PHILADELPHIA – With one swing of his bat Thursday afternoon, Kazuo Matsui went from table-setter to postseason slugger.
And with his improbable grand slam in the fourth inning of the Rockies’ 10-5 victory over the Phillies in Game 2 of the NLDS, he put himself in the spotlight and Phillies manager Charlie Manuel onto the hot seat.
It was Manuel’s decision to pull starter Kyle Kendrick and replace him with Kyle Lohse, who was penciled in as Philly’s Game 4 starter at Coors Field.
Entering the game with a bases-loaded situation, and with relatively little experience as a reliever this season, Lohse grooved a 1-2 fastball to Matsui. The man who spent seven seasons as a star in Japan before coming to America to play in the big leagues crushed the ball deep into the seats beyond the right-field wall.
“After I hit it, I knew it was gone,” said Matsui. It was his first homer since Sept. 7, a span of 59 at-bats, and first major-league grand slam.
“I liked Lohse against Matsui,” Manuel said. “One reason I liked him was because of his stuff, breaking ball, changeup, fastball. I felt like he was the right guy to put in.”
Matsui ended up a single short of the cycle. He hit a double in the third inning, his slam in the fourth and a triple in the sixth.
“It’s kind of difficult not to think about the cycle,” he said. “So in my last at-bat, I just (went) for it.”
Matsui signed with the New York Mets in 2004. He hit .272 that season, but slumped to .255 the next season and played in just 87 games. The New York spotlight seemed to overwhelm him.
Traded to the Rockies last June, he showed glimpses of the talent that made him an all-star in Japan. This season, as the team’s everyday second baseman, he hit .288 and stole 32 bases.
“I think we were just talking about a good fit, to be him in a different environment,” manager Clint Hurdle said. “He’s performed to his skill set here. Whether it was getting out of the fishbowl, or letting go of expectations, I don’t know.”
