Paul Hagen: Phillies say they are resilient; now is time to show it

DENVER - The Phillies are a resilient team. We know this, because they like to mention it from time to time.

"We are a resilient team," somebody wearing red pinstripes will say, and the reporters who faithfully record every utterance will nod in thoughtful agreement.

The reason they nod in thoughtful agreement is that there are facts and figures to back it up. Everybody remembers September 2007, when they stormed from behind down the stretch and, coupled with an epic Mets collapse, clinched a spot in the playoffs. Visual: Brett Myers tossing his glove high in the air.

Everybody remembers last year when, in the doldrums with only a couple of weeks left in the regular season, they swept the Brewers in a four-game series. That ignited a torrid streak that didn't end until they were parading around The Bank with a big, shiny trophy. Visual: Brad Lidge falling to his knees while a city rose to its feet.

This is how baseball players come to dispense quotes like, "We are a resilient team."

What's unclear, though, is whether some kind of warranty comes along with this simple declarative sentence, whether some sort of statute of limitations exists.

We assume the Phillies are still a resilient team. They, surely, believe they are still a resilient team. But, honestly, nobody can really be sure, because that intangible quality hasn't been put to the test in a while.

They were able to front-run ahead of a weak National League East most of the regular season. No matter how many silly, panicky references to 1964 were floated during their little late-season hiccup, they never were in real danger of missing the playoffs. There were challenges along the way, sure, but nothing stamped "IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED."

That's about to change in a big way. Game 3 of their National League Division Series matchup against the Colorado Rockies will be played tonight, weather permitting, at Coors Field. And for the first time in a long time, the defending champs are under the gun a little bit. For the first time in a long time, they'll have to exhibit or-forever-hold-your-peace urgency. For the first time in a long time, putting off until tomorrow what they need to do today will have real consequences.

Their first round has now been boiled down to a best-of-three proposition. By splitting the first two games, they squandered their homefield advantage. And they did it to a team that grows fangs at home. The Rockies were 43-17 when playing a mile above sea level after Jim Tracy took over as manager in late May.

That would be vexing enough. But Charlie Manuel further upped their degree of difficulty by using two of tonight's potential starters, J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton, in relief in Game 2. As a result, he's turning to 37-year-old Pedro Martinez, who hasn't been effective since he threw 130 pitches against the Mets back on Sept. 13

A resilient team thrives on these situations. And there's no real reason to think the Phillies won't rise to the occasion once again, slap down the pesky Rockies and move briskly forward in their pursuit of a repeat.

Except that, well, they haven't had to. So the nagging questions remain. What if they try to reach for their resilience tonight and it's not where they left it? What if it's grown rusty from lack of use or has gone stale?

Compare their situation with the Rockies', who had only 20 wins when June rolled around. They had to play with their hair on fire for the remainder of the schedule just to earn an invitation to the playoffs.

"As I told them before the first game of the series in Philadelphia, what I said to our players was simply this: 'What got us to this point of having the wonderful opportunity to participate in the postseason [was that] we had to win series. And a lot of them. An awful lot of them,' " Tracy said before yesterday's workout at Coors Field. "We couldn't split them. We couldn't lose them, or we weren't going anywhere."

There is anecdotal evidence in recent years that teams playing with that nightly jolt of adrenaline for an extended period of time fare better in the postseason pressure cooker than teams that have the luxury of going on cruise control.

That's not to say that the Phillies haven't had hurdles to overcome. They survived 11 blown saves by Lidge. They survived the injury to No. 2 starter Myers. The survived a severe first-half funk by shortstop Jimmy Rollins. They survived a severe second-half funk by leftfielder Raul Ibanez.

That they went through all that and won their third straight division title says a lot about their depth, talent and cohesiveness.

The Phillies were good enough that they didn't really have to play with the sense that any one game would make or break their season hanging over their heads.

Until now.

A Game 3 loss wouldn't send them home with a nice consolation prize. Almost, but not quite.

The Phillies have been a resilient team. If they still are, this would be a wise time for them to show it.

Send e-mail to hagenp@phillynews.com.