Phil Sheridan: Star-crossed Reds fumble big opportunity

If the question was how the Cincinnati Reds would handle the bright lights of the postseason, now we have the answer.

The lights along the third-base upper deck may have won Game 2 of this National League division series for the Phillies. Cincinnati outfielder Jay Bruce turned a routine fly-out into two Phillies runs by closing his glove about a foot from the baseball.

"It was a routine pop-up," Bruce said. "It went into the lights and it never came out until I saw it hit the ground. The atmosphere was different."

Fittingly, the game-changing play originated from the bat of shortstop Jimmy Rollins. Two days earlier, Rollins was describing his best defensive play in Roy Halladay's Game 1 no-hitter. The grounder that ticked off the mound wasn't hard to get to, Rollins said, but it was hard to see for all the white rally towels.

"We need to get some red towels," Rollins said.

He didn't mention changing to red lightbulbs.

Bruce's error was the backbreaking moment in one of the craziest innings you're likely ever to see. Two nights after Halladay painted his masterpiece, the Reds and Phillies spattered paint all over the same Citizens Bank Park canvas. Game 2 included 14 hits, six errors and three hit batters.

Or was it two hit batters?

Rollins' towel-aided shot was set up by a stunning turn of events. Nursing a one-run lead, and with lefthanded stars Chase Utley and Ryan Howard due up in the bottom of the seventh, Reds manager Dusty Baker unleashed Aroldis Chapman for the first time in this series.

The rookie was everything the hype said he would be, hitting 100 m.p.h. on the Bank's radar gun on his very first pitch to Utley.

It was the third pitch, which registered 101, that started the Phillies' bizarre rally.

Utley leaned back to avoid the high-inside fastball. Plate umpire Bruce Dreckman immediately gestured that the ball had hit Utley, who trotted down to first base holding his left hand.

No trainers emerged from the dugout to check on the superstar second baseman. Utley leaned forward at the bag, concealing what seemed to be a mischievous smile.

"I'm not sure" if it hit me, Utley later said of the 101-m.p.h. missile.

Two days ago, Tampa Bay's Carlos Pena appeared to be hit with a very similar pitch from Texas' Cliff Lee. The umpires said the ball nicked his bat. Instead of bringing home a run (the bases were loaded at the time), Pena wound up striking out. It was the first of a number of postseason umpiring decisions that have drawn criticism around baseball. Maybe Dreckman had that in mind when he made the call.

Either way, Utley was on first when Howard swung and missed at three blazing Chapman fastballs. And he broke for second when Jayson Werth chopped a ball toward Scott Rolen at third base. Rolen, who had a costly error earlier in the game, inexplicably tried to get Utley at second instead of the sure out at first. Umpire Ed Rapuano called Utley safe.

Now maybe Rapuano was thinking of the apparently blown call in the San Francisco-Atlanta game Thursday night. Buster Posey was called safe stealing second even though he was clearly out. Posey went on to score that game's only run.

Whatever the back story, the Phillies had runners on first and second with one out as Rollins stepped into the righthanded batter's box. The crowd, lulled into a five-inning slumber as the Phillies flailed at Bronson Arroyo's seemingly hittable stuff, was awake now. Chapman's heat and the improbable mistake by Rolen, the boo sponge who is having a miserable series, had the rally towels out and waving.

Bruce stunned everyone on Rollins' pop-up, especially himself. Utley scored easily despite the late start (and missing third base). Centerfielder Drew Stubbs threw the ball to second baseman Brandon Phillips, who dropped it. That second error on the play allowed Werth to score the go-ahead run.

"Jay Bruce is a Gold Glove outfielder," Baker said. "Brandon Phillips is a Gold Glove second baseman. Scotty Rolen was a Gold Glove third baseman. That was a very uncommon night for us."

The Reds, making their first postseason appearance in 15 years, had blown an excellent chance to beat Roy Oswalt, take home-field advantage away from the Phillies, and give themselves a real chance in this series.

With things slip-sliding into slapstick around them, the experienced Phillies kept their composure and took advantage of every mistake.

"It was a little hectic," Utley said of that seventh-inning rally. "I'm not going to lie."

With a 2-0 lead in this series and Cole Hamels set to pitch Game 3 Sunday in Cincinnati, the Phillies have complete control of this series - thanks to an out-of-control inning and the bright lights of the postseason.