Fitting for a guy who was twice called by his manager "a crafty left-hander."
Michalak is still convinced it's a euphemism for "can't throw hard," but after his zero-strikeout performance, he'll take it.
"Just to get back up here and get the opportunity to pitch," he said, "it makes all the hard work worth it."Zachary Levine is an associate reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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