Finally a win when it counts!

15 years. The fans of Philadelphia have waited 15 years to see what happened yesterday. No, it wasn't the first time that the Phillies have made the playoffs, but it was their first win in 15 years. On the back of Cole Hamels' strong pitching performance, the Phillies erased the horrific showing of last years playoffs. No more will talks about how the Phillies were swept by the Rockies be reverberating around the city. No more will the Phillies take a huge backseat to their football counterparts, the Eagles.

Hamels went eight strong innings and struck out nine without giving up a run and only giving up two hits and one walk. The start of the game just had the feeling of something special. Hamels set down batter after batter. He didn't give up a base runner until Corey Hart singled with two outs in the fifth. He even got the job done on offense (which comes as no surprise considering his solid performance at the plate the entire season). Sure he reached on an error by Rickie Weeks, but how many times have you seen a pitcher not be able to execute the most simplest of plays, the sacrifice bunt. Not only was his bunt a huge play, but when Utley hit that double (which I don't know how that could even be considered a hit, Cameron clearly committed an error on that play) Hamels scored all the way from first. He's a young guy and everything, but unless the next batter hits a homerun, you rarely see a pitcher score all the way from first.

Hamels has had a rough season, but his pitching hasn't been the problem. Up until the end of the season, he was brilliant as usual, but the Phillies just could not win during his starts. And if they did, it was a late inning comeback where Cole absolutely pitched his heart out and left without a lead but the offense was able to pick up the slack in the last few innings. He should absolutely be close to a 20 win season this year, but despite all the offense we have, they just were not able to get it done for him.

Going into the ninth inning, Charlie Manuel had a decision to make. Should he let Cole go out there with only 101 pitches under his belt, or should he go to the bullpen and call upon the only perfect Phillie of the season, Brad Lidge. As is well known, Lidge was 41-41 in save opportunities this season, but these past few weeks have been a little shaky. He has somewhat lost the pinpoint control that has been the perfect compliment to his electric stuff. But in a save situation, Manuel made the right call. He went with Lidge and saved Cole's arm for a possible game 4 or 5 appearance.

With as smooth as the rest of the game had moved, that was how shaky the ninth was with Lidge in the game. With one runner on, Lidge was staring down the barrel of the tying run at the plate in person of Prince Fielder, and absolutely enormous gun. Keep in mind that Ryan Braun had just doubled to score Ray Durham the previous play. Lidge had been having trouble with the slider during the inning, and the Brewers weren't swinging. Daring as it was, Lidge pumped two fastballs by Fielder. Then he proceeded to go back to the slider on four consecutive pitches, two balls and two fouls. Lidge got the strikeout and was on his way to cleaning up his mess. He now had two outs on strikeouts. A walk to J.J. Hardy and a wild pitch made it second and third with two outs, and Phillies fans blood pressure starting to rise. Lidge promptly struck out the afore mentioned Corey Hart to end the game, and Philadelphia began its celebration.

No, they didn't win the series, just game one. But this win was much more than a win. It was their first in 15 years. Their win was exactly what they needed with the Brewers ace C.C. Sabathia looming for the next day.

Sabathia will be no easy task for the Phillies, but the one thing no one is talking about, which could be a great thing for the Phillies, is that the Brewers aren't going to have a walk in the park either. Sabathia has been great since coming over from the Indians, and his last three performances on only three days rest were spectacular, but let's not overlook Brett Myers. Let me remind you that Myers has been absolutely crucial to the success of the team up to this point. In the second half he has been as close to perfect as he could've been. He did something that I didn't think was possible: he made us forget about his absolutely horrendous in the first half which prompted the Phillies to send him to pitch for the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs, the Phillies triple A affiliate.

This game looks to be another pitchers’ dual. These are two of the best in the NL, when Myers is on his game. If the Phillies can take this game, they have a great chance to do what they did to the Brewers late in the season this year, sweep the series (something that the Phillies were on the wrong side of last year in the playoffs). A key match up will most definitely be Ryan Howard against one of the toughest lefties in the game in Sabathia (did you really think I wasn't gonna mention Howard).

Oh, and by the way, right here right now, I'm jumping on the Ryan Howard for MVP bandwagon. Seriously, I understand that Manny has been en fuego (on fire for those of you who aren't as fluent in Spanish as I am) since being traded to the Dodgers from the Red Sox, but I just can't fathom that someone who played the majority of his games in the American League winning the MVP for the National League. He didn't even play half of the season for the Dodgers. Plus, Carlos Delgado was worse for Howard for longer than Howard at the beginning of the season. So this is to all you sports writers out there (as if they are actually gonna read this), Ryan Howard deserves the MVP for the NL. Lets be real, he leads the majors in homeruns and RBI's. How can you not win the MVP if you lead all of baseball in those two categories? He has even improved his average to over .250 at the seasons end. It wasn't much over .250, but it was higher. He's the most productive player in the MLB without a shadow of a doubt and he basically single-handedly led the Phillies to the playoffs. Right now Delgado is at home sitting on his ass because he wasn't able to lead his team to the post season. THEY HAD THE LEAD A FEW WEEKS AGO! They managed t choke again. That alone should exclude him. Moral of the story, Ryan Howard = MVP of the NL.