This was the game last season that really had us all believing it just might be our year. Down 2 in the 8th, and seemingly on our way to a 2-2 tie in the series, Victorino tied it up with 2-run shot, followed by Matt Stairs legendary blast into the night.
The Dodgers have shown absolutely no sign in the first 3 games that they are the better team in this series, but if they win tonight it turns into a best of 3. We’ve got to build off the momentum of last night’s thrashing and really bury them tonight.
It will be important to make Randy Wolf throw strikes, as he walked 5 in his only other postseason start this year. I’m confident Blanton will give us a decent start, but we’ll probably need at least 5 runs to win the game. Hopefully we saved some after last night.
I’ll be chatting here for the game, but feel free to comment here leading up to the game as well.
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Some non-playoff Phillies stuff of interest….
Keith Law had this to say about 2 of our guys playing in the Arizona Fall League…
Scott Mathieson of the Philadelphia Phillies hasn’t pitched in the majors since 2006; he underwent Tommy John surgery at the end of that season and threw just eight innings total over the next two years. He’s back now as a reliever and showed a nasty two-pitch mix — a fastball at 93-97 mph and a hard slider at 82-86 mph. He pitches aggressively with his fastball and seems to have a lot of confidence in it. I imagine that if he’d been healthy all year, he would have ended up in the Phillies’ major league ‘pen and been considered for the playoff roster.
Domonic Brown – yes, with two o’s — of the Phillies was a stumbling block in the defending champs’ talks with Toronto for Roy Halladay, and given his tool set it’s easy to see why. He’s a superb athlete who can run and throw and has some raw power. That said, he’s still pretty crude, succeeding on the basis of his ridiculous athletic ability. His reads in right field are really poor, although he’s fast enough to catch up to balls he misreads off the bat, and while he has arm strength, his throwing motion needs work. He also leaks badly at the plate, but again, he’s got the bat speed to compensate. He’s still one of the top 20 or so prospects in the minors, but he still needs some polishing before he’s ready to race to the majors.
I know it’s premature to talk about 2010 – but I expect both Mathieson and Bastardo to be in the pen on Opening Day.
Re: Double-O Brown.
I love that there’s a guy in the farm system with “ridiculous athletic ability.” Really excited to see this kid mature into his place as heir to either Raul or Werth in a couple seasons.
Yeah, you hate to look past what we’re doing now or to start thinking about who could replace whom on the roster. However, we do know that we will have to do it, and gradually replacing a Werth with a Taylor here, and an Ibanez with a Brown there, etc… is realistically the best way to go about trying to remain a championship-caliber club. Otherwise we run the risk of needing to replace too many cornerstone players at any given time.
I sure hope we’ve got some arms that can step in to rebuild the pen…… Park? Eyre? Condrey? Durbin? Romero?……Contracts? Injuries? Ineffectiveness?……Too many questions and too many problems this year. Definitely need to address the situation (probably priority #1) in the off season.
I know I said above that I was confident in Blanton tonight. But I’m feeling a little less so after seeing the following numbers a couple Dodgers have put up on him…
Manny (14 for 25)
Ethier (5 for 11)
Loney (5 for 8 )
The likely starting 8 has hit .336 vs. Blanton for their career.
Us against Wolf?
Feliz (5 for 17)
Ibanez (3 for 11)
Werth (1 for 9)
Victorino (3 for 9)
Howard (1 for 9)
Utley (1 for 8 )
Rollins (3 for 6)
Ruiz (4 for 6)
That’s .280 – not bad.
Pete: it all depends on how well he pitches. i’m sure everyone was expecting Kuroda to blank us based on his numbers against us. seeing Blanton pitching outta the bullpen, i know one thing; he’s sharp. not sure how long he will go but i dont think he will give up many.
Ryan Howard was supposed to have been “neutralized” in this series also..
yeah, I was just a tad off on that one
Jayson Stark has another nice article today, this one a recap of last night’s game. Here are a few choice pieces:
Lee became the first pitcher in history to spin off eight innings of no-run, no-walk, double-figure-strikeout baseball on the resplendent postseason stage.
Howard became the first hitter in history to drive in a run in seven straight games in the same postseason.
Lee has now ripped off three straight starts of seven innings or more with one run or none allowed — in the first three postseason baseball games he has ever pitched. He is the 10th pitcher in history who can say that — but only the fourth in the last 65 years. (The others: Steve Rogers, Orlando Hernandez and Matt Morris.)
