How do you know when the Phillies have the Dodgers completely on the ropes and the end is nigh? WhenTJ Simers, the LA Times perennial curmudgeon and Philly baiter, begins taking swipes at Phillies fans, and the Phanatic of all creatures. Check out his column today that was supposed to be about how poorly the backend of the Dodger’s bullpen is:

Halloween, as well as the two days that follow, would have been World Series Games 3, 4 and 5 played in Dodger Stadium.

You get this far with the best record in the National League, the home-field advantage and now everyone in the country has good reason to be ticked.

As you know, Fox will be broadcasting the World Series and it likes to put the camera on the face of every single fan sitting in the stands, these fans as ugly as any in the country.

Nowhere in America are people more angry than those living here. During Game 3 they had their humorless furry mascot put on boxing gloves and take on someone who was supposed to be an L.A. fan, sunglasses, cellphone and all.

The furry mascot punched him out, much to the delight of the folks here who love a dash of violence with their sports entertainment.

During Game 4 the furry mascot took a small Dodgers blue helmet, placed it on the ground and then pulverized it, much to the delight of the locals. Same tired skits, by the way, they employed a year ago.

But this is considered entertainment here, the only bright spot if they draw the Yankees now, getting a look in the mirror at fans who might remind them of themselves.

If you are a fan of schadenfreude, check out all of the articles on the LA Times Dodger’s page.

The Phillies were not supposed to lose Game 2. They were not supposed to win Game 4. But October baseball has a funny way of flipping scripts and forcing sportswriters to hit the delete button on stories that were 1 out away from being written.

Jimmy Rollins hit a game-winning double to drive in Eric Bruntlett and Carlos Ruiz in a walk-off win that won’t soon be forgotten in Philly no matter how the rest of this postseason goes.

There were 2 places Jimmy could have hit the ball to win the game with one stroke – into the stands, or in the gap between center and right field. Jimmy went for the latter with perhaps the sexiest hit baseball has to offer, the gapper. There was no play at the plate as Ruiz was motoring with 2 outs and slid into home to the delight of his teammates, 45,000+ delirious onlookers and hundreds of millions of stunned fans in their living rooms.

Randy Wolf settled down after giving up a 1st inning two run home run to Ryan Howard. The Dodgers nickel and dimed their way to a 4-2 lead that held up until the Phils chipped away with 1 in the 6th and then Jimmy’s game winner.

This game is a microcosm of why there is no logical reason to count the Phillies out of any game. They are simply tougher than the other team.

Game 5 is Wednesday night. Beat LA. No plane rides back to LAX. A fresh Cliff Lee for Game 1 of the World Series. Everything set up just the way Charlie and Dubee want it.

Some other random thoughts:

1. I strongly suggest anyone that is still trying to listen to the national broadcast to give it up and put in the radio broadcast with the TV turned down. It is synced up almost perfectly, and listening to the hometown guys is light years better than the alternative.

2. Comcast Sportsnet showed video of Michael Barkann, Ricky Bottalico and Darren Daulton watching the game winning hit. They didn’t know they were being recorded, and their reaction was great. I love seeing former players into it. Very cool. Hopefully that video will be posted somewhere.

3. The Dodgers are so easy to hate. As a team, they are a great foil for the Phillies. Seeing utter dejection on the faces of the Dodgers after the Phillies literally stole the game away from them is priceless.

4. Joe Blanton pitched ok. He struggled late in the outing and looked particularly vulnerable in the 4th inning when the Dodgers touched him for 2 runs, and again in the 5th when Matt Kemp sent a Blanton offering into the bushes behind the centerfield fence.

5. A return to the World Series is the only thing that separates this Phillies team from being the unequivocal greatest collection of Phillies ever. Sure, the late 70s/early 80s nucleus was the first team to break through and win it all, but back to back World Series berths takes this group over the top. In 20 years, we’ll be regaling the next generation about this team’s exploits.

6. Not to be a killjoy, but the Phillies are winning right now in spite of Pedro Feliz, who has been utterly dreadful at the plate and committed a throwing error tonight also. If Feliz wasn’t a right-handed hitter, we’d probably have seen Dobbs by now.

