Well, we all seem to agree that the Phillies and Dodgers are very close in terms of overall talent, and it’s impossible to predict who is going to win.
But – of course, that doesn’t stop everyone from trying. Here are how the experts from various media are calling the series…
Peter Gammons (ESPN) : Dodgers in 7
Buster Olney (ESPN) : Phillies in 6
Rob Neyer (ESPN) : Dodgers in 5
Jim Caple (ESPN) : Dodgers in 5
Tim Kurkjian (ESPN) : Phillies in 7
Jayson Stark (ESPN) : Phillies in 7
Gene Wojciehowski (ESPN) : Phillies in 7
Steve Phillips (ESPN) : Dodgers in 7
Eric Neel (ESPN) : Phillies in 6
Keith Law (ESPN) : Phillies in 6
Enrique Rojas (ESPN) : Dodgers in 7
Ted Keith (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Tom Verducci (CNNSI) : Phillies in 7
Jon Heyman (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 7
Joe Posnanski (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Lee Jenkins (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Ben Reiter (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Joe Lemire (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
David Sabino (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 7
Cliff Corcoran (CNNSI) : Phillies in 6
Jonah Freedman (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Albert Chen (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Melissa Segura (CNNSI) : Dodgers in 6
Danny Knobler (CBS) : Phillies in 6
Eric Mack (CBS) : Phillies in 6
Scott Miller (CBS) : Phillies in 7
Adriane Rosen (CBS) : Dodgers in 7
Ken Rosenthal (Fox) : Phillies in 7
Dayn Perry (Fox) : Dodgers in 6
Mark Kriegel (Fox) : Dodgers in 7
Bob Nightengale (USA Today) : Phillies in 7
Buck Martinez (TBS) : Dodgers in 7
Tim Brown (Yahoo!) : Dodgers in 6
Nick Cafardo (Boston Globe) : Phillies in 5
Tony DeMarco (NBC) : Dodgers in 7
Jeff Fletcher (AOL) : Dodgers in 6
That’s 22 for the Dodgers, 14 for the Phils – that’s a little more of a discrepancy that I was anticipating, but nearly everyone called it as a close series and a lot of that discrepancy came from CNNSI people I’ve never heard of.
16 said 7 games, 17 said 6 games, 3 said 5 games.
I’ll keep this post open as a game chat post for whoever is interested. I might be around to chime in, not sure I’ll have access to a computer during the game.
Pete: you do understand that the discrepancy you mentioned is irrelevant. Reagrdless of the situation way they go all sports analysts or writers just pick a side and advocate in an attempt to remain unbiased. Ken Rosenthal and Mark Kriegel both have columns on foxsports making a case for Phillies and theDodgers respectively. Just the same way if the Lions were playing the Patriots, someone would have to go; “Yeah but I think the Lions have a good chance to pull this off’.
till when the game starts. ltr
I think the example you gave is the only one where that is the case. It’s certainly irrelevant in terms of who is ACTUALLY going to win – but I take this to mean that if there is a slight favorite in this series, it is the Dodgers.
Pete – since you are such a fan of stats, I wanted to pass this on.
http://bats.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/15/dodgers-wont-have-a-cakewalk-vs-phillies/?hp
Starting lineup was just posted on ESPN.com and its the usual one…I agree with those who say Ruiz should be ahead of Feliz at this point considering how bad Feliz was against the Rockies….
Hey, a 2-pitch at-bat by Rollins. That’s a 100% increase.
Too aggressive by Victorino but since he started he should have kept going and forced Loney to make the throw.
I think Kershaw just picked up on Shane’s movements. Every pitch Shane took a couple quick steps towards 2nd on Kershaw’s wind up. They just picked up on it.
Coles velocity on his fastball is great right now
That’s what I was going to say, Mark.
The changeup looks good, too. I just wish he had that third pitch though because Manny fouled off a good fastball and a good changeup. He was making me nervous because he seemed to be right on Hamels’ pitches. Until that last changeup of course.
Damn, both Utley and Howard have given the ball a ride and come up just a bit short.
They look to be on Kershaw like Dodgers are on Hamels its just who will get the first break I think
I mean they’re have been hard hit balls and one will leave the park its just who will hit it
Torre switched Kemp and Ethier to get 3 righties in a row against Hamels. we’ll see how that works out.
impressive curveball by kershaw. I’d start sitting on that pitch, seems he has fallen in love with it.
Kershaw has his curve working early on.
