It’s Crushing Time for Ryan Howard and the Philadelphia Phillies

Bam, bam, bam. Boom, boom, pow.

Depending on your age, take the above references for what Ryan Howard is going to do to the rest of the league from now until October.

Ryan Howard’s solo home run, his 28th of the year, won last night’s game against the Atlanta Braves, 3-2. The picture, shown above, is courtesy of Philly.com.

Before a home run the night before in Chicago, Howard had gone 57 at-bats without a home run.

Sitting at 28 home runs prior to the game against Atlanta on Aug. 15, look back in time. Last year, Howard hit 11 home runs in September and October and finished with 48 home runs. The year before he hit 47 home runs, and in his MVP year in 2006, he hit 58 home runs.

That is an average of 51 home runs a year. And I will eat my hat if Howard does not hit at least around 45 home runs this year, barring injury.

That is 17 home runs in a month and a half. If he hits 11 home runs in September and October again this year, it means he would have to hit six home runs for the rest of August.

Done.

Howard still swings at bad pitches, as do many power hitters, and will still strike out a lot.

But while Mets fans were crowing (and the national media) about how Carlos Delgado carried the Mets last August, Ryan did his speaking with the bat in September, when winning counted the most.

Howard came into this season about 25 pounds lighter.

Good pitchers are hitting around 150 innings by this time of the year and hopefully, for Phillies fans, they will be tired and make more mistakes.

And if that happens, Howard will hit home runs to left field, right field, and deep, deep into straight away center field.

When he is hot, he is just a joy to watch.

Like Albert Pujols, you don’t want to miss his at-bats.

Because sometime special is likely to happen.

And his name is Ryan Howard.

I’d like to think even 50 home runs is not out of reach if he can get fight.