The Phillies had less than a day to savor their Game 1 win, but had to stew on the lost opportunity that was Game 2 for over 2 days. The extra time must have lit a strong fire, as both starter Cliff Lee and the Phillies offense came to the park looking to put a hurting on the Los Angeles Dodgers. The post-mortem looks like this:

11 – 0 Phils
8 shutout innings from Cliff Lee.
3 hits by the Dodgers.
Kuroda = toast.
Howard and Victorino – 3 RBI a piece.

This game had the same level of pressure as Game 4 of last year’s World Series. The Phils pounded the Rays in that game to the tune of 10-2, and it was the only game in the World Series that you could sit back a bit and just enjoy seeing your team in the Fall Classic without the ridiculous level of hand wringing that goes along with a tightly contested playoff game.

There were plenty of stars in tonight’s game, but none shown brighter than Lee, who came into the postseason as a bit of a question mark. He had been almost equal parts brilliant and dreadful in 12 starts for the Phils in the regular season. Would he step up in the postseason and return to form? Would he become this year’s Cole Hamels?

Umm….so far, so good.

Charlie was right to pull Lee after 8 innings. The Phils were up 11 runs, and despite the fact that this series is hardly sewn up, Charlie and Dubee need to look forward to a potential Game 6 and a possible World Series run. Lee could be lined up for 3 more starts. He’s thrown more innings this year than any other in his career – 256 including tonight. I was glad to hear in the post-game interviews that he actually wanted to pitch the 9th, but credit Charlie and Dubee for not being too much in the moment. This isn’t about winning Game 3 of the NLCS. No one remembers who wins Game 3. They remember the teams that win pennants and World Series trophies.

Ultimately, what we are witnessing is an unbelievably confident, battle-tested team. Sure, the Dodgers won Game 2, but the Phillies gave that game away as much as the Dodgers won it. Instead of dwelling on it, the Phillies made it a distant memory. If the Dodgers took momentum away from the Phillies after Game 2, they wrestled it back somewhere midway through the bottom of the 1st inning.

Tomorrow is a HUGE game. Win, and the Dodgers are broken. Lose, and it’s all square and we’re going back to LA with home field advantage back to the Dodgers regardless of what happens in Game 5. I want to see us rock Randy Wolf tomorrow. No love for the former Phillies. No love!

On the surface, there are several prime suspects in yesterday’s gut-wrenching 2-1 loss to the Dodgers.

Chase Utley threw away another sure double play.
Charlie Manuel overmanaged the 8th, using 5 pitchers after pulling Pedro after only 87 pitches.
When called upon to help shut down the 8th, Ryan Madson and J.A. Happ couldn’t get it done.
Feliz botched a grounder to third to open the 8th.
Park and Howard couldn’t get their signals straight during a sac bunt and wound up with 2 men on and no one out instead of a man on second and 1 out.

All of the goings on in the bottom of the eight could have been footnotes to another Phillies win had our heores found a way to get to the erratic but suddenly unhittable Vicente Padilla. This game never should have been 1-0. I suppose some credit should go to Padilla here, but did you get the sense that the Phillies hitters attempted to get Padilla off his game?

Padilla’s inning by inning pitch counts:

1st – 9
2nd – 13
3rd – 15
4th – 15
5th – 13
6th – 8
7th – 10
8th – 12 (lifted after 2 batters)

The Phillies didn’t have a single inning where they made Padilla throw more than 15 pitches. The Phillies took Padilla to a 3 ball count just once, when he walked Carlos Ruiz in the top of the 8th inning. That was the last batter he faced.

Now, I have to admit to not having actually seen the game , but I listened to every pitch, and I don’t recall hearing Scott Franzke and Larry Andersen discussing how the Phillies were trying to get to Padilla. If anything, it sounds like the plan was to be more aggressive, and a review of the pitch-by-pitch bears that out.

Ultimately, though, the Phils lost as a team yesterday. With the exception of Ryan Howard and Pedro Martinez, you’d be hard pressed to pick another Phillie who had a good day.

