Phillies: Q&A with former Phillies pitcher Brett Myers
By Hunter Doyle
Talk to us about game two in the 2008 NLDS where you contributed both on the mound and at the plate with the crowd behind you.
Brett Myers: Yeah, a lot of people forget that I pitched that game [laughs]. It got overshadowed by the hitting. It’s different adrenaline going through your body with 40,000 plus fans on their feet in the playoffs. The energy is different. I was so amped up which caused me to struggle a bit in the first inning on the mound.
When I came up to bat, I realized there was no pressure to get a hit with a future hall of fame pitcher in C.C. Sabathia on the mound. It sounds crazy, but I felt like he was throwing beach balls. The swings might not have represented it, but I felt like that. I honestly don’t know why. I just bore down.
By my third at-bat, Rollins and Shane Victorino were telling me how to watch for the slider. I had no idea what they were talking about but he gave me a first-pitch fastball, and I shot it to the opposite field for a hit. It was fun to contribute to Phillies’ history in that way.
That has to be one of my favorite memories of the 2008 season.
Brett Myers: It wasn’t the three hits and three RBIs in the next game in the NLCS? [laughs] That was another freakish thing. Most managers never let pitchers swing at the first pitch but in the playoffs, Charlie Manuel let us loose. I went 4-5 in the playoffs and every hit I got was on the first pitch. I said to Charlie if he would’ve let me do this sooner, we would’ve won a lot more ball games or at least I would have. Sometimes I had to help myself out.