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Thursday, October 22, 2009
First baseman Ryan Howard was named the MVP of the National League Championship Series, but the Philadelphia Phillies used their other firepower to win their second consecutive pennant.The Phillies rode a steady stream of home runs Wednesday to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 10-4 in Game 5 as a towel-waving crowd celebrated.Jayson Werth hit two home runs, one that drove in three runs in the first, while Pedro Feliz and Shane Victorino each hit one. For the five-game series, the Phillies hit 10 home runs after connecting four times in the four-game first-round victory over the Colorado Rockies.Howard hit .333 in the NLCS with two home runs, a triple and eight RBI. He was 0-for-2 with two walks and a strikeout in Game 5, and his streak of eight games with an RBI ended.One of his walks came before Werth's first home run."None of that matters because all that counts is that we won," Howard said. "This lineup is deep and a lot of batters can hurt you. We've been doing this all year."Werth was 1-for-14 coming into the game. He hit his first home run against Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla on a full count in the first inning, then hit a solo shot off reliever Hong-Chih Kuo in the seventh.In the celebration, Werth got onto a countertop in the middle of the room, goggles covering his eyes and his championship T-shirt and cap drenched in champagne. He sprayed teammates from the top of the counter and then moved into the crowd of teammates on the floor.Left-hander Cliff Lee, who has two wins and a 0.74 ERA in three postseason games and probably will be the Game 1 starter in the World Series, said that, after coming over in a trade from the Cleveland Indians, he's happy to be a part of a World Series.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
PHILADELPHIA PHILLIES - NL East Champion; defeated Colorado, 3-1 NLDSLOS ANGELES DODGERS - NL West Champion; defeated St. Louis, 3-0 NLDS
the second straight year, the Philadelphia Phillies and Los Angeles Dodgers will battle for the right to represent the National League at the World Series when the best-of-seven NLCS gets underway on Thursday at Dodger Stadium.Philadelphia, of course, needed five games to get past the Dodgers a year ago en route to its first World Series title since 1980.The Phillies followed up their second-ever championship with their third consecutive NL East title, going 93-69 in the regular season. The Dodgers also won back-to-back division titles for the first time since 1977-78.
These teams are also no stranger to one another in the postseason. In addition to last year's matchup, these teams have met on three other occasions. The Phils beat LA in 1983 to advance to the World Series, while the Dodgers defeated them the first two times they squared off (1977-78).The Dodgers won the season series with the Phils, 4-3, as they took two of three at Citizens Bank Park and split the four games at Chavez Ravine.
These teams are very evenly matched. Their lineups are extremely similar, but Ramirez is not the same hitter he was last year and Ethier does not hit lefties, who he could be facing in the first three games. If the Phillies are going to win this series they are going to have jump on the Dodgers early because there won't be any late inning comebacks against this Dodgers bullpen. In the same vein, I think Lidge could be OK. He will have you at the edge of your seats probably every time he pitches, but like last year, he will get the job done in the end. Even though Hamels has been average at best this season, he and Lee are about as good a 1-2 combination as there is in the league and that will be the difference for the Phillies this series.