After the game, the Phillies said all the right things, and given their postseason experience, they deserve the benefit of the doubt that the 8th inning woes of yesterday will be left in Los Angeles as the team heads back to Philly for Game 3.

A split in LA is a good thing. The Phillies split in the NLDS at home and went on the road and won every game. Now, they split on the road and come home having stolen home field advantage from the Dodgers. Last year in the World Series they split on the road and never lost another game, winning the clinching game at home instead of heading back to Tampa Bay for a Game 6.

If this group of Phillies has taught us anything, it is that they are capable to overcoming pretty much anything thrown their way.

Being a Phillies fan is a maddening, amazing experience these days. The playoffs are always tight, but the 2009 playoffs are already more stomach churning than most of what 2008 had to offer us. Cliff Lee’s Game 1 NLDS win aside, the Phils have had to work their collective asses off in order to win the next 3 games. And fans all over the Delaware Valley are keeping CVS busy restocking Tums and Immodium.

Just a couple of thoughts post-game:

While we await a final word on the Phillies NLCS roster, we are getting some snippets, including Todd Zolecki writing that Brett Myers will not be on the NLCS roster. Somewhere, Sam Carchidi is smiling. This is no big surprise, except perhaps to Brett. He has not been sharp since coming back from injury in September, and I was less than impressed with his Game 2 work last Thursday at the Bank. He pitched 2/3 of an inning, walked 2, and threw just 8 strikes out of 17 pitches.

Assuming Chan Ho Park is healthy, I like this move. Park hasn’t pitched much, but he is roughly 1/1000th the head case that Myers is, and he just feels like a more steady choice than Myers at this point.

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The only former Phillies on the Dodger’s roster that I give a rat’s ass about is Jim Thome. Sure, Randy Wolf won 69 games for the Phils, but he was a decent pitcher on a bunch of mediocre teams. When he had opportunities to rejoin the Phillies, he declined and opted to pitch out West in order to be closer to his home in Cali. Plus, he had that episode where he was trying to track down some poor girl he saw on a subway. Creepy.

Perhaps time has poured water all over great Randy Wolf memories that are escaping me, but recent Phillies success with this current nucleus of Phillies who actually want to be here makes me not give much of a shit about what Randy did here in the first half of the decade.

Vicente Padilla may have a live arm, but he is a certifiable numbskull who never cared as much about winning as the other 24 guys in the locker room or the thousands watching him fuck up more starts than he dominated. I will never forget seeing him laughing and having a great time at Dave and Busters mere hours after being shellacked by the Boston Red Sox back in 2005. He’s a loser, no matter how many baseball games he wins. I hope the Phillies knock him off the mound before he’s thrown 40 pitches.

Jim Thome, on the other hand, is still waiting to get a World Series win, and while I hope he doesn’t get it this year, I still have a soft spot in my heart for the big guy. Thome had 85 million reasons to sign with the Phillies back in late 2002. But he brought legitimacy to a team that sorely needed it. He led the franchise into the new ballpark, and made it ok for free agents to sign here – “If Jim Thome thinks it’s good over there, then maybe I should listen to their offer”. By the time Thome left, the Phillies had gone 34 games over .500 during his tenure, the Bank was filled nicely on a daily basis, and the Phils were on their way to building a champion.

Thome may be the first opposing player ever to get cheered in Philly during a playoff game if and when he digs into the batter’s box during the NLCS.

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The word on the blogs and in the papers is that J.A. Happ and Joe Blanton will be available out of the bullpen for the Phils in Games 1 and 2. That makes a Game 2 start for Pedro Martinez a distinct possibility.

Todd Zolecki reports that Rich Dubee and Charlie Manuel were more impressed than Pedro was with the 2 simulated innings that he threw yesterday:

But is Martinez ready? He threw two innings in a simulated game yesterday, but has not pitched since Sept. 30 and has thrown just four innings since Sept. 19. Rich Dubee said Martinez looked “dandy” yesterday. He said between the simulated game and bullpen sessions, Martinez could be sharp enough to get out hitters.

Manuel agreed.

