It’s been a few days since the clincher of the NLCS. I am still pretty spent. Those NLCS games were a bitch. With the exception of the 11-0 Game 3 blowout, every game had a ton of drama.

Here’s some interesting stats and more as we wait to find out who we’re playing in the Series.

Jayson Werth is now the Phillies all-time postseason home run leader with 7 long balls. His opposite field shot to right-center on Wednesday was crushed.

The first ever postseason home run by a Phillie was hit by Fred Luderus in the 1915 World Series. 61 years later, the franchise got its second postseason homer off the bat of Greg Luczinski in the 1976 NLCS against the Cincinnati Reds.

61 years. 4 wars were fought in the meantime. Damn, we are blessed fans right now.

***********************************

If the Phillies wrap up 2009 with another World Series, Charlie Manuel will become the 25th manager to win at least 2 World Series.

***********************************

The Phillies have now played the Dodgers in 5 NLCS. After losing the first two in 1977 and 1978, the Phils have won the last three (1983, 2008, 2009).

***********************************

Jayson Werth leads the team with 11 strikeouts in the postseason, but we’ll take it when he also leads the team with a 1.208 OPS which is just a hair better than Ryan Howard’s 1.204. Imagine what the Phillies offense would look like right now with a locked-in Pedro Feliz, …

While we wait for the NLCS, and by extension, Russell Martin’s hissy fits to begin, here are some stats and more about the Phillies/Rockies series and Phillies postseason baseball in general.

***************************

In franchise history, the Phillies have played 17 postseason series. They are 8-9 all-time in postseason series, and have an overall 36-42 record in playoff games. Charlie Manuel’s teams have 14 of those 36 wins and Manuel’s 14-7 playoff record is easily the best of any Phillies manager ever. That’s more of an indictment on 125+ years of mostly bad or mediocre baseball, but Charlie should be proud. It will be difficult to argue against Charlie as the greatest Phillies manager of all-time when he has just as many postseason appearances as any Phillies manager (3), while also delivering the World Series that eluded Danny Ozark in the 1970s. Ozark went 2-9 in postseason games.

The Phillies will face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the 5th time in the NLCS, the most against any opponent.

***************************

While the Phillies erased the memory of 2007′s NLDS sweep by winning it all last year, it was still nice this year to see the Phils exact a measure of revenge on the Rockies, who ended the Phillies postseason before the aftertaste from winning the division was out of our mouths two years ago.

In the 2007 series, the Phillies biggest issue was their hitting, with the team batting just .172 and only …

The Phillies have grounded into just 68 double plays so far in 2009, good for tops in the National League and second only to the Texas Rangers, who have hit into only 65 double plays. Last year the Phils hit into 98 which was fifth best in the majors.

********************************

Ryan Howard has been intentionally walked just 3 times this year, a startling contrast to the last few years (37 in 2006, 35 in 2007, 17 in 2008). Raul Ibanez and Jayson Werth have been responsible for providing Howard with more protection. Raul Ibanez’s 2009 exploits have been well-documented and his signing has been a big boost for the Phillies, despite his more recent struggles with this year.

But here’s a shout out to Jayson Werth for silencing the detractors and proving that he is definitely worthy of having his name penciled in to the lineup card every day. If Werth continues to hit for power as he has this year, fans will forgive his pedestrian .253 average vs. righthanded pitchers.

********************************

The Phillies are on pace for 95 wins, which would be a 3 game improvement over last season’s 92 win campaign. 95 wins would place this Phillies team 4th all-time for wins in a season in franchise history.

The Phillies franchise is well-known for being the first professional sports team to reach 10,000 losses. They are currently over 1,100 games under .500, meaning it will take 56 years of the Phillies …

With tonight’s 4-0 combined pitching gem by the Phils pitchers, the team has either shut out or held their opponent to 1 run in 11 of 87 games this year, roughly 13% of the time. Last year, the Phils did this 23 times at a clip of about 14% of the time. In 2007, the Phils held teams to 1 or 0 runs 10% of the time. So despite all of the pitching woes this year, the Phillies are still getting their fair share of shutdown games from their hurlers, although it hardly feels that way sometimes, doesn’t it?

*****************************************

After a .423 winning pct. in June, the Phils have absolutely caught on fire with a .750 winning pct. in July. The Phillies have their largest lead in the division at 5 games, and they are 1 game shy of their high water mark in terms of games over .500. On June 4 and June 11, they were 12 games over .500.

The Fightins have held onto first place since May 29th, when they were a .5 game behind the New York Mets.

*****************************************

Since being benched in late June, Jimmy Rollins is on a tear. His first 2 games back after his benching saw him go 0-8 against the Braves. Since then, however, he is batting a robust .405 with a .519 OBP and a 1.138 OPS. Not surprisingly, the Phils are 9-2 since J-Roll woke up from his season-long …