But now look what they’ve (The Phillies) done — not just this week, not just this month, but over the past two Octobers: They’re now three games into their fifth postseason series of those two Octobers. Not once — in any of those five series — have they lost two games in a row. Two. The 1998-2000 Yankees pulled that off. But we can’t find a single other National League team in history that has done that over five consecutive postseason series. Not a one.
There are some good quotes in there from Dobbs, Rollins, Eyre, and Werth too.
bski: saw it already. nice to knoiw everyone aint in love with the Dodgers or Yankees.
Blanton looked great. Rollins is actually on base in the 1st. And I hate the frickin’ Yankees.
Ryan Howard is completely out of control
this has got to be one of the all time great playoff performances…at least in my lifetime
Wolf was pissed about that 2-1 count, and should have been…
JIMMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dodgers are DONE!
Jimmy went Lazarus there, “I’m a lead farmer motherphucka!”
GO PHILLIES!!! LET’S FINISH THEM OFF!!
I will readily admit, I had ZERO % faith in J-Ro when he stepped up to the plate. None. And damn am I glad he shut my ass up.
Wow. Let’s go for their jugular and finish this shit up! Go Phillies!!!
The standard thought pre series, especially among the naysayers was the Phils bullpen had to step up. Beneth JRoll and RH for their clear heroics tonight, the facts include that the bullpen held the Dodgers in place, including Brad Lidge who was brought in to keep the game at 4-3. That’s the same Brad Lidge who the box score will show a W next to.
Tonight, we saw some glimpses of truth to the pre series nonsense that the Dodgers were beter for the experience of being here last year. They fought off a 2-0 deficit after a tough loss. Take that summation, and measure it against the defending champion that drew off the experience of winnng and look at the end result. It is far, far from over, and Wednesday night, we’ll see what the Dodgers are made of. But for this night, incomplete as it is, the trend looks excellent, and the liklihood of a short series is quite alive.
Just got home from the game. Without a doubt the biggest game I have ever been to and one of the most memorable nights of my life. Man, you can not count these guys out!! I LOVE postseason baseball!!
Not gonna lie, going to have to acknowledge CHOOCH. He’s been doing a great job!
All I gotta say is, Lidge now has 3 saves (0 blown) and 1 win this postseason (after no wins all year and we don’t have to re-hash the blown saves number).
The best part about this (and I expect a Jayson Stark article soon), is that all of the talk coming into this postseason was how crappy Brad Lidge was.
Add Broxton to the list of shaky closers who have blown saves this postseason joining Franklin, Nathan, Street, and Papelbon. Those are 5 of the best closers in baseball in 2009. Just goes to show that closing is a freaking crapshoot, I find it satisfying that Lidge has joined Mo Rivera as the most consistent closing arm of this postseason.
Resilience and this team are getting a little overplayed, but it is easy to see why. It was a great game even before Rollins hit. Blanton was shaky at times but battled. Would be nice to see Hamels take a page out of his book. Park and Madson were tough, and Madson after not getting guys to chase some of his pitches hung around. And Lidge…Furcall on first with 1 out. I thought his command oo his fastball got better as the inning went on. J-Roll gets hammered for not being a typical leadoff guy, but seriously how awesome has he been in 9th innings. There is a reason why they are called “resilient.”
a great piece by Jayson Stark over at ESPN. I’m still shaking and smiling from last night. It dawned on me this morning that I was in the building for a game that people will be talking about in 20 years. A game I will tell my grandkids about, a game my grandkids will tell their kids about. We all witnessed a legendary moment in Phillies history last night. I know there’s one win to go but that double of Broxton was the hit that sent the Phillies back to the World Series.
6 down, 5 to go!
Dewey defeats Truman!
http://www.the700level.com/2009/10/mlbcom-jumps-the-gun.html
Stark’s article just describes the emotion perfectly. That feeling as you realized where Rollins’ hit was going to land. For a split second you thought maybe Ethier would get there, but then you realized it was dropping. And you saw Ruiz was going to score. And then it hit you that the Phillies were really going to win this game. That was unreal! I am still in shock.
Great win. But how historic it turns out depends on whether the Phils can go on and repeat.
Yep, Stark’s article was great, again. Rollins’ numbers in the 9th inning this post season are really something. It’s also great to read about the records and achievements the team and several players are racking up and the company they find themselves in as a result.