“I think he’s done enough work that I’m very confident sending him out,” Manuel said. “I think he’s capable of throwing anywhere from like 75 to 90 pitches, maybe 95, maybe even 100. But I think that gets you into the sixth inning or seventh, and I think where we’re at with our pitching and everything, I think that would work. …

Yeah, I have confidence in him because I know him. I know the experience that he has. I liked his stuff (yesterday). Dubee and I stood there, and we were talking while he was throwing, and his stuff is there.”

But interestingly, while Manuel and Dubee liked what they saw yesterday, Martinez didn’t.

“I threw on the sides and in the bullpen but that’s not enough,” he said. “I threw two innings of BP yesterday, but that’s pretty much it. I’m going to let Dubee and Charlie make the decision. My two innings of BP were a little bit erratic, wild a little bit.”

I’m calling bullshit on Pedro. There is some gamesmanship going on here. He wants the Dodgers to have no clue what sort of shape he will be in when he takes the bump for Game 2.

At least that’s what I hope he’s doing.

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I am not much for being on different blogs or message boards during the playoffs games. What I do like is check9ing out Twitter in game, as you get a nice mixture of mainstream beat writers and baseball talking heads interspersed with Phillies bloggers and more and they offer their in game thoughts. Reading Jayson Stark’s or Todd Zolecki’s thoughts from the press box is a unique perspective you can’t get anywhere except on Twitter.

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.

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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.

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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 Carlos Ruiz hitting over .300 during the 3 game sweep.

The 2009 NLDS was an entirely different story. The Phils had 40 hits during the 4 game series, batted .296 and slugged .452 – both tops among all 8 teams in the LDS round. The homered 4 times, 2 behind the Yankees, but still good for second among all 8 teams.

Phillies pitchers finished the series with a 3.00 ERA, good for 4th among the 8 teams.

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It’s been great to see Brad Lidge trying to salvage his lost season with a good postseason. Credit Charlie Manuel for sticking with Lidge, and at the same time balancing that loyalty with some pragmatic decision making regarding how he would manage the pen.

Until Lidge starts striking out more batters, he won’t truly be “back”. And until Lidge can locate his fastball and reduce his walks, he won’t be “back”. In 2009, Lidge had a paltry 1.79 K/BB ratio, which is well below is 2.99 career average. In 2008, Lidge struck out 2.63 batters for every one he walked.

So, last night’s 5 pitch, all-slider strikeout of Rockies slugging shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was probably the most promising sign so far that Lidge is progressing.

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There are several deserving Phillies if there was an NLDS MVP award given out. Cliff Lee pitched 2 great games, the opener and the clincher, and Cole Hamels showed in 2008 that if you do that, you’ve got a good chance of being handed the keys to a new car.

Ryan Howard obviously had huge series at the plate and provided solid defense at first as well. Chase Utley hit for average and had several huge at-bats.

But Jayson Werth deserves special note. He was third in all of the LDS series in total bases and fourth in slugging. His game winning hit was a great example of not trying to do too much. With Ryan Howard at second with 2 out, Werth only needed to drop the ball into the vast outfield at Coors Field in order to give the Big Piece a chance to score the winning run. Pedro Feliz – take note about how to approach an at-bat in a big spot. Pedro could have been the goat in this series had the Phils not won it. His inability to be even remotely patient at the plate in clutch spots is an indictment of Milt Thompson as well, who should be able to command enough respect to give Feliz pause the next time he is up in a key spot with runners in scoring position.

“Get on and we’ll win this thing”.
- Pete Rose to Larry Bowa in Game 5 of the 1980 NLCS in the 8th inning, while the Phillies were down 5-2.

“Get me to the plate, boys”.
- Ryan Howard, Game 4, 2009 NLDS in the 9th inning, while the Phillies were down 4-2.

Great players don’t just stalk the dugout spouting out meaningless clichés. They dig into a batter’s box and knock in enough runs to actually make it happen. They carry the hopes and dreams of entire cities on their backs as they round the bases.

