Kuzul

After his red-pinstriped heroics of last season, Phillies fans were hoping that Clifton Phifer (Cliff) Lee would be back pitching Game 1 in the 2010 World Series.  After all, didn’t the new Phillies pitcher dazzle the baseball world—and endear himself to Phillies Nation—with his performance in Yankees Stadium in last year’s Fall Classic?

Well, we got our wish.  Sort of.

In case you may have forgotten, here are the “Cliff Notes” for the 2009 World Series.   

Game 1 opened at Yankee Stadium, and our new ace pitched a complete game in our 6-1 win (the one run being unearned in the ninth).  He scattered six hits, struck out 10 and walked nobody.  But it was the way he did it that truly impressed.

Do you remember him catching pop outs as if he were playing wiffle ball at a backyard barbecue?  Lee was the coolest guy on the field, seemingly impervious to pressure and oblivious to the fact that he was ho-humming his way to a historic victory against the most storied team in sports before their intimidating fans.

Lee went on to win Game 5 at home (well, it was home then) and score the 2009 World Series: Yankees 4, Lee 2.

For the 2009 postseason as a whole, Lee’s record was 4-0 in five starts (all wins), 40.1 IP, 33 strikeouts and three walks with an ERA of 1.56. The only reason his ERA was that high was because he was charged with 5 (mostly garbage-time) earned runs in the 8-6 Game 5 win.

The Phils came just short in 2009 and many fans were feeling and craving a rematch in 2010. 

So what happened to prevent the rematch of the two teams considered to be the best teams in baseball?  Two words: Cliff Lee.  Okay, these may be Cliff Notes again, but consider this.

The Phillies did have great pitching in 2010, probably their best staff in recent history, but would you have liked your chances even more with a postseason rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels and Happ?  (More on this later.)

The Yankees—I guess Lola does not get everybody and everything Lola wants…forgive the musical reference—lost out to Texas in its attempt to acquire you-know-who at the trade deadline.  You may have seen that Lee dominated Tampa twice at (ugly) Tropicana Field, earning an ALCS showdown with the Yankees, who he made look like incompetent little leaguers in the pivotal Game 3 of the ALCS.

If it was humanly possible to do so, Lee has had an even better postseason this year than last and is now widely heralded as the best big game pitcher on the planet and one of the best—if not the best—of all-time.  All this after only two seasons on the biggest of stages.

And who could argue with these postseason numbers?

In eight starts, Lee is now 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA.  He has 67 strikeouts and seven walks in 64.1 innings pitched.  Oh yes, he has averaged eight (masterful) innings per postseason start.

SO…WHAT HAPPENED?

What happened on that winter morning when Phillies GM Ruben Amaro outdid himself and made it a blockbuster day.  None of us were privy to whatever negotiations took place between the Phillies and Lee, but we well know the result.

On the day that the Phillies acquired the great Roy Halladay—probably the best overall starting pitcher in the game—they also traded Cliff Lee to Seattle for a bunch of minor league suspects.

The dream 1-2 punch of Halladay and Lee (and who would be able to match that?) was dissolved before it even materialized.  It then transformed itself into “H20,” and if I butcher any more chemical equations, please stop me.

It is hard to beat up on Amaro, who has acquired Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt within a year’s time.  And anyone who even starts to complain about either Roy wasn’t really watching.

But, but, but…we are still left to question what really happened in those negotiations, and why could we not have had Halladay and Lee together for just one season, and then let 2011 and beyond take care of itself?

Would the law firm of Halladay, Lee, Hamels and Happ have gotten us by the Giants?  I, and many other Phillies fans, would say yes, even as I realize that Oswalt pitched great for us.  He just wasn’t October Cliff Lee-great, but who is?

CLIFFHANGER

It may be that Cody Ross and the Giants come out and shell Lee, and Lee could become human again or pitch like he did during some lackluster August outings with Texas when he was suffering through some back ailments.  I guess there are smarter things to do than to bet against Bruce Bochy, Tim Lincecum and those San Francisco misfits.

There are also few, if any, dumber things to do in life than to bet against Cliff Lee in a big game, and the baseball fan (and Cliff Lee fan) in me would love to see him add to his instant-legend status in the 2010 World Series.

In a surprisingly candid media session yesterday, Lee still seemed to be more than a little miffed, and very surprised, that he was traded by the Phillies.  When asked if he watched the Phillies-Giants NLCS, and what his emotions were, he replied:

“Kind of mixed emotions, to be honest with you. I pulled for a lot of those guys (Phillies players), but it’s weird, when a team gets rid of you, you kind of like seeing them lose a little bit.”