I hesitate to question Charlie Manuel’s decisions. I trust him and I think he’s doing a fantastic job. That said, when Blanton walked to the plate, I questioned letting him hit in the bottom of the 5th and also leaving him in to pitch the top of the 6th.
I know it was early in the game, we were only trailing by 1 run, and we still had four more turns at bat. Thing is, Blanton was struggling, we were already trailing by 1 run, and we had a runner on base (Granted, it was Ruiz on first, but he scored from there in the 9th right, so you can’t completely discount it). Another concern is that the Dodgers also had 4 more turns at bat and you can’t count on our bullpen holding them scoreless.
At first I wondered why he would manage one side of the game, the pitching, like every out is more precious than gold, while not managing the same way on the offensive side of the ball. In sending Blanton to the plate, he was giving up an out in a game in which we were behind.
I think the answer is that, since he rightly trusts our offense to score runs much, much more than he trusts our bullpen to prevent the other team from scoring, Manuel does indeed value pitching out more greatly than he does offensive outs. He obviously feels that it’s more important to stick with the starting pitcher in most circumstances and to limit the use of the bullpen as much as possible.
Glad I could work that out for myself. Did anybody else question that move at the time? Does my reasoning make any sense?
One last thing. I was checking the LA Times to see what their sportswriters have to say about last night’s game and the series, and I came across an article by T.J. Simers.
Last year, he had more than one article in which he insulted, demeaned, and took cheap shots at not just Phillies fans but the entire city. He really is a loud-mouthed jerk who, if memory serves, isn’t liked by LA fans either. I forgot all about him until I came across the article.
Anyway, in the article for which I provided the link he again takes a few opportunities to malign the citizens of Philly, Phillies fans, and the Phanatic. However, the reason I’m mentioning the article is for how he talks about his hometown team, the Dodgers. Check out these lines:
Bow-WOW!
I thought we were past this, but now we’ve got the Choking Dogs showing us a new trick, rolling over and playing dead.
But in Game 1, Sherrill gagged. Called on to keep the Dodgers in a game they still had the chance to steal, he surrendered three runs and this series started with the Choking Dogs wilting under pressure.
Maybe it’s in the breeding, the Dodgers getting Sherrill from a loser like Baltimore.
Sherrill has been a loner since arriving here, an outcast really by his own choosing, and when things got their toughest for the Dodgers, he was a man on an island again — and come to think of it, that’s probably where he belongs today.
the difference between success and defeat how teams handle trying times, and the Dodgers cracking two years in a row.
the Choking Dogs lacking the closing punch that separates champions from teams no one ultimately remembers.
Rafael Furcal continued to play as if he’s found a home with the Choking Dogs, hitting .125 in this series. Casey Blake is a scrunch better at .133, and while the Dodgers had the lead they needed in the late innings, they don’t appear be in the Phillies’ class.
It was also Sherrill’s job to sail through the eighth, Broxton’s to nail the victory down, and why the Dodgers played 162 games — to get to this moment.
But then the dogs choked.
Now it seems it’s just time to bow-OUT.
Real nice, huh? Be thankful that we don’t have a clown like this writing (spewing vitriol) for the Inky or the Daily News.
Sounds like Simers should be covering sports for Fox News… if at all.
bski: Simers must be the baseball equivalent of Lou Dobbs.
bski, It’s really quite simple. Charlie hadn’t been informed of the plate of pork chops waiting for Blanton in the clubhouse. He thought the chef needed another inning.
jjg,
Too bad. Blanton’s pork chops must have been dried out by the time he finally got to them.
Maybe Davey Lopes should have one waiting at first base when Blanton is at bat. Better yet, Sam Perlozzo should have one at third base.
Seriously though, would you have hit for Blanton in the bottom of the 5th? Just wondering if I’m alone in thinking that way.
bski, I was thinking along your lines in real time last night … down 1 on scoreboard, runner on, Blanton sputtering … yank him for a catch-up bat. But which one from the slim pickings of the Splinter Crew? In retrospect, after out 27, Charlie knows best - again. Cash that ticket and break out the moonshine!
bski, good points about Blanton, and I was curious at that point. I wonder if it’s of those situations where he isn’t managing a 2 run deficit. Either way they will need to hold the score and score 2 runs. Its seems as though there might be something resembling “roles” for key bullpen guys – 7th Park, 8th Madson, 9th Lidge (and Eyre when needed). The best way to hold the lead the way it would be to pitch those guys in their “roles” and count on the next four innings to produce 2 or more runs. Did not agree with it last night, but there is a reason he is managing.