It’s probably little consolation to the 50,000 Rockies fans who witnessed it live, but last night’s NLDS clincher for the Phillies is an instant classic. I don’t use that phrase lightly. But considering the quality of starting pitching, the flurry of offense at the end of the game and the list of improbable plays in such an important game make this a game we won’t soon forget no matter how much longer the Phillies are able to extend their postseason run. Consider:

There will be time between now and Thursday to dissect the Phillies chances to get by the Dodgers again en route to a 7th NL pennant. Today is for savoring the very best that sports has for us. No sport has more compelling, exciting playoffs than baseball. Hockey playoffs are a major improvement over the regular season product, but they do not measure up to October.

There is simply nothing like this time of year if you are a diehard fan of any playoff baseball team. The butterflies that invade your stomach begin before the first pitch is thrown, and are replaced after the last out is made by either abject despondency or euphoria depending on who you were rooting for.

You rearrange your entire life for a few weeks; ensuring that nothing pressing is going to stand in your way of watching every pitch, and reading every word written about the Phillies.

Last year’s World Series win definitely changes the way I am viewing this year’s playoff run. I’m not quite as stressed as I was last year, and the knowledge that the Phillies won it all last year does provide me some comfort during the losses and the blown saves. That said, the Phillies playoff hopes still feel so fragile, because it is still difficult to comprehend that our team is one of the best; a favorite in more series than not. Watching Scott Eyre crumple to the ground, with little in the way of left-handed bullpen options, underscores how delicate the Phillies playoff life is this year.

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Jason Weitzel of Beerleaguer wrote a great article about something I wanted to post about as well: how this year’s playoff run is already much more about Charlie Manuel’s in-game management than it was last year. Credit Charlie for strapping on an enormous set of balls so far in this series. While we may all not have agreed with his use of the bullpen in Game 2, no one can accuse Charlie of being passive and not attempting to take the series by the throat. Bad weather on Saturday negated the use of Happ and Blanton on Thursday, as both were available and pitched in Game 3.

David Murphy has a good write up on his blog this morning lauding Manuel’s managing of last night’s game.

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When I strolled out to my driveway this morning to retrieve the morning edition of the Inquirer, my expectation was an Eagles-heavy sports section due to the 2:15 end time of the Phillies game. There was no way the Inqy could push the deadline that far and still press the papers and get them in the trucks and to our homes, right? Wrong. Not only was the final score covered in the Inquirer, but it was covered as extensively as you would have expected a game that ended at 10:00 est.

Despite all of the troubles that plague print media these days, for my money there is simply no better local sports coverage than what we get from the Philadelphia Inquirer.

In the other hand, shame on Paul Hagen for this atrociously written and poorly proofread column in today’s Daily News. Paul has a handful of mistakes in recapping aspects of the game. Pretty embarrassing for a guy with (typically) a lot of talent.

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Congrats to Brad Lidge for a big save in last night’s game. I must admit that, while I stayed up for the entire game, I did not see every pitch, as I pulled the covers over my head a couple of times when Lidge was pitching in the 9th. He got very lucky on the pitch that Tulowitzki popped up.

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Shibe Times superfan Brian pointed out Scott Eyre’s blog on phillies.com where he opined today on his ankle injury last night as well as he thoughts on Brad Lidge’s save last night.

How can you not like Scott Eyre? Here’s a guy who found new life last year after the Phillies traded with the Cubs for him in August of last year.

Eyre is a gamer, and has done a great job of taking on even more responsibility in the absence of J.C. Romero. He’s the kind of guy that Phillies fans love to root for. Here’s hoping that he puts off his retirement for one more year in 2010.

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Lastly, how annoying was the idiot in the white Rockies jersey and Elmer Fudd hat behind home plate last night? He was over the top with his pitch by pitch gesturing nabout any pitch that didn’t go the Rockies way. Even a Rockies fan had to be annoyed, and I was mildly disappointed that he wasn’t sucker punched by anyone.

In 2008, the Phillies had home-field advantage in both the NLDS and the NLCS. The Tampa Bay Rays had the home-field advantage in the World Series, but the Phillies quickly wrestled it from them by splitting the first two games at Tropicana Field.

