"Hitting will not be as easy as Utley made it look Saturday in his first seven rehab at-bats.

After the Phillies second baseman went 5-for-7 with a pair of homers against two Blue Jays extended-spring-training lefthanders in Dunedin, I told him, "That was one helluva endorsement for 3 months of nothing but batting practice."

"I guess," Utley said, expansively.

I asked if the next test for a knee wounded by patellar tendinitis would be how it feels the next day.

"One day at a time," Chase elaborated.

Back in the Dark Age of the Ashburn Era, the Phillies had a 1952-54 catcher named Smokey Burgess. Smokey was also an extraordinary pinch-hitter, and as his 18-year career took him to the Reds, Pirates and White Sox after gigs with the Cubs and Phillies, they said this about the instinctive hitter: "He could climb out of bed at midnight in January and hit a line drive."

It was 10:05 a.m. on May 7 when Utley climbed into the batter's box to face an enemy pitcher for the first time since Brian Wilson walked him with two outs in the ninth inning of NLCS Game 6 to set the stage for Ryan Howard's infamous called strike 3. The date was Oct. 23, 2010. The jaw-breaking word "chondromalacia" was not yet part of Philadelphia's baseball vocabulary.

This pitcher was considerably less than The Beard. John Anderson, a sturdy lefthander, had something in common with Utley. He, too, was in extended spring training on a rehab assignment, trying to come back from Tommy John surgery that scrubbed his 2010 season. Before the Californian was cut on, Anderson was a 28th-round draft pick trying to escape the bottom of the minor league food chain. He brought a 2-year, 4-9 record against Utley.

At 10:05 a.m., Chase did not stroke a line drive. Instead, he guided a well-struck bouncer into rightfield. One small step . . . He was batting in the No. 3 hole for manager Roly deArmas, the Ozzie Guillen of the Gulf Coast League. The plan in the accommodating, company softball rules of extended, was for Utley to be the third hitter in each inning of a game scheduled for nine.

In the second, Utley looked at a called third strike. There was some yapping from the Phillies' bench at the young plate umpire. As he walked away, Utley turned to the ump and said with a smile, "You gonna put up with that kind of talk?"

Third inning, the count ran to 3-2. Anderson said he wanted to paint the inside corner with a fastball, but missed outside. What the kid saw in a blur was a flashback to the shortest, quickest stroke in the game by its best low-ball hitter. The baseball soared majestically over the yellow line in left-center and clattered off a high protective screen behind the fence."