After long look at Rivera, Phillies optimistic they'll solve him

NEW YORK -- The Phillies scorched Colorado closer Huston Street in the Division Series and broke Dodgers closer Jonathan Broxton in the NL Championship Series, and now they're coming after the one, the only, the legendary Mariano Rivera.

"We can hit Rivera," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel promised not long after the Yankees laid a 3-1 bruise on his team to even this World Series at one game apiece Thursday night in Yankee Stadium. "We've proved that. He's good. He's one of the best closers in baseball, if not the best. He's very good.

"But I've seen our team handle good pitching, and we're definitely capable of scoring runs late in the game."

When is a loss a win?

Well, technically, it never is.

But rarely has a team taken more confidence away from a World Series loss than the Phillies did as they headed toward their chartered Amtrak train for the ride back home just after midnight Thursday.

The history books will record this as another historic Rivera save, his 10th World Series and 38th postseason save, each a record.

The Phillies simply figure it will be their history book, and Rivera will be a footnote.

Called upon to get the final six outs of a game the Yankees badly needed by manager Joe Girardi, the Phillies squeezed 39 pitches out of Rivera before succumbing.

It is the most he has ever thrown in any of his 21 career World Series games.

It is the most he has thrown in a game this year, surpassing the 34 he fired against the Los Angeles Angels in the clinching game of the ALCS.

"Getting to see him that much gives you the opportunity to form a game plan against him," said Phillies slugger Ryan Howard, who fanned four times in Game 2, including taking a called third strike from Rivera to start the ninth. "Obviously, the more you see a guy, the more you get used to him.

"That's a guy you don't want to see a lot of. You want to keep him in the bullpen as much as possible."

But the Phillies know the road to beating the Yankees eventually goes through Rivera, and probably will a few more times before these two clubs are finished with each other.

In fact, they were pretty sure they were on that road toward beating him in the eighth inning when, trailing 3-1, they put runners on first and second with one out. Then Chase Utley bounced into a 4-6-3 double play ... according to the umpires.

"I'll tell you something else," said Manuel, detouring away from a Pedro Martinez discussion afterward, "Utley was safe [at first]. Go look [at the replay].

"Yeah, he was safe."

Utley said he hadn't seen the replay yet and couldn't really hear when the relay throw thudded into Mark Teixeira's glove as he crossed first base.

"You can't really hear out there," Utley said. "It's loud."

How big a difference in this game could it have made it Utley had been called safe, leaving runners at the corners with two outs?

"It would have prolonged the inning," he said.

Which surely would have pushed Rivera's pitch total to more than 40.

As it is, the Phillies figure there were clues to decoding Rivera in each of those 39 pitches he did throw. And being that eight Phillies faced Rivera, they figure they now have a pretty good frame of reference.

"Now you have a game plan," Phils shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "We didn't really see Mariano this season during our time here [Rivera did throw one inning in a 4-3, 11-inning Phillies victory May 24 at Yankee Stadium].

"In spring training when he comes in, I'm out of the game. So he's a mystery. But when he comes in, it's no surprise."

Ryan Howard and Charlie Manuel come up short, but see enough of Mariano Rivera to think they'll eventually get to him. (Getty Images)

No. Rivera throws one pitch, a cut fastball, which, when thrown by him, remains one of the most feared weapons of any individual in baseball history.

As Rollins described the game-within-the-game battle with Rivera, from the shortstop's perspective:

"Cutter."

"All right."

"You're getting another cutter."

"OK."

"You're getting another cutter."

Few hitters can do much with it.

"You have to take one side of the plate, in or out, and hope he makes a mistake," said Phillies designated hitter Matt Stairs, a career .143 hitter (2 for 14) against Rivera, who struck out against the closer for the final out.

Which approach did Stairs take?

"I took in," he said. "I took in, and I missed the cutter."

So there you go. Stairs is far from the first, and he will not be the last, to hone in on a particular zone against Rivera and still be badly overmatched.

Yet the Phillies remain certain of two things: That making him work so hard and throw so many pitches eventually will play to their advantage, and that they will get him in the end.

"It was good," right fielder Jayson Werth said. "We made him work, and we had some opportunities.

"You see a guy like that and you make him throw 40 pitches, or thereabouts, I think that's a good thing."

Short term, the question will be what kind of an effect will that workload have on the 39-year-old Rivera. No question, the day off Friday figured into Girardi's thinking, knowing that the closer will have a full day of rest before the Yankees need him again.

"I would think so," Girardi said when asked whether Rivera will be recovered enough to be available on Saturday in Game 3 in Philadelphia. "I won't know that until Saturday. I'll check with him on Saturday.

"But I think he threw 34 pitches against the Angels, and he would have been available with a day off if we had to play again, or he probably would have been available the next day."

With two scoreless innings in Game 2, Rivera lowered his career World Series ERA to 1.09. In doing so, he also moved to second on the all-time list of World Series appearances at 21, one behind Whitey Ford.

Stairs was among those Phillies who think seeing so many pitches Thursday would help them. As he noted, Rivera surely will study more film of the Philadelphia hitters between now and his next appearance, as they will of him.

"He's a great closer in the game, the best," Stairs said. "But we have confidence in the late innings."

And as that Amtrak rolled toward Pennsylvania carrying a Phillies team more determined than ever, the wheels on the train weren't the only wheels turning.