In 2008, left-handed relief pitcher J.P. Howell played a big role in the Tampa Bay Rays' brilliant and shocking worst-to-first season, which resulted in a World Series berth.
The Trials Of James Phillip Howell
The World Series didn’t go quite as well.
After shutting down the Phillies in the bottom of the eighth inning in Game 3, Howell returned to the mound in the ninth with the score 4-4. Somehow, Howell plunked Eric Bruntlett with a pitch.
Hey, it happens. It's not really Howell's fault that Grant Balfour came in, wild-pitched Bruntlett to second base and then -- after a couple of intentional walks, gave up a game-winning single to Carlos Ruiz.
It happens.
What happened in Game 5, on the other hand, has happened only once.
After five innings, the Phillies were up 2-1; another win and they would clinch the Series.
But with the skies weeping giant tears, the Rays tied the game, after which Commissioner Selig finally halted the proceedings.
That was a Monday. Tuesday, the skies wept still. Wednesday, Game 5 finally resumed. The Phillies struck quickly, going ahead with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Howell entered with a runner on first base, but he struck out Chase Utley and retired Ryan Howard to limit the damage.
In the top of the seventh, Rocco Baldelli hit a solo homer to tie the contest once more.
Howell came back out in the bottom of the seventh. He threw a curveball to Pat Burrell. It wasn't a terrible pitch, but Burrell reached out and drove the ball to deep right field, where it bounced over the fence for an automatic double. Bruntlett pinch-ran for Burrell, and two batters later -- with Chad Bradford having relieved Howell -- Bruntlett scored the go-ahead run. And that's how the game and the Series ended, 4-3 Phillies.
Afterward, ESPN The Magazine’s Chris Jones saw the aftermath:
In the Rays’ clubhouse, J.P. Howell sat in his underwear at his locker, his back heaving with upset. He kept shaking his head and wiping away tears, and he stayed like that for a long time, until a reporter tapped him on the shoulder and asked if it would be all right to talk.
Howell stood up, just a skinny kid with a couple of tattoos wearing an old pair of boxers. He looked the most like me and the most like you. He turned around and swallowed. “Oh, man,” he said, his eyes red and filling again. “I f—ed up.”
--snip--
Howell returned from his shower and pulled on a pair of jeans. The time off hadn’t helped much. His eyes still betrayed him. “If I went fastball in, I could have beaten him,” he said. “It’s tough to have it come to an end, because this was one of the most fun years of my life. I can’t be bitter, even though I am.”
Then someone asked him about the Rays’ famous 30-minute rule: Win or lose, 30 minutes after the game is over, it is over, gone like smoke along with everything else.
“Not tonight,” Howell said. “I’m not going to cut if off. I’m going to let this eat me up for a while. We need to remember how this feels. This year we may be forgotten, but next year we’ve got another shot to be remembered.” And in that instant, J.P. Howell became, for me, the story of the year.
Howell pitched well in 2009, but the Rays didn’t qualify for the postseason.
They did qualify in 2010, but Howell missed the entire season with a serious shoulder injury. The only good news, from Howell's perspective, is that the Rays really didn't miss him during their five-game loss to the Rangers in the Division Series.
There hasn't been much good news for Howell in 2011. Still recovering from shoulder surgery, Howell entered Tuesday night's game against the Orioles with a 5.97 ERA in 41 appearances. While he used to be regarded as a weapon against both left- and right-handed hitters, Howell's been used more often this season as a limited situational reliever.
Joe Maddon hadn't completely lost his faith in Maddon, though. Tuesday night, with the score 2-2 heading into the eighth, Maddon summoned Howell to relieve Juan Cruz, who had thrown only four pitches.
Howell got J.J. Hardy out.
Howell got Nick Markakis out.
Howell didn't get Vladimir Guerrero out. Guerrero's hot, and he singled.
Howell didn't get Matt Wieters out, either. Weiters is the New Johnny Bench, and he blasted a line drive into the left-field stands. That made the score 4-2, and that's how it ended. A few hundred miles away in Boston, the Red Sox were pulverizing the Blue Jays.
Making a living as a relief pitcher in the American League East isn’t easy. It’s even less easy when you take this stuff hard. And James Phillip Howell takes this stuff hard.
Three years ago, he cried in the clubhouse after Game 5. And Tuesday night, after sort of blowing a game everybody sort of thought the Rays needed to win, he cried in the dugout.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Afterward in the clubhouse, James Phillip Howell stood by his locker and -- just as he did three years ago -- answered all the questions ...
“You don’t have to live in your sorrows too long.”
Ideally, no. You don’t.
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