Myers cites minor league coach Nichols in turnaround

IT HAPPENED at Class A Piedmont in 2000. Righthander Brett Myers, then a 19-year-old prospect, found himself in a jam. Bases loaded. One out. Pitching coach Rod Nichols trotted to the mound. And here's how Myers recalled their conversation.

Nichols: "Check out that hot-looking girl over the dugout."

Myers: "Where?"

Nichols: "Right over my right shoulder."

Myers: "Oh, I see her."

Nichols, before patting the pitcher on the shoulder and returning to the dugout: "Go get 'em."

Myers smiled at the recollection before the Phillies worked out yesterday at Citizens Bank Park in preparation for this afternoon's National League Division Series opener against the Brewers. He's scheduled to be the Game 2 starter tomorrow night against Milwaukee's lights-out lefthander, CC Sabathia.

"I was like, 'What?' I looked at the catcher and he just shrugged and ran back to home plate," Myers remembered. "And I got out of the inning and I was like, 'I don't know what you told me out there, but I didn't worry about the bases being loaded anymore.' He just made the game fun and kind of relaxing a little bit.

"I thought that I'm not really supposed to be thinking about that crap. I'm supposed to be thinking about getting people out, you know? I guess it was just to relax me. Maybe he picked that up in my personality."

Maybe it wasn't surprising, then, that when the Opening Day starter found himself desperately in need of an extreme pitching makeover - 3-9 with a 5.84 earned run average through the end of June - that he accepted an optional assignment to the minor leagues. The first stop: Triple A Lehigh Valley, where Nichols is now the pitching coach.

When he came back, he was one of the best pitchers in the National League, going 7-2, 1.80 in an 11-game stretch.

"Rod helped me a lot. That's really who I went down to work with," Myers said. "Him and [Phillies pitching coach Rich] Dubee talked about what we were working on. That way everybody would be on the same page and it ended up working out.

"He just has a different way of teaching it to me that I might understand a little better than most people. It has nothing to do with the way Dubee teaches it. [Nichols] does it in a more, like, 'What the hell did he just say?' way. Then all of a sudden you do it and you feel it and you go, 'That's what he meant.' It kind of took your mind off being so frustrated and not being able to do what you want. Then you can carry that on."

His success after returning solidified the rotation and is a big reason the Phillies made the playoffs.

His last two starts caused a renewed concern, however, when he was again boxed around. In those games he pitched a total of just 8 1/3 innings, allowing 19 hits and posting a 15.12 ERA.

He insists that, this time, the explanation was nothing more complicated than having a tired arm.

"I think I just got a little tired at the end and the ball was up and flat. I threw something like 90 innings in 12 starts since I've been back. That's a lot," he said. "Plus, down in the minors I threw 27 innings and I was throwing 120 pitches. So it's not like I was taking a break. I think I ended up the year with 216 innings or something like that, which is the most I've ever thrown."

When he takes the mound tomorrow, though, he will have had 7 days between starts.

"I even took some days off from throwing," he said. "[Monday] I threw in the bullpen and everything felt like it's back to normal. I think it's just one of those things you go through."

Dubee agreed. "I think he got a little fatigued there, maybe coming off the complete game [on short rest] he had against the Brewers," he said. "And he kind of lost his [arm] angle and got flat again.

"Why do we think he can bounce back? Because he's been doing a pretty good job the second half of the season and we have a lot of faith in him."

Despite his late troubles, Charlie Manuel said, there was never any consideration given to not using Myers in the postseason.

"He pretty much has to [pitch], the manager said. "Sometimes you have to remember, too, when you get there who the people were who got you there. It's good when you show confidence in people."

Being tired can also help a pitcher slip into bad mechanical habits. Which might be why Myers appeared to be pulling his head to the side and let his shoulder open up too quickly, a problem he was having earlier in the season but seemed to correct during his minor league tutorial.

"That definitely can happen. It happens a lot," Manuel said. "You've got to remember, he's pitched a lot. He went down to the minor leagues and he pitched a lot. And he's thrown a lot on the side.

"He's definitely different as far as his thinking and makeup. He's more in control of himself. The last couple of starts, his command and his fastball haven't been there."

When Myers has been good this year, he's been really good. When he's been bad, he's usually been awful. This October, the Phillies are banking on seeing the guy who was dominant for most of the final 2 months of the regular season. *