Phils Take Lead in NLCS

Chase Utley and Pat Burrell both hit homers and Cole Hamels went 7 strong innings as the Phillies beat the Dodgers last night in Game 1 of the NLCS. The win gives the Phils a 1 - 0 series lead, with the NLCS continuing this afternoon with a Happy Hour starting time.

Hamels struggled a little bit in the early going of this game, giving up consecutive doubles in the first inning to Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez to give the Dodgers a 1 - 0. The Dodgers extended the lead to 2 - 0 in the 4th inning, off a double from Matt Kemp, who was eventually advanced and chased home on a sacrifice fly from Blake DeWitt.

Offensively, the Phillies struggled mightily to do anything with Derek Lowe in the early going. The made some noise in the bottom of the 5th, getting two out singles from Chooch Ruiz and Cole Hamels, before Jimmy Rollins flied out to end the inning. That set the stage for a 6th inning of fireworks from two of the Phillies big guns.

Shane Victorino led off the inning by getting on base via a Rafael Furcal throwing error. Chase Utley then hit the first pitch of his at bat into the first couple of rows in right field, evening the score at 2. Utley's homer revived the home crowd, who was put to sleep by the Phillies pounding the ball into the infield for the better part of 5 innings. The Phillies eventually took the lead in the 6th inning, when Pat Burrell took a 3 - 1 pitch out of the yard to left in what could be charitably described as a flower box shot.

Hamels, meanwhile, got through the 7th inning by striking out two of the three batters he faced and that ended his evening with 8 strikeouts and 2 runs allowed. Ryan Madson pitched the 8th inning and Brad Lidge closed matters with a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

As mentioned earlier, the Phils and Dodgers play again today at Happy Hour (4:35pm) with Brett Myers facing Chad Billingsly.

Notes:

- Like you, I thought Manny Ramirez's double in the first inning was out of the park from the bat. Apparently, so did Manny. If he had run that ball out, it would have possibly been a triple and he might have scored on the passed ball incurred by Chooch Ruiz in the first inning.

- TJ Simers is trying his best to take shots at us in his columns of late (today's offering is here). And for the record, I'd much rather live in a passionate and substantive city like "Angryville" than the shallow and fake "Fairweatherville" that is the city of Los Angeles.

- Good offering in yesterday's USA Today on some of the previous playoff clashes between the Dodgers and Phillies. The symmetry of Davy Lopes and Larry Bowa's careers is something I touched on here in the beginning of the season.

Phils Drop Series to Braves; Mets Lose too

This Phillies team does not want to make it easy on themselves or their fans.

The Phils dropped the rubber match of their final 3 game set with their personal whipping boys, the Atlanta Braves, by a score of 10 - 4. But because the Mets lost to the Cubs last night, the Phils' magic number managed to get down to 3.

It was obvious from the first inning that starter Brett Myers did not have his best stuff. He gave up 2 early runs and struggled with the location of his fastball through his entire time on the mound. He did not make it through the 5th inning, and ultimately, he was charged with 6 runs, 2 of which were not earned because of a throwing error by....wait for it.....Ryan Howard.

The bullpen was not of much help last night either. Chad Durbin was only able to get one out last night and Scott Eyre came in and gave up a 3-run bomb to Chipper Jones.

Offensively, the Phils hung in the ballgame until that fateful fifth inning. They got on the board after being down 2 - 0 on a Pedro Feliz RBI single. Down 3 - 1, the Phils got solo homers from Chase Utley in the 3rd inning and Ryan Howard in the 4th inning to even the score at 3. The Phils got an excuse-me run late in the game, when Pat Burrell scored from 3rd on a passed ball.

The Phils have an off day today to think about how they are driving the entire Delaware Valley to drink and start with their last series of the year against the Washington Nationals.

Pitching Matchups:

Friday: Joe Blanton vs. John Lannan
Saturday: Jamie Moyer vs. Odalis Perez
Sunday: Cole Hamels vs. Shairon Martis (hopefully, they don't need to win this game and they can rest Hamels)

Notes:

- Anyone hear that in-game interview with Davey Lopes? Tom McCarthy, Sarge, and Davey Lopes were talking about Shane Victorino's outfield defense and Lopes intimated that the Phils would bring in a centerfielder in the offseason and move Victorino to right field and Jayson Werth to left field. You might recall that Pat Burrell is the current left fielder and a free agent at year's end. Did Lopes just tip the Phillies hand for this offseason last night or was he just speculating?