Lee has had only good things to say about his former Phillies teammates and about the fans, and indeed, hasn’t really taken any potshots at management.  Indeed, at the time of the trade, he praised them for picking up Halladay, who he referred to as the best pitcher in the game.

And one has to wonder about the mindset of a pitcher who won the AL Cy Young Award for a mediocre Cleveland team in 2008 and has now been traded three more times, despite one of the very best pitching resumes the last three years.  One senses that he will sign a long-term contract this offseason with either the Yankees, or maybe he’ll actually stay with the Rangers, if they can pony up enough cash.

As for Lee’s thoughts if he were to face Halladay and the Phillies, the best big game pitcher on the planet remarked, “I know that’s weird, but part of me wanted them to win where I could face them in the World Series, too. It would have been a lot of fun.”

Yes, it would have been a lot of fun for us to watch as well. And as much as I admire and respect Halladay, if Phils-Rangers had materialized, I would have rooted for the Phillies and for Cliff Lee.  Make that Phillies 4, Lee 2.

But we’ll never know what would have happened, and Phillies fans will have to settle for watching a World Series in which their team is not participating for the first time in three years.

It would have been nice to have been able to root for Cliff Lee as a Phillies ace, or co-ace, one more time on the biggest of stages.  But, as that wise philosopher Michael Phillip (Mick) Jagger once rocked, “You can’t always get what you want.”

What we do get is Cliff Lee in Game 1 of the Fall Classic trying to beat the team that beat his former team—our beloved Phillies.

And what we still have is the trade that—even after the brilliance of H20—just won’t evaporate.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Juan Uribe‘s solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning and seven innings of shutout relief by their bullpen led the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, advancing the Cinderella team to the World Series.

The box score will reflect that Ryan Howard, the RBI machine of so many past big games, looked at a 3-2 offering by Giants closer Brian Wilson with two men on and two outs in the ninth to close the 2010 NLCS.  As Howard looked on in stunned disbelief, so did the sellout crowd, all of Phillies Nation and most of the baseball world.

The Giants were not supposed to be in the playoffs; they did not get the memo.

They certainly were not supposed to advance to the NLCS; they never got around to reading that memo.

Once in the NLCS, they were not supposed to take a 3-1 lead over the prohibitively favored Phillies; they chose to ignore that as well.

And when the Phillies forced a Game 6 and presumably a Game 7 in front of their raucous hometown fans, the Giants were supposed to roll over.  The “Left Coast” upstarts also disregarded that nugget of conventional wisdom.

When history reviews the 2010 NLCS, they may see the Bay Area bunch as one of destiny’s darlings.  Or, history may see the series as a case of the Phillies team being overconfident. 

Perhaps in hindsight, manager Bruce Bochy will get credit for leading a team of has-beens, retreads and  (supposedly) not quite ready-for-prime-time players (including a great young catcher in the making in Buster Posey) past a Phillies team that was well positioned to win it all.

Indeed Bochy, in the jubilant visitors’ clubhouse, was quoted as saying, “We had such a diversity of contributions from everybody. Not bad for a bunch of castoffs and misfits.”

One of those castoffs was shortstop/third baseman Juan Uribe, who compiled only a .214 batting average in the series but hit the walkoff sacrifice fly to win Game 4.  Uribe ambled to the plate in the top of the eight with two outs, facing Phils reliever Ryan Madson, who had been absolutely dominant in the postseason.

Uribe promptly took an outside pitch to the opposite field, driving it just over the right field fence.  The drive broke the 2-2 deadlock and stood up as the final margin of victory.

The Uribe homer would send a team featuring players such as Cody “Babe” Ross (awarded the NLCS MVP), and Brian Wilson, a reliever who dyes his beard black and makes quirky seem uptight, into the World Series to face the Yankees.  Actually, make that the Texas Rangers, who will be making their first appearance in the Fall Classic.  The Giants?  They’ll be trying to win their first title since 1954, when they played in the Polo Grounds of New York City.

There will be plenty of time to preview a World Series matchup that Fox-TV did not want to see.  And there will be plenty of time in the days and weeks to come for the Phillies to analyze what went wrong, and what to do about certain roster spots (and salary decisions) that they will soon be facing.

As for the game itself, it appeared to all that the Phillies might be ready to put a whooping on the Giants, who brought a talented but shaky lefty Jonathan Sanchez to the mound.  The Phillies promptly rode a walk, three hits and a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead in the first. In retrospect, it could have been more, but a 2-0 lead with Roy Oswalt on the mound and a crazed crowd imploring it to the finish line seemed like it would be enough at the time.

