It was the best of times. Period.

The Phillies locked up their 7th National League pennant in a mostly comfortable win on Wednesday night that put them back in the World Series for the second year in a row and helped cement their status as the greatest Phillies team of all-time.

In retrospect, it’s hard to believe that the Dodgers were generally favored by the talking heads. Sure, the Phils had bullpen questions going into the series, but in almost every position on the field, the Phillies players were superior to their Dodger counterparts before and during the series. Starting pitching? Please. When you’re relying on a headcase like Vicente Padilla to stave off elimination, you’ve got pitching problems. Randy Wolf? Just above average. Clayton Kershaw? Still spot-shaving. He may be everything he’s been hyped to be, but not for a few years.

If there was any perceived edge before the series, it was the Dodger’s bullpen vs. the Phils ‘pen. In the end, the results weren’t even close. Jonathan Broxton? Toast. George Sherrill? Even the lefties hit him hard. Kuo? Shane Victorino’s homer last night hit a plate of wings in Harry The K’s, I think.

There was a noticeable level of nervous energy in the stands when former ace Cole Hamels served up a home run to Andre Ethier on the 8th pitch of their first inning battle. Note to Cole – stop giving good hitters a ton of pitches. Eventually they’ll crush one. Find an out pitch for Christ’s sake. I shouldn’t have to tell you this.

But that nervousness was tempered by the knowledge that the Dodgers were countering a mediocre Hamels with a mental Padilla. Padilla got through Rollins and Victorino with just 4 pitches in the bottom of the first, but things unraveled from there. Padilla is capable of folding like a load of laundry after he throws just one ball. And that’s pretty much what happened. Walk to Utley. Walk to Howard. And then Padilla walked into his worst nightmare – the most patient hitter in the Phillies lineup, a guy who likes to remind LA what they let slip away – Jayson Werth.

Werth worked the count to 3-2, as he always seems to, and then crushed a ball to right center for a 3-1 lead. I am sure that Jimmy Rollins’ double two night earlier drummed up a higher state of instant insanity than Werth’s three-run shot, but damn, it was still bedlam.

The Phils never trailed again – counterpunching 1 run Dodger innings with 2 run innings of their own. While the final score was 10-4, it really seemed a lot closer than that. In the 8th inning, a couple of singles off on Chan Ho Park, a walk to Manny Ramirez by Ryan Madson and a single by Matt Kemp cut the lead to 5 with no one out and the bases loaded. A home run would have turned Game 5 into a 1 run nail-biter with Brad Lidge looming in the ninth. Madson squirted out of further damage by retiring the next 3 batters, and 46,000+ finally could see a clear path to the Phillies second consecutive and 7th all-time pennant.

Brad Lidge nailed down a perfect ninth in a non-save situation, but he looked strong.

A franchise that has for so long has been associated with losing, bad luck and fan angst, the Phillies continue to put old school notions in the rear view mirror.

After the game, we headed down to the first base dugout area to laud our heroes, look for Todd Zolecki and Peter Gammons, and check out some of the eye candy disguised as reporters.

The remaining couple thousand fans sang High Hopes with the folks on the field, players included. It was an oustanding moment I won’t forget.

All that was left was a trip to the Majestic store to pay full MSRP for anything that was already declaring the Phillies as NL Champs, 2009.

Video – The Last Out From Sect. 418

Pictures From The Clincher