- There was a gathering of players late in the ballgame in the 8th inning, when Shane Victorino was leading off of 3rd and, because of a defensive shift, no one was holding Victorino on. Braves reliever Julian Tavarez, obviously not bright, decided with a 6 run lead, to chase Victorino back to third base himself. Victorino said something to Taverez (probably questioning his intelligence in that situation) and the benches cleared and players milled about for a few minutes before order was restored. Despite his diminutive stature, doesn't Victorino strike you as one of those little guys you just wouldn't really want to eff with?

Photo: Yahoo.com....(Photo by Drew Hallowell/Getty Images)

Phils Happ-y to be in 1st

The Phils, behind early offense and the starting pitching of JA Happ, beat the Braves by a score of 6 - 1. The win allows the Phils to remain in first place in NL East, as the Mets also won (albeit they made it interesting on their fans, winning 9 - 7 over the Nationals).

The Phils jumped on a wild Jair Jurrjens early, scoring 4 runs in the 1st inning on run scoring singles from Ryan Howard and Carlos Ruiz. Jayson Werth scored on a stolen base, and a throwing error from catcher Brian McCann.

Phils starter JA Happ, substituting for an ineffective Kyle Kendrick, made those 4 runs stand up, pitching 6 strong innings. He gave up only 3 hits, walked 1, and struck out 2. All in all, a performance that should at least earn Happ one more start.

The bullpen held down the fort the rest of the way, and the Phils tacked on a couple of excuse me runs late, in the form of a Matt Stairs PH home run and a Pedro Feliz RBI single to round out the scoring.

The series concludes tonight with Cole Hamels going against Mike Hampton.

Notes:

- Shane Victorino just wears the Braves out. He was 3 for 4 last night, and for the year, he's hitting .339, with 6 steals, and an OPS of 1.010.

- And by the way, Victorino was safe on that infield single he beat out in the 6th inning after taking a ball off of his thumb while at the plate. The ump got that one right, IMO.

- Has anyone heard Chris Wheeler mention that the Phillies don't have a lot of speed in their lineup? He's said this before, and I don't understand why he says it. Victorino, Rollins, Utley, and Jayson Werth can all run really well. The stolen base figures:

Rollins 43
Victorino 33
Werth 18
Utley 12

Three of these 4 players play "up the middle" and the fourth is a corner outfielder. Has anyone heard why Wheeler thinks the Phillies don't have a lot of speed? I'm not saying they are the '85 Cardinals, but they have as much speed as anyone and probably use it better than anyone, thanks to Davey Lopes' tutelage.

Photo: Yahoo.com...... REUTERS/Tami Chappell (UNITED STATES)

Davey Lopes and Larry Bowa

First of all, I wish nothing but the best to Phils coach Davey Lopes, who earlier this week was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

I always thought it was strange that a guy like Lopes, such a staunch competitor of the Phillies during the Dodger hey-days of the late 70s, early 80s, would go on to be a coach of distinction with the Phillies.

But when I saw the picture of Larry Bowa today in a Dodger uniform, the reverse symmetry of the whole thing with Bowa and Dodgers and Lopes and Phillies was just too weird. It also gave me the uncontrollable urge to use my meager mspaint skills (see results below).

In the late 70s, early 80s, both men were fiery competitors on their respective clubs and shared many characteristics. Lopes was a fiery lead off man for the Dodgers, hitting 28 homers one year and leading the NL in steals twice. Bowa, equally fiery for the Phillies, was more of a singles hitter, but he also showed speed on the basepaths (9 seasons with 20 or more SBs) and was as slick of a fielder at shortstop as there was during his era (2 gold gloves....one he won at SS the same year as Lopes won one at 2B....1978).

(Bowa photo courtesy of ESPN.com AP Photo/Nati Harnik)