After SF tied the game in the top of the third, the Phillies had ample opportunity to take the lead back in the bottom of the inning.  Sanchez gave Placido Polanco a free pass before plunking Utley in the upper back to put the first two runners on.  What followed immediately after was a mixture of the bizarre and the all-too-familiar for Phillies fans.

Utley, on his way to first, scooped up the offending baseball that had bounced off his back, and gave it an underhand lob in the general vicinity of a frustrated Sanchez, who was nearing an implosion.  Words were exchanged by the two, and sooner or later there was a bench-clearing something or other that featured the usual posturing.

When order was restored, Bochy turned to his bullpen, which turned out to be a masterful move.  In came lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt who promptly fanned Ryan Howard, induced Jayson Werth to hit a can of corn to center, and  retired Victorino on a weak grounder to first. Momentum shift back to the Giants.

On the other side of the hill, starter Roy Oswalt was not as dynamic as he had been in Game 2, but yielded only two runs (just one was earned) on nine hits and no walks in his six innings of solid work.  Usually, that would be enough to earn a victory with his new team, a team that boasted one of the best offenses in baseball the last several years.

For those who have been watching the Phillies all year, they observed that their team, despite scoring the second most runs in the league, had an erratic lineup that left lots of runners in scoring position.a single run at all after the first inning, despite:

• runners on first and second, no outs in the third
• bases loaded, two outs in the fifth
• man on third, one out in the sixth
• first and second, one out in the eighth

A lot of the focus for the loss will naturally be trained on Howard, who is literally and figuratively a big target.  Howard, the top RBI in baseball the last five years, somehow did not drive in a single run in his nine-game postseason and only scored one.

Some of this was bad luck as Howard hit a team-high .318 in the series.  The counter point to that was that the Big Piece struck out 12 times in the six game series. Ouch!

Game 6 was a microcosm of Howard’s postseason.  He singled with the speedy Utley on second in the first, although with one out, Utley could not get a good jump on the ball (not his fault) that fell just in front of left fielder Pat Burrell.

In the fifth, Howard doubled to the left-center gap, with Rollins on first and two outs.  A fortuitous carom to center fielder Andres Torres, who played it perfectly with a quick relay throw to shortstop Edgar Renteria, kept the normally speedy Rollins chained to third base.

After whiffing again in the seventh, Howard had a chance to redeem himself in the bottom of the ninth with two men on and his team down by just one run.  The same man who had uttered the famous “Just get me to the plate, boys” just last year before delivering a huge extra-base hit to carry the Phils to a come-from-behind Game 4 win in Colorado did not have the same magic this evening.

Working the count to 3-2, the still-imposing slugger looked at the 3-2 low-and-away cut fastball from Wilson and pleaded to the baseball gods (and home plate umpire Tom Hallion) for it to be ball four. It appeared to catch the corner, and no such magic or luck was rendered.

As a stunned Citizens Bank Park crowd along with millions of other Phillies fans can now attest, Howard’s plea (and with it, the Fightins entry to its third consecutive World Series) was denied.

Silence, just stunned silence strangled Phillies Nation, as that mostly no-name underdog team from the Left Coast started a wild party on their home turf of South Philly.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

While I knew that Cliff Lee belonged high on this list, choosing the top 10 players from both rounds of the AL playoffs was a somewhat difficult task.  What follows is one man’s opinion that you may or may not agree with.

If you were sleeping last night, you may not have heard that the upstart Texas Rangers defeated the venerated New York Yankees, 6-1 to advance to their first-ever World Series since joining the league as the Washington Senators in 1961.

So, who were the top 10 players, including pitchers, in the AL playoffs? 

Do we include anybody from the Tampa Bay Rays, who lost in five games to the Rangers in ALDS? Will anyone from the Minnesota Twins—a team with high hopes, but one that played poorly in losing three straight to the Yankees—make the grade?

How does one compare pitchers and position players?

Read on, my friends!

Begin Slideshow

What are the 10 ways the Phillies can turn the NLCS around and become the first NL team since the 1940s to reach three straight World Series?

Thank you for asking.

After doing nothing against Matt Cain and Co. in Game 3, how do the prohibitive National League favorites right the ship? 

Can they afford to lose Game 4, pinning their hopes on H20 to carry them the next three games?

How can they revive their offense? It has been somewhat erratic in the regular season, yet it is still one of the best lineups in baseball and much better (on paper) than the Giants.

Does their ever-faithful skipper Charlie Manuel need to make any changes?

Check out my 10-point prescription for how the Phillies can turn around this series. Some points may be obvious, one or two may be satirical, and a few may even be insightful.

