C.C. Who?

Even with the announcers talking about how the Phillies better get anything they can and they need to hope that Brewers ace C.C. Sabathia will be too tired to pitch a good game. Well guess what Sabathia wasn't the best pitcher on the field on this night. That distinction belongs to Phillies second half ace Brett Myers. Despite a rough first where a run scored, Myers showed his resiliency by getting a 1-2-3 doubly play with the bases loaded.

What did Sabathia do? Well he pitched himself out of trouble in the first, but right into trouble in the second inning. With the bases already loaded, Brett Myers stepped up to the plate. He had a great 9 pitch at bat against Sabathia, who ended up walking Myers in the end. Personally, I have never seen a stadium cheer so loudly for a pitcher fouling off pitches during an at bat. And when Myers drew the walk, the fans absolutely erupted. There has never been anything like it. The stadium was in a state of pandemonium. And as they always say, walks kill. Shane Victorino made that statement come true when he stepped up to the plate and took Sabathia yard to the tune of a grand slam, the first of his career. Is there any more appropriate a time for that grand slam.

Now, back to Myers. This was his night. He went seven strong innings only giving up two runs on two hits while striking out four and walking three. These numbers weren't Hamels-like, but they were most definitely enough to get the win. And isn't that the most important stat? ERA, strikeouts, earned runt, hits and walks, all that means nothing if you don't get the win. Plain and simple, Myers out pitched Sabathia and got the win.

Sabathia pitched , yet again, on three days rest. But let me say this right now, that is no excuse for why the Phillies beat him tonight. He left pitches up in the zone and missed his spots, and when any pitcher does that, they are going to get beat. The Phillies lineup is just too good and too powerful for any pitcher to not be on top of their game. The rest, or lack their of, is in no way shape or form a reason to why the Brewers lost on this night. That last statement is not directed at the Brewers or Sabathia in any way, but at the reporters and so called experts who didn't give the Phillies much of a chance tonight. I say directly to all of you who thought that we had no chance just because of Sabathia being on the mound: who won their division and who got in because they are the wild card and the Mets collapsed?

Last night saw Phillies closer Brad Lidge throw 35 pitches, give up an earned run, and had the tying runs on second and third. Tonight was a completely different story. In the eighth inning, Ryan Madson two of the four Brewers that he faced. When Prince Fielder was due up, my presidential candidate Charlie Manuel brought in J.C. Romero. It took Romero one pