Behind yet another strong performance by ace Cole Hamels, the Philadelphia Phillies beat the LA Dodgers 4-1 in LA to secure a place in the World Series finals. The story of the game was Hamel's dominance of the Dodger hitters, save Manny Ramirez. Ramirez took Hamels deep in the 6th inning, but that proved to be the Dodgers only run of the night. On the other side Chad Billingsley got himself shelled yet again, giving up 3 runs in 2.2 innings while walking 4 and surrendering 4 hits, including a leadoff homerun to Jimmy Rollins.
Perhaps the story of the day from the Dodger side was Rafael Furcal. Furcal, who made 4 errors all year at shortstop managed to make 3 in this game alone, which accounted for the two insurance runs the Phils scored in the 5th. The Dodgers were just outclassed in this series, and in this game.
In what I think is an odd move, Charlie Manuel went to his setup man, Ryan Madson, and his closer, Brad Lidge, to close out game 5, while up by 4. These two guys had already combined for 7.1 innings in the NLCS. In addition, 7 more innings in the NLDS against the Brewers. Personally, I think in this instance you let your pitchers rest if you can and give the ball to some of the other guys and get them in the games. Then again, they have a full week off to recover so why not?
The series was never close, and Dan and myself sure did not give Philly enough credit. They did look like a tough team, but mostly because they could hit the ball and they had a solid bullpen. What we saw in this series is that their hitting, as good as it is, is not the key to their success. Chase Utley and Pat Burrell each had a decent series, but overall their key was timley hitting and solid pitching.
The Phillies starting pitching was mediocre, but their relief pitching was sparkling. In a grand total of 20 innings, the bullpen let up a grand total of 2 (count 'em) TWO runs. So even when starting pitchers Joe Blanton and Brett Myers faltered, the bullpen was able to pick him up and help the Phils pick up the W. Also, when Cole Hamels is in the game, you want your bullpen to be able to slam the door on the leads he brings, which is exactly what they did in Hamel's two starts.
The shining spot on the side of LA was Manny Ramirez who continued his torrid hitting of NL pitching. In 22 plate appearances Manny managed 7 walks (8th all time for an LCS), 8 hits, 2 doubles, 2 homeruns, 7 RBIs (28% of the team's total for the series) which gives him a .533 batting average, .682 On Base Percentage (5th all time for an LCS), and a 1.067 Slugging Percentage (11th all time for an LCS) and a whopping 1.759 OPS(7th all-time for an LCS, 3rd for players with 20+ PAs). This performance was one of the greats in NLCS history, however was squandered due to the Dodgers inability to pitch well or get people on base in front of Manny.
So the Phillies move onto the World Series, and will be glued to their TVs as Boston tries to pull of miracle 3-1 comback #3 against the Rays, and try not to have the same collapse as Colorado a year ago.
Win: Cole Hamels (2-0, 1.93)
Loss: Chad Billingsley (0-2, 18.00)
Player of the Game: Cole Hamels
Series MVP (decided by the VendorBall Staff): Cole Hamels. Manny Ramirez had one of the great performances ever in LCS history, and was easily the best player on the field, as well as the emotional leader of the Dodger club. But despite his dominance at the dish, his team did not move on and Cole Hamel's team did.
Series MVP (as decided by the league): Cole Hamels
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