Begin Slideshow

San Francisco Giants starter Matt Cain got the better of his matchup with the Phillies  Cole Hamels, spearheading his team to a 3-0 victory.  The Giants rode Cain’s terrific effort and more clutch hitting from the red-hot Cody “Babe” Ross to grab a 2-1 lead in the NLCS.

After the NLCS pairing was set, there was much punditry about how the Giants were the only team in the National League—and perhaps all of baseball—who could match up with the Phillies’ Big Three. 

After three games, these three points are clearly taking shape:

The Giants’ Big Three have matched up well with the Phillies’ vaunted H20 and most importantly have overmatched the Phillies supposedly high-powered offense.

While the top three starters are a close match for one another, this series may well be decided on the matchup of the #4 starters in Game Four tomorrow night—veteran Joe Blanton of the Phils versus rookie phenom Madison Bumgarner of the Giants.

The Phillies need to either cool off Cody Ross or have a hitter or two resemble the batting stroke of the amazing Babe Ross.

Matt Cain seemed to have the Phillies off-balance all game as he yielded just two hits in seven innings of work.  The big right-hander did walk three and plunk two others but the Phillies never seemed to have him on the ropes.

The Phillies offense—which showed some signs of life in Game Two—did not manage to connect for any extra base hits.  In the four innings that the Phillies did advance a runner into scoring position, Cain was able to get the needed strikeout (Raul Ibanez in the fourth) or groundouts (Chase Utley in the third and fifth; Shane Victorino in the seventh) to end the inning.

Meanwhile, Cole Hamels was pitching well but without any offensive support, or much defense for that matter.  Hamels was perfect through three innings, but had the misfortune of facing Ross with runners on first and third and two outs in the fourth.

Ross put the Giants on the board with a sharp single to leftfield that scored Renteria, who had led off the inning with a single.  Aubrey Huff then hit a grounder that just eluded second baseman Utley’s outstretched mitt to plate Pat Burrell.  It was clearly a hit, but a play that Utley often makes.

The Giants scored an insurance run in the fifth, although their 2-0 lead must have looked like 12-0 the way the Phillies were laboring at the plate.  Erstwhile Phillie, Aaron Rowand—seeing his first action of the NLCS—laced a double to lead off the inning.  After striking out Cain and retiring Renteria, Hamels induced Freddy Sanchez to hit a one-hopper that somehow fooled the normally reliable Utley.  The ball bounced off Chase’s right arm and into rightfield, allowing Rowand to score.

If 2-0 seemed like 12-0, 3-0 must have resembled a three touchdown lead.  The Phillies were sent down 1-2-3 by reliever Javier Lopez in the eighth, and Jimmy Rollins almost took closer Brian Wilson over the wall in the ninth but had to settle for a long single.  To typify the futility of the two-time defending NL champions on an otherwise beautiful day in San Francisco, Raul Ibanez followed Rollins’ near-homer with a game-ending 4-6-3 double play ball.

So what does all of this mean?  The Giants, to borrow tennis parlance, held serve in a game that was probably more important to them than to the Phils.  Now, skipper Charlie Manuel will apparently take Joe Blanton (9-6, 4.82) out of storage to oppose the 21 year-old Bumgarner (7-6, 3.00), who won the NLDS clincher in Atlanta.

If the Phillies win Game Four, they tie the series at 2-2, and have their ace Roy Halladay for one more game in San Francisco before heading back home.

If the Giants win, they take a 3-1 lead with their ace Tim Lincecum pitching at home with a chance to shock the baseball world and win the series in five.

No matter what Blanton gives them in Game Four, Phillies Nation is praying that their offense–whether carried by Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth  or their own version of Babe Ross–finally shows up.

GOLD NOTES

Two notes on Matt Cain.  Although he just turned 26, he is the longest-tenured Giant.  He also entered the game with an 0-3 career record, and a high ERA versus the Phillies. So much for that precursor.

Barry Bonds got a huge ovation when he was introduced (in uniform) before the game.  AT&T Park may be the only ballpark in America that Bonds would not have been booed off the field.

The last time the Phils were blanked in a postseason game was Game 5 of the 1983 World Series when Scott McGregor started for the Orioles.

For my money, the singing of both the national anthem and God Bless America (seventh inning stretch) were as lame and ineffective as the Fightins’ bats.

Despite a great flyover and a majestic U.S. flag, someone named Ben Gibbard, from some indie band called Death Cab For Cutie, sleepsang his way through the national anthem, while Zooey Deschanel gave us a flaccid, brutal God Bless America.

A tough night for Phillies and music fans. 

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

A masterful outing by “Little Roy” Oswalt and a two-hit, four RBI night by shortstop Jimmy Rollins carried the Philadelphia Phillies to a 6-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants, evening their NLCS at one game apiece.