Kershaw is throwing darts right now – he looks tough to hit, though Howard and Utley both had two pretty good swings.
Its hard to sit on it with how hard he throws his fastball
thats what I was talking about
Well, there’s the answer. They got to us first.
Loney was all over that pitch. I don’t like the feel of this game right now. The Dodgers look like they are close to having a big-bat kind of night.
After that one, I don’t think we’ll see many more curveballs from Hamels.
Are you kidding me?? Its the Pitcher, BRING THE HEAT!
Yelling into his glove. Walking the pitcher. Better watch out.
Happ/Blanton gotta start getting a little warm. Not to be a downer but I don’t want this game to get too far out of hand
Good walk by Ruiz, sets Cole up to bunt. Maybe a little offensive contribution will set him in a grove.
Kershaw’s hitting that inside corner on righties and lefties.
It would be really nice to see Hamels work on some sort of third pitch. I know he likes experimenting with the curve here and there, but it has never looked good.
Back-to-back curveballs, what?!? Didn’t expect that, neither did Ethier.
Hamels’ changeup is GOOD tonight.
Also, I’m noticing that Hamels & Ruiz have decided to go back-to-back with the same pitch a lot. Back-to-back curveballs to Ethier and back-to-back changeups to Kemp for example.
Man, that looked good off the bat.
Ah, another one missed by THAT much!
Ouch, that pitch Martin blocked looked like it hurt.
RUIZ IS CLUTCH!
CHOOOOOOOOOOOCH!!!!!!!!
CHOOCH!
Damn right! Run production from the 8 hole!!
Sitting on fastballs and Kershaw obliges.
Oh shit, its falling apart!!!
Kershaw’s done. Let’s rock him before they can relieve him.
Kershaw is beginning to unravel. Got to get to him quickly.
Martin is getting his ass kicked with those fastablls in the dirt.
Oh man, Martin is getting eaten alive. C’mon, one more and we could steal a run.
You know, everytime I see a celbrity bounce a first pitch I am always quick to throw stones. Apparently, its tough to get it over the plate even for the pros…
They’re ahowing Troncoso up in the Pen. He’s a good arm. Would love to see Utley smoke a double into the gap right here.
Howard HAS to be Kershaw’s last hitter. C’mon Ryan!
Ryan can open this thing up since they are leaving the kid in.
There we go. And a runner still in scoring position.
THE BIG PIECE COMES THROUGH!!!!
Woah!!! That’s why they call him the Big Piece!
Howard is quiclky establishing himself as one of the best clutch hitters in baseball. If not THE best.
Uh, letting them back in the game is not exactly what we need right now.
Damn, so close to getting out of it.
That was rough, looks like J-Roll couldn’t get the ball out of his glove. Don’t really know what causes Utley to air mail that throw….
You have got to fucking kidding me…
Just lovely.
How much you want to bet Manny’s homer makes sportscenter’s top plays while Ruiz’s probably won’t even make the game highlight.
Great job Cole.
Gotta tip your hat to Manny, great piece of hitting.
I really don’t like Cole Hamel’s all that much. Good pitcher I respect that but it ends there. His demeanor and punk ass gesture after the botched double play was fucking terrible.
Hamels is already over 90 pitches now. He won’t be long for this game. We’ll need several inning from the bullpen. A few more runs would be a big help.
Yeah, I didn’t like it either, Dannie. I wonder if Chase looked at Hamels that way after Manny hit the HR.
Agreed about his body language. Would much rather see that reaction after he gives up a HR, but not towards the play of another teammate.
That was fast, three groundball outs. I don’t think any of them saw more than 3 pitches.
Afraid to throw a changeup to Belliard??? Instead it’s one fastball after another, hard base hit, good night Hamels.
Now the tightrope act begins. How will Charlie piece it together tonight?
nice piece of hitting by Manny – but Cole is still getting hit hard. I would actually consider starting Happ in his place in Game 5. But Charlie won’t.
agree that his reaction to the not-turned DB was bush league, especially considering how crappy he’s been most of the year.
Dodgers are already using their 2nd bench player (Thome now) and will be moving to their 4th pitcher in the next half inning. Only upside (sort of upside) to the Dodgers moving through the lineup.
This delay is a joke! Torre gets to call time so Randy Wolf can go get ready to play baseball?!?! What the fuck is that about?!?
Waste of Jimmy on base. Shane swinging at the first two pitches not even giving Rollins a chance to steal.
Well, so far the Dodgers’ bullpen is true to it’s billing. 3 pitchers have thrown 2 1/3 innings and have only surrendered 1 hit.
