Ryan Howard went into the World Series as the toast of Philadelphia, a Sports Illustrated cover boy expected to continue the MVP-worthy swath he had cut through the first two rounds.
How the mighty have fallen.
Despite ending his RBI drought with a homer in last night’s 7-3 loss to the Yankees in Game 6, Howard will go down as one of the biggest goats — if not the biggest goat — in the Phillies’ failure to repeat as world champions.
Such a statement would have been unthinkable a week ago, when Howard was asserting himself as the Phillies’ heart and soul with two homers and a whopping 14 RBIs in the NLDS and NLCS combined.
But that was before Howard practically fell off a cliff at the plate, mustering just a .174 average (4-for-23) with three RBIs while striking out a whopping 13 times in the World Series.
The 13 strikeouts were historic, too, as Howard broke former Kansas City center fielder Willie Wilson’s 29-year-old Series record of 12. Ouch.
But if you were expecting Howard to second-guess himself for his horrible performance, think again.
“I feel cool about it,” he said. “The only thing you can do now is go home, relax and come back for spring training.”
Howard had been so bad going into Game 6 that Phillies manager Charlie Manuel faced repeated questions about dropping him in the lineup from his customary cleanup spot.
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“If I thought dropping Howard down in the lineup would win the game for us, I’d do it,” Manuel said. “But you know what? He’s been there that long, and I don’t want to go doing it on the day of the sixth game of the World Series.”
Howard finally rewarded his manager by hitting a two-run homer in the sixth inning last night off Andy Pettitte, but it was far too little and far to late to help the Phillies’ bid to become the first NL team since Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine in 1975-76 to repeat.
Not that Howard was in any mood to lament the Phillies coming up short.
“We had a great year but got beat by a better team, a more motivated team,” Howard said. “Any time you get to the World Series, it’s never a failure.”