To the delight of their hometown fans, the Phillies more resembled the team that was the hottest in baseball over the final two months of the regular season.  While their offense was not electric, they did come alive for eight hits, while drawing five walks and stealing three bases.

The key to the game was the dominance of Oswalt, who also more resembled the co-ace that was unbeatable at Citizens Bank Park the last two-plus months, save his sub-par performance in Game Two of the NLDS versus Cincinnati.  Oswalt would yield only three hits, while fanning nine and walking three in eight sharp innings.

Oswalt even took a no-hitter and a 1-0 lead to the fifth inning before he left a pitch where the volcano-hot Cody Ross could handle it.  Babe Ross deposited the inside fastball deep into the left-center seats to tie the game at 1-1.  The encouraging sign?  While Ross also drove one deep to center that Shane Victorino hauled in, the Phils did limit Ross to only one homer.

The Phillies did not exactly hammer Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez, who struck out seven and yielded five hits in his six innings.  They did take advantage of Sanchez’ early lack of control to manufacture a run in the bottom of the first. 

After Victorino struck out looking, Chase Utley—who switched spots in the batting order with Placido Polanco—coaxed a walk, and stole second.  Polanco followed with a soft bouncer to third baseman Mike (don’t call me Brooks) Fontenot whose slightly errant throw eluded first baseman Aubrey Huff.  With runners on first and third, Ryan Howard drew a walk from a full count.

Home plate umpire Dan Iassogna seemed to figure in the fortunes of the next two batters.  Jayson Werth was called out looking on a pitch that appeared to be around Werth’s shoulders.  In stepped Jimmy Rollins with two outs and the bases still jammed.  It appeared that Sanchez’ fourth ball to Rollins (“driving in” the game’s first run) got a little of the plate, but perhaps Iassogna owed them one.  The Giants’ lefty did come back to strike out Raul Ibanez, limiting the damage to just one run.

The Phillies responded to Ross’ blast with a run of their own to recapture the lead at 2-1 after five.  Victorino led off the bottom of the fifth with a rope down the left field line for a double, and advanced to third on Utley’s fly ball to Ross.  Polanco lofted a fly to medium center to score the man known as The Flyin’ Hawaiian.

The two-time defending NL champs gave their pleasantly surprised fans a bigger dose of small ball in the seventh to put the game out of reach.  Oswalt led off with a solid hit up the middle that served to take Sanchez out of the game.  Victorino bunted the pitcher over, and Utley was intentionally walked (curiously?) with the base open.

Polanco, liking the three-hole, singled cleanly up the middle. Oswalt, ignoring the stop sign flashed by third base coach Sam Perlozzo, came around to score to put the Phils up by two.  After a double steal by Utley and Polanco, and an intentional walk to Werth to load the bases, the stage was set for Rollins in the type of big spot he usually covets.

Although Rollins had registered a hit earlier in the game, it was only because third baseman Fontenot forgot to put his glove under a pop-up that any half-decent Little Leaguer would have camped under.  With a 2-0 count, Rollins attacked a borderline low pitch and drilled it to deep center, one-hopping the wall, and scoring all three runners.  6- 1, Phillies, and with the way Oswalt was dealing, the game was effectively over.

In the final analysis, the return to form from Rollins and the little ball displayed by an offense that often seems to wait for the three-run homer have to be good signs for the Phillies, as they still have to figure out ways to score against a great Giants pitching staff. 

Factor in the terrific outing by Oswalt—with Cole Hamels set to pitch Game Three— and it’s now a whole new series with the action resuming Tuesday afternoon in San Francisco.

GOLD NOTES:

Placido Polanco’s RBI single in the bottom of the seventh was the Phillies first hit in 11 at-bats with runners in scoring position.

Babe Ruth, Rusty Staub, Willie Stargell, and…Cody Ross?  With his solo shot in the fifth, Babe Ross became only the fourth player to hit his team’s first three homers in a postseason series. 

Polanco may have been out of the baseline on the play in the first inning where Fontenot was charged with a throwing error.  The Giants did not appear to protest the non-call.

One of the biggest cheers of the night was for both manager Charlie Manuel and Oswalt in the top of the eighth.  With runners on first and second and two outs, left-handed first baseman Aubrey Huff stepped into the batter’s box.  Manuel came out to the mound to talk to Oswalt, who apparently talked Manuel into staying in the game.  He did, Manuel returned to the dugout to a nice ovation, and Oswalt retired Huff to end the inning.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Sports Irreverence and More from the Other Tip of the Goldberg

Being a huge sports fan, I don’t need to bet on games (I’m too destitute these days, anyway) to relish the action.  A rooting interest does help matters, though.