Now we get to see what Park can give us.
Is anyone else getting fed up with the announcers love affair with Manny again? I thought we were done with this now that Boston is out this year.
Park looked good. Surprising when you consider the layoff he had. Having him back and throwing like this will be a major shot in the arm for our pen.
Gotta figure we’ll see Madson in the 8th, then Lidge in the 9th if this holds, right?
Park looked really good. 96 on the fastball! Very nice.
Nice AB by Howard against Sherrill.
Here’s the big spot for Werth against a lefty.
RAAAAAUUUUULLLL!!!!!
RAAAAUUUULLLL!!!!!!!
YEAHHHH
LA got Sherrill to shut down out left-handed hitters??? Forget about it!!!
You know I really didn’t want to see an 8-4 type game but it may suit this club a but more than the 2-1, 3-2 types.
Looks like Ethier (L) and Manny (R) will hit in the 9th. Going to be interesting to see what Charlie does. Eyre against Ethier, Lidge against manny???
Lidge closing against Manny would be something else.
Chooch! You’re killing me bro!!
What the hell was Ruiz doing? He obviously lost sight of the ball. Sherrill was rattled. Damn.
Yeah Chris, gotta figure that Eyre will come into play against their lefties like he has been, don’t you?
Great, just what we need. The bottom of the order getting on and setting things up for the top of the lineup.
3 straight hits and Madson looks terrible, throwing fastballs down the middle.
Why can’t we shut them down after we score tonight?
Wow, He really handcuffed Pierre on that one. Nice throw to get the lead runner.
Bski, Hopefully Eyre won’t need to come in here and we can save him foe the 9th.
95 mph fastball up and out to the tying run… oh boy.
Wow, did Pierre help Madson out. Furcal has to be his last hitter. Eyre must be getting ready for Ethier like you figured, Chris.
They have to go up and in with the fastball. Madson has broken two bats on that fastball up and in. Go back to it!
Charlie seems inert…
He’s gonna let him face Manny? Madson is going to face Manny fucking Ramirez…
Wrong again. Madson stayed in and pitched to Ethier. It didn’t work. Here we go again with Manny.
All night getting behind hitters.
YES. Whew. Need this this 2 run cushion going into the ninth.
OK, the EMTs just resuscitated me with the paddles. Our bullpen is going to kill me before this series is over.
Thank christ. Rollins leads off, I want atleast two more runs before I can erlax a little. That was a huge missed oppurtunity for the Dodgers. Now Blake is gonna lead off the comeback in the 9th.
I have been completley neglecting my work for the past 4 innings. This is bad. I was hoping this shit would be over by now.
Good luck with that, Chris. I’m sure every game is going to be a 4-hour extravaganza.
ehhh, that was his pitch. Broxton hung that 1-1 breaking ball
Can I at least hope that we might be able to get to Broxton after we’ve seen him a couple times in close succession, like we did with Street?
He knew they were going to go up the ladder on him and he still swung.
Well this is it. Lidge will likely be in there, Kemp and Blake are righties.
I really can’t take this anymore.
Well, Sherrill was the only chink in their bullpen armor tonight. At least there was one and we tallied a few much needed runs.
Kemp HAD to be sitting on that 0-2 slider (that sat in the middle of the plate).
C’mon Lidge!
wow, cant get bigger than that double play!!
YES!! Way to go Utley. Fielded that tought hop perfectly!!
YES!!! HUGE DP!!!! One more to go.
That was a big double play
deep breaths…
deep… breaths…
three straight for Lights Out!!!!
There it is. Win number 1 is in the books. No problem.
whew!!!! phillies in 6
I was thinking that game one was the bellweather game. Now the pressure is on the Dodgers to even it up.
I’ll be at game four, sure would like to see a sweep!!!
Lidge did get hit, but I’m choosing to look at the bright side. He was aggressive, he went right at the hitters, he threw strikes, and he sounded confident in the post game interview. Let’s hope he builds on what he did tonight.
Good night all.
Glad to see you guys had a place to vent. I didn’t have computer access but was checking up on the pulse over here on my iphone. I’ll have access tomorrow.
man, that was an intense game. Ibanez and Ruiz – I can’t say enough about these 2 in the playoffs. And Howard, stepping up big time.
I gotta go to bed – but I have to say, it feels a lot like 2008 right now
lol i’m really gonna enjoy this series. all what the analysts said we should expect in the series occured in ONE game. glad to see Lidge is managing to make it through. we’ll need him. Park will really help.
