Amaro not concerned about Utley's misplays

PHILADELPHIA - Not that a few bad throws is a major concern, but Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr., knows what Chase Utley has gone through in the first three games of the National League Championship Series.
As a junior second baseman at Stanford University in 1986, Amaro had a stretch in which he turned routine groundballs into throwing errors.
"Yeah, that happened to me," Amaro said Monday before the Phillies' dramatic 5-4 victory in Game 4. "I think it was just a temporary issue. I got over it."
Amaro recovered by moving to the outfield, his position during his eight-year big-league career, minus four games at second base and two at first.
Amaro doesn't seem troubled with Utley, a four-time All-Star second baseman who had a costly throwing error in Game 1, another in Game 2 that directly led to a Phillies loss and a bounced a Game 3 throw in the dirt that was scooped by first baseman Ryan Howard.
"It's not a big deal for me," Amaro said before Utley fielded two grounders and made throws without incident in Game 4. "I think he's fine."
Still, Utley's NLCS fielding woes have evoked memories of two second basemen whose careers were partially defined by throwing issues, Steve Sax and Chuck Knoblauch.
"I wouldn't put Chase in that category," said Hall of Fame shortstop Cal Ripken, Jr., a pregame analyst for TBS in the NLCS. "Certainly, every once in awhile when you throw a ball away, you kind of aim it and it becomes a little psychological. I'm not going to say he can't throw the ball to first base, but it does go through your head and when you're in big games it can make you think a little bit more."
Due to his throwing funk, Sax jumped from 19 errors as a rookie in 1982 to a career-high 30 in 1983. A year later, the five-time All-Star got past his problem.
"It's just a matter of confidence," Sax told the New York Daily News in 1999. "I got over it, and had my best years after I got over it,"
A four-time All-Star, Knoblauch never recovered after his error total doubled from 13 in 1998 to 26 in 1999. By 2001, he was an outfielder. In 2002, he played his last season at age 33.
"I'd like a nickel for everyone who's said, 'Don't think, just throw it,' ''
Knoblauch told ESPN the Magazine in 2001. "If it were only that easy."
The Phillies are hoping Utley is just having a bad week. In the regular season, he made just 12 errors in 155 games at second base, his second-lowest total.
"I don't think it's an issue," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "He's too tough a kid and he's too good of a player. Sometimes there's no rhyme or reason why it happens, but the nature of the game is what it is. I'd certainly like to have his problems. He's pretty damned special."
Record night
Howard made some history after doing a pregame interview with baseball royalty.
Cal Ripken, Jr.'s presence as a TNT pre-game host was fitting.
A Hall of Famer best known for breaking Lou Gehrig's once seemingly unbreakable consecutive-game record, Ripken witnessed Howard match another Iron Horse's mark with a two-run, first-inning homer, which gave the Phillies slugger RBIs in seven consecutive postseason games, a feat previously accomplished only by Gehrig from 1928-32.
Phillers
Utley has reached base in 24 consecutive postseason games, one shy of Boog Powell's all-time record. ... 3B Pedro Feliz, 0-for-3 in Game 4, is in a 1-for-17 slump. ... The Phillies and Dodgers will work out at Citizens Bank Park on today's off day, then resume their series with Game 5 on Wednesday night.
Source phillyburbs.com