Which brings me to tonight and the start of the Yankees-Rangers ALCS.  I’ve been following the Phillies forever, but I am torn as to which team to support. 

Do I root for the mighty Yankees, even though it’s anathema for most Philly guys to ever root for a New York team?  Make that a New York anything.

Do I cheer for Texas?  They are the underdogs, and I was taught to never root for an overdog, unless my team is an overdog.  And yes, the Phillies are certainly overdogs versus the Giants in the NLCS.

One more note before working out this dilemma in public.  I should not tempt fate by thinking too far ahead and assuming future prosperity, especially in Philly.  Even if some of us were too young to have lived through it, we are still jinxed and scarred by the “Philly Phade” of the 1964 team and other unforgettable collapses by local heroes in all four major sports.

For the purposes of this column—and I’ve already picked the Phillies in six over the Giants—I don’t accept that I may be jinxing them.  I don’t play for or manage the Phils, and indeed, I don’t draw a paycheck from them or from anyone else these days, for that matter. 

Which means, on to my dilemma (other than being broke). 

Reasons to Root for the Rangers:

• The Rangers are the underdogs.  They just notched their first postseason series victory in franchise history on Tuesday, while the Yankees are defending champions and winner of 27 of these championships.  Plus, the Yanks had the better record this year in a better division and boast a much higher payroll.

• The Rangers have my favorite pitcher, Cliff Lee.  Yes, he was only in Philly for a few months and may only be in Texas that long, but many Phillies fans fell in love with the guy.  In a platonic baseball kind of way, of course.  It helped ease the pain when Roy Oswalt came over from Houston, Cole Hamels became the 2008 postseason Hamels and H2O was unleashed.

By the way, to the best of my knowledge, the origin of H2O as the nickname for Halladay, Hamels and Oswalt was right here.

(Excuse the above digression. I just wish I had put H2O on a T-shirt.  Would that make it a wet T-shirt?  Have we saturated the topic?)

• Oh yeah, the Rangers figure to be an easier opponent to beat than the Yankees.

• We would not have to face that ageless, peerless Mariano Rivera guy; we’ll take our chances with the youthful Neftali Feliz.

Four pretty good reasons.  So, why am I tempted to root for the Yankees?

Reasons to Root for the Yankees

• They’re not all that detestable.  Yes, it’s hard to like A-Rod and it’s hard to like the overwhelmingly haughty Yankees fans, but does anyone really hate Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera, two of the classiest winners in the sport?

• “W” used to be an owner of the Rangers and is still associated with that franchise.  Not to hold a grudge, but…

• We would not have to face Cliff Lee.  Yes, we have Halladay, who may more than neutralize the guy, but right now Cliff Lee is the best big-game pitcher on the planet.  And, it would be hard to bring myself to root against him.  Not to hold unrequited man-love for the guy, but…

• Revenge.  Simply put, it would be sweeter to beat the “Evil Empire,” which happens to be the team that beat us in the World Series last year.

As of right now, I’m leaning toward rooting for the Yankees, but only because I think it’s the Phillies’ year no matter who they play.  Let’s go out and prove it against the best.

This may all change if there is an injury or if my confidence wanes ever so slightly for any reason.

And it may change when that cool cat wearing No. 33 (I guess Nolan Ryan had dibs on 34) takes the hill for the Rangers.

One thing I do know: I’m psyched beyond reason to see Halladay v. Lincecum kick off the NLCS tomorrow night.  As for those AL pretenders, let them deal with the two-time defending NL champions, H2O, the semi-articulate magical genius that is manager Charlie Manuel, and the Phillies home-field advantage.

I do profess to know the team that Rangers Nation (if there is one) and Yankees Nation would prefer to face, and they don’t play in South Philly.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

When the San Francisco Giants topped the Atlanta Braves 3-2 last night, they earned their first trip to the NLCS since 2002.

Waiting for them, of course, is the Philadelphia Phillies–the two-time defending champions of the National League.

The Phillies, based on both their success the last few years and the strength of their position players, are considered the favorites by most baseball fans and pundits.  But what of those Giants, a franchise that has not yet won a World Series since moving to the Bay?

Do they have a chance?

What are five ways that the Giants can win this series?

First, let’s take a brief look at how the teams match up.

Begin Slideshow

It wasn’t supposed to be this easy, was it?

Riding the brilliant pitching of lanky lefty Cole Hamels, the Phillies traveled to Cincinnati and left the Great American Ball Park with a 2-0 win and a 3-0 series sweep of their NLDS showdown.

Their reward:  five days off, while the San Francisco Giants and Atlanta Braves duke it out to see who will travel to Philly on Saturday to start the NLCS.  Either team will be considered the underdog; with their win today, the Giants are up two games to one.