Dodgers are gonna be wide awake all the time. they know now how crazy the Phillies can be when it comes to putting up points fast.
the Phillies have to deal with a very good hitting lineup, rejuvenated Manny and crazy ass bullpen. did you see that guy Tonsoco-sumthin? throwin 96 heat with sink at the end? crazy!! and thats their long man??
I’m not sold on Manny. He couldn’t hit anyone fastball. Big mistake pitch by Hamels with the change over the plate. Last series it was the hanging curveball to Torrealba this time a change over the plate. It wasn’t as bad as the curve but there was no reason to go away from the fastball when he showed he couldn’t hit it all night. Although he did have success fouling a lot off.
Also, I have to say I love Dutch on CSN post game. On Hamels tissy fit when Utley threw the ball away “I would have gone out there and ripped his jaw off.” On whether it’s possible to get your mojo back quickly, referring to Lidge, “I know I bounced back real quick when I went crazy.” Love it!
You guys are probably all sleeping but I’m still procrastinating on doing a paper due tomorrow. He needs to be a mainstay with Ricky Bo and Bark, great chemistry.
Got Pedro pitchin tonight, I expect big things. Also, going against Vincente Padilla is a joke; our lefties are going to kill him. My ideal game tonight; Vincente goes through 4 and 1/3 , Pedro through 7! Phillies win 9-5 without any heart pounding. Unless Madson comes in again, I don’t see any big problems with the pen tonight. I put Pedro through seven giving up two or three runs, with the bullpen giving up one or two. Also, did anyone else besides my friend and I notice that Dodger fans have trouble speaking English? They say “Feelies” not Phillies, and they even mispronounce Dodgers. Listen closely, you’ll get a laugh.
PS. Dodger fans didn’t fill the stands behind home plate until about the bottom of the third last night, and by the bottom of the eighth they were almost half empty. What a disgrace to baseball, television networks give way too much coverage to a team that has such shitty fans.
Jayson Stark has a lot of good quotes and tidbits in his article today, so I thought I would pass some of them along.
From Chan Ho Park:
Once he reinjured himself, he decided to concentrate just on getting healthy. So he hadn’t pitched in any actual games for weeks. But “mentally,” he said, with a chuckle, “I was pitching a doubleheader every day.”
“I’m glad I pitched good, ’cause I didn’t feel good,” he said.
“Just because I hadn’t faced guys,” Park replied. “Maybe I was a little bit nervous. My heart was pumping a little faster. I could hear more noise in there.”
“That’s the first guy I faced,” Park would mutter an hour-and-a-half later. “Manny. Man on second. No outs.”
“Nobody wants to see The Manny,” Park said. “Nobody wants to look at The Manny.”
Asked if that brilliance surprised him at all, the 36-year-old Park deadpanned: “Yes. Very much. My body’s not right. And I’m old, you know?”
From Lidge:
“He (Park) probably took some good Korean ancient herb something,” said Brad Lidge with a laugh. “I guess what I’m saying is, he did a great job getting himself mentally and physically ready to pitch.”
From Rollins:
“If you’re shocked, I don’t know what to tell you,” said Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins after his team had won its fifth straight postseason-series opener. “This time of year, great things happen. There’s really no reason to be shocked.”
“But you know,” said Rollins, “that’s what he’s (Brad Lidge) supposed to do. That’s what’s supposed to happen. And if he doesn’t close them out, then we’ll find another way to win — because that is what we do.”
Tidbits:
Only once in the entire regular season — from May 28 to June 1 — did Lidge collect a save in three or more of his team’s games in succession. But he’s now done that in this postseason — in Games 3 and 4 of the NLDS, and now Game 1 of this series.
After Sherrill became a Dodger, opposing cleanup hitters went a ridiculous 1-for-21 (.048) against him.
Sherrill hadn’t given up a home run to any of the previous 122 left-handed hitters he’d faced — dating all the way back to June 14, 2008.
From the bottom of the fifth through the last out in the ninth, the Dodgers would bring the tying or winning run to the plate 17 times — and never once pulled even.
bski – I thought that article was really interesting. Good anecdotes from one game that show you October is crazy in the baseball world. And that’s especially cool when it is your team.
pg,
Yeah, it’s great to have a senior writer at ESPN that has personally covered the Phils in his career like Stark has.
I’m still going through last night’s game in my head. Lots of crazy stuff happened. Tough to process and absorb it all.