After today’s 5-4 loss to the Rockies, they enter territory they haven’t explored since the 2007 NLDS against the Rockies: they have relinquished home-field advantage and head to their opponent’s home park.

For a team that thrives on urgency, guess who’s at the door? A potential do-or-die situation! Leaving Philly for with a 1-1 split may actually be the best for our heroes. Should they be fortunate enough to slip by the Rockies and make it to another NLCS, they may open the series in Los Angeles against a better Dodgers team than they faced in 2008: a Dodgers team that would love to exact a measure of revenge on the Phils.

If the Phillies pull off another trip to the World Series, they could very well be facing a resurgent, focused Yankees team that resembles the 2008 Rays in no way.

It’s time for the Phillies to face some adversity and see if this team has the intestinal fortitude and desire to take their 2009 season somewhere truly special.

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We won’t know until tomorrow which pitcher Charlie Manuel will go with to start Game 3 in Colorado. Pedro wants the ball. Blanton can take the ball (despite throwing 19 pitches) according to Charlie. And J.A. Happ wants the ball, despite being hit by a line drive in Game 2 and leaving after throwing just 4 pitches.

While Charlie didn’t necessarily do himself any favors by having Happ and Blanton pitch in relief today, they didn’t throw enough pitches to count themselves out of the next game. More on Charlie’s management of the game later.

I think it is great that we have 3 other starters after Lee and Hamels who are ready willing and able to start, even if they were called upon on a day off to pitch in relief.

Pedro wants the ball, and that is great, but for my money, Happ should get the start assuming he has no lingering issues with the leg injury from today’s game. If the Phillies had gone up 2-0 in the series today, I would have probably not pitched Happ in Game 3, instead opting to go with one of the righties. Now that the series is tied 1-1, let’s go with the guy who already shut this team down once this year. Let’s go with the guy who went into Charlie’s office to state his case for starting. Let’s go with the guy who is a lefty against a team that hasn’t exactly crushed lefty pitching, despite Cole Hamels’ struggles today.

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Did Charlie Manuel over-manage today’s game? Perhaps a little, but his in-game decisions hardly cost the team the game. They could have unintended consequences in future games of this series, including his use of the bullpen.

With the Phillies down 4-0 and Cole Hamels out of the game, Charlie went with Joe Blanton instead of Kyle Kendrick or Chad Durbin. Brad Lidge’s season-long struggles have certainly cast a pall over the bullpen, but a 4-0 deficit in the 6th inning screamed for Kyle Kendrick or Chad Durbin to toe the slab in an effort to keep the deficit at 4. Since September call-ups, Kendrick went 3-0 with a 3.00 ERA and most importantly, looked far more confident on the mound than he had at the end of last year or the beginning of 2009. Charlie needs to be able to trust him if he’s on the roster.

After only needing Cliff Lee to win Game 1, Charlie may have tore a shoulder tendon after gesturing to the bullpen 6 times for relievers. Major props to Scott Eyre and Antonio Bastardo, who were both thrust into the unenviable task of cleaning up others’ messes and performed admirably in keeping the damage to an absolute minimum. Ryan Madson looked great in the ninth, needing only 7 pitches to close out the inning.

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Losing this game was obviously a huge disappointment, especially when the winning run was standing at 1st base in the person of Jimmy Rollins. The Phils almost won the game in spite of Cole Hamels’ less than average performance.

But I was really impressed with the fight in the Phils today once they were down. They outhit the Rockies, pitched mostly lights out in relief and had a chance to steal it at the end. Credit Aaron Cook for holding the Phillies in check during the first half of the game. The Phillies have 23 hits through 2 games and the middle of the order is batting .500 in the series.

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After the game, we learned that Cole Hamels’ wife Heidi was in labor with their first child. Hamels left right after his day was over in the 5th inning. Was Cole distracted by the fact that he was so close to becoming a father for the first time? I doubt it. What hurt Hamels today was a continuation of him allowing his emotions to get the better of him sometimes, as evidenced by his demeanor in the first inning. His worst pitch was to light-hitting Yorvit Torrealba, who deposited it with authority into the left field seats.

Jim Salisbury says that Hamels needs to find a third pitch that he will actually use.