Back to Cincy.  If the Reds thought that playing at home–in their friendly confines–would automatically bring them a different result than the two previous games, they were mistaken.  Sadly mistaken.

And two of the culprits that defeated them in Philadelphia would show up to bring them down again before their hometown fans.  Just as in Game Two, their defense was suspect, if not quite as disastrous.  And just as in Game One, they ran into a terrific pitching performance, if not quite as superlative.

The Reds would be victimized by their defense in the top of the first.  With runners on second and third and two outs, starting pitcher Johnny Cueto (who would give two runs, one earned in his five innings) coaxed Jayson Werth to hit a routine grounder to shortstop Orlando Cabrera.  Cabrera’s high throw pulled first baseman Joey Votto off the bag, allowing Placido Polanco to score the game’s first run.

As it turned out, that run was the only run that Hamels would need.  For some reason Hamels dominates the Reds lineup (statistically the best in the NL in 2010), even though they play in one of the most hitter-friendly parks in baseball.

Hamels would go the distance, yielding only five hits and zero walks while racking up nine strikeouts.  If it weren’t for Roy Halladay’s “no-no” in Game One, this would have easily been the best pitched game of the series.  Halladay’s treasure notwithstanding, Hamels’ five-hit shutout ran his career record at the Ballpark to a remarkable 7-0 in 8 starts.

Of Hamels’ masterpiece, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel, not one who is easily impressed, allowed that “He was sharp, and I mean, he was good the whole nine innings.”  Understated?  Perhaps.  But coming from Manuel, it was almost a Shakespearean sonnet of praise and admiration.

It was good that Hamels brought his “A” game, as the Phillies bats only came alive for two runs on eight hits.  Their second run came with two outs in the top of the fifth when Chase Utley got just enough of a Cueto offering to drive it one row deep into the right-center field seats.

The apparent homer wasn’t without some controversy as the play was reviewed to ensure that fans did not cross over the wall to interfere with center fielder Drew Stubbs’ path to the ball.  After the umpires huddled, the home run ruling was upheld and Hamels had a second run to work with.

As it turned out, two runs was overkill for Hamels, who threw 82 of his 119 pitches for strikes.  Indeed, he can savor his sterling effort, as he won’t pitch for at least another week.

WHERE ARE THE BATS?

The 2010 Phillies are a very good hitting team, if not quite the fence busters of the last few years.  Of course, when a team enjoys  the type of games that Halladay and Hamels pitched, and the kind of youthful, self-destructive effort that plagued the Reds in Game Two, they did not need much offense.

Indeed, if you looked at the composite stats of the Phillies’ starting eight, they don’t resemble a team that just swept a series. 

Shane Victorino:  3-13, .231, 2 R, 3 RBI

Placido Polanco:  1-9,   .111. 1 R

Chase Utley:       3-11   ,273, 3 R, 4 RBI, 1 HR

Ryan Howard:    3-11,   .273, 0 R, 0 RBI

Jayson Werth:     2-12, .167, 2 R, 1 RBI

Jimmy Rollins:    1-11,   .091, 1 R

Raul Ibanez:         3-12, .250, 0 R, 0 RBI

Carlos Ruiz:        2-8, .250, 1 R, 1 RBI

Of course, the Reds were even less potent at the plate.  With only 11 hits in the series, they set a record for least hits (ever) in a postseason series.

GOLD NOTES

Was anyone here a baseball fan in the 1940s?  If so, you may remember the St. Louis Cardinals team that won the pennant three straight years, 1942-44.  The Phils are one round away from being the first NL team since then to match their “hat trick.” 

With the victory, Hamels improved his career postseason record to 6-3.  The other members of H2O, you ask? Roy Oswalt is 4-0, and you may have heard that Halladay made his postseason debut last Wednesday.  It was kind of successful.

The Philadelphia Phillies debuted as a franchise in 1883.  Their sweep of the Reds was their first-ever postseason sweep.  There’s a lesson in there somewhere.  If you live to be 127, great things will come to you.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

In a sport where style points (luckily) don’t count, the Phillies played a little “prettier” than the Reds in claiming a 7-4 victory and a 2-0 lead in their best of five NLDS.

In Game One, Roy Halladay was the clear star; in Game Two, the Phils mostly benefited from the largesse of their visitors.

One knew that tonight’s script would be different when it took all of four pitches for starter Roy Oswalt to lose his shutout bid. Leadoff hitter Brandon Phillips, deposited a lackluster Oswalt change-up deep into the leftfield seats.

