Oct. 15 -- THE MAKING OF CHASE UTLEY

BY SCOTT LAUBER

LOS ANGELES -- Chase Utley's swing -- that short, compact, left-handed stroke that has made him so consistent -- was born out of laziness.

Before Utley was the best second baseman in baseball, and one win from advancing to the World Series with the Phillies, he was a kid in nearby Long Beach, Calif. Back then, he was a right-handed hitter. But, as Martin Frank writes in today's News Journal, that didn't work well in the Wiffleball games on Denny Mayfield's front lawn on Ashbrook Avenue in Long Beach. If Utley hit one too hard, his father would have to chase the ball down the street. But, if he batted left-handed, his shots would carom off the house and come back to the field. So, Dave Utley convinced his son to bat left-handed.

"I was not trying to construct a professional ballplayer," he told Martin. "I was just trying to save my wind. It was pretty much laziness on my part."

It worked. Utley struggled during the season's second half, but he is 6-for-13 (.462) with a home run and three RBIs in the NLCS against the Dodgers. And, as you know, the Phils will try to close out the series here tonight.

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Speaking of which, I got an e-mail this morning (it's still morning in L.A.) from good friend Dave Smith, founder of the invaluable Web site retrosheet.org. He alerts me that only twice in LCS play and three times in the World Series has a team come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series after losing Game 4 at home. The 1985 Royals and 2003 Marlins (with help from Steve Bartman, of course) pulled it out in the LCS, while the 1958 Yankees, 1968 Tigers and 1979 Pirates did so in the World Series.

Translation: Statistically-speaking, things are looking bleak for the Dodgers and Red Sox.

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So, while Martin was tracking down Utley's friends and relatives in Long Beach yesterday, I was at Dodger Stadium for the Phillies' workout, posing the following question to several players: If I told you before the NLCS that Jimmy Rollins would be 2-for-17, Ryan Howard would be 3-for-16, and the Phils would have a 3-1 lead in the series, what would you have said?

"Anything's possible," Greg Dobbs said. "You know that their struggles are going to be short-lived, and you know that the rest of the lineup can easily pick them up. Those are the guys that teams are going to key on and look at to either set the table or drive runs in. When they're not doing it, that's when the rest of the guys in the clubhouse have to do it."

Howard said, "We haven't necessarily been hitting the way we've been wanting to, but we're still one game away from making it to the World Series. So, for myself and Jimmy, we're going ot have our time. The good thing about it is everybody has picked us up and put us on their back, and we are where we are right now. When you get into a postseason, it's an all-out team effort. It's about different guys stepping up at different times. [Monday] night, it was Stairs. Wednesday, who knows? You never know who might come up and get a big hit."

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When the Phillies came here in August, Charlie Manuel had a talk with Howard about his defense. Howard had been reluctant to throw the ball to a base for fear that his throw would go awry. He made an errant throw on a sacrifice bunt in Game 4, leading to a Dodgers run, but Manuel was just happy he made the throw at all. "I told him, 'If you throw the ball, I'll take the blame for it, as long as we play the game the right way,'" Manuel said yesterday. "We want Ryan to have confidence to get the guy. I think he understands that."

Also, within the notebook, more on Matt Stairs, the possibility that Brett Myers could've pitched the ninth inning Monday night (imagine that), and Joe Torre is confident that Chad Billingsley will pitch well tonight for the Dodgers.

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The Phillies will send Cole Hamels to the mound tonight. And, as Kevin Roberts writes, is there anyone you'd rather see pitching with a chance to go to the World Series?

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Mitch Williams can't understand why a four-out save is such a big deal. Truth is, it's really not. Brad Lidge has done it before, and chances are, if the Phillies win the World Series, he'll do it again.

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So, what are you going to watch tonight -- Phillies-Dodgers or Obama-McCain? More in a bit from Dodger Stadium.