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Thursday, November 5, 2009
Hideki Matsui took a meaty cut, watched the ball fly and winced when it hooked a foot foul.Matsui put the world in World Series MVP, earning the award by homering, doubling, singling and driving in six runs Wednesday night as the New York Yankees beat the Philadelphia Phillies 7-3 to claim their 27th championship.Matsui became the first Japanese-born player to win the award that started in 1955. He hit .615 (8 for 13) with three home runs and eight RBIs. His performance in Game 6 matched the record for RBIs in a Series game. No one, however, had done it in a clincher.This year wrapped up Matsui's $52 million, four-year contract. It remains to be seen what the aging Yankees will do with him. Whatever happens, he certainly left his mark.Thursday, October 22, 2009
First baseman Ryan Howard was named the MVP of the National League Championship Series, but the Philadelphia Phillies used their other firepower to win their second consecutive pennant.The Phillies rode a steady stream of home runs Wednesday to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 in Game 5 as a towel-waving crowd celebrated.Jayson Werth hit two home runs, one that drove in three runs in the first, while Pedro Feliz and Shane Victorino each hit one. For the five-game series, the Phillies hit 10 home runs after connecting four times in the four-game first-round victory over the Colorado Rockies.Howard hit .333 in the NLCS with two home runs, a triple and eight RBI. He was 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout in Game 5, and his streak of eight games with an RBI ended.One of his walks came before Werth's first home run."None of that matters because all that counts is that we won," Howard said. "This lineup is deep and a lot of batters can hurt you. We've been doing this all year."Werth was 1-for-14 coming into the game. He hit his first home run against Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla on a full count in the first inning, then hit a solo shot off reliever Hong-Chih Kuo in the seventh.In the celebration, Werth got onto a countertop in the middle of the room, goggles covering his eyes and his championship T-shirt and cap drenched in champagne. He sprayed teammates from the top of the counter and then moved into the crowd of teammates on the floor.Left-hander Cliff Lee, who has two wins and a 0.74 ERA in three postseason games and probably will be the Game 1 starter in the World Series, said that, after coming over in a trade from the Cleveland Indians, he's happy to be a part of a World Series.