The Reds scored again in the second inning, primarily because of Chase Utley‘s errant arm.  Laynce (correct spelling) Nix got to first base after Utley made a fine grab ranging to his glove side, but pulled Ryan Howard off the bag with his throw. Nix would score on a Ryan Hannigan grounder to Rollins who threw to Utley for the force. 

Trying to complete the 6-4-3 double play, Utley’s throw—affected by a hard-sliding Drew Stubbs—bounced by Howard.

The Reds’ unearned run—set up by Utley’s two errors—would be a harbinger for the wild things to come.

The Reds’ third run was clean: a monster, second-deck home-run by Jay Bruce to lead off the fourth. And the Reds would score another single run in the fifth highlighted by a Phillips double and a Joey Votto sacrifice fly.

Oswalt would be pulled after a very short (by his standards) five innings of work, snapping a string of gems that he has authored at Citizens Bank Park. 

To his credit, he did kept the game close, and the second half of the game would be all Phillies—helped immeasurably by the Reds’ uncharacteristic putrid play.

The Fightins got to starter Bronson Arroyo, sort of, in the bottom of the fifth. It was a two-out rally ignited by a fielding error from the normally sure-handed  Phillips and a bad throw by rocket-armed third baseman Scott Rolen. With the bases jammed, Utley made them pay with a two-run single to right.

After JC Romero and Chad Durbin combined to keep the Reds off the board in the sixth, the Phils would get one more back when Shane Victorino drew a bases loaded walk. 

How did the Phillies load the bases?  A Jayson Werth leadoff walk, and two hit batsmen: Carlos Ruiz was nailed on his left knee, and Ben Francisco, in  a scary moment, was beaned in the helmet.

But if you thought the bottom of the sixth was ugly, it was Spalding Guide-pretty compared to the bottom of the seventh.

With the heralded, fireballing rookie Aroldis Chapman on the hill, it did not seem that the Phils would be able to touch the phenom.  Chapman immediately got two strikes on Utley, but then came inside on Chase, who immediately ran to first base with the apparent hit-by-pitch. Was it a Derek Jeter-esque bluff?

Whatever the case, with Utley on first, Chapman blew away Howard on three straight pitches before inducing Werth to hit a one-hopper to Rolen. Rolen fielded it cleanly and threw to second to try to get the force out on Utley.  Utley was ruled safe on the bang-bang play

Things were just getting really interesting.

Jimmy Rollins then hit a sinking liner to right that Bruce turned into a two-base error when he seemed to lose the “can of corn” in the lights. The ball rolled past him, and Utley scored the tying run.

Werth also scored on the bizarre play when Phillips dropped the relay throw. Two errors on the play, four errors for the game, and the Phillies found themselves with a 6-4 lead.

Riding a super bullpen effort—two hits and no runs in three innings of work—the two-time defending NL champs tacked on a seventh run more conventionally. Werth singled in Utley who had singled and stolen second. Actually, the stolen base could’ve been ruled a wild pitch, but Utley was credited with the pilfered bag as he wasrunning on the play.

All of this craziness set the stage for closer Brad Lidge to enter the ninth with a three-run cushion. It appeared that he might need all of those runs when he walked leadoff man Bruce. But this was not the Reds night, and Lidge retired the next three batters to save the game for winning pitcher Jose Contreras and give the Phils a 2-0 lead in the series.

On a night when Roy wasn’t Halladay and was also a poor version of Oswalt, the Phillies won an ugly game that neither team really deserved to win. 

But with a 2-0 series lead, and Hamels on the hill in Game Three (with the Reds needing to beat him and Halladay at some point if they’re going to win this series), the Phils will look back on this as a thing of beauty. 

GOLD NOTES

Any resemblance between tonight’s Reds and the Reds team that tied the Padres for fewest errors in the league—with only 72—was purely accidental. And the Cincy players who were guilty of errors were: second baseman Brandon Phillips (two), third baseman Scott Rolen, (a throwing error and a poor choice to throw to second on the Werth bouncer) and right fielder Jay Bruce (losing the ball in the lights was the key play of the game) are among the best in the league at their positions.

The game featured six errors (four by second basemen), two wild pitches and three hit batsmen. Only two of the Phils’ seven runs were earned.

Reds starter Bronson Arroyo has the most innings pitched in the NL since 2006, his first year in the league. Thanks, TBS, for that stat.

Brandon Phillips’ leadoff home run was the Reds’ first postseason hit since Slow Eddie Taubensee did so in 1995. No, these have not been the Reds of Rose, Bench and Morgan the last 15 years—or tonight, for that matter.

The starters for Game Three—a tentative 7:07 p.m. Sunday start at Cincinnati—will be Cole Hamels against Johnny Cueto.  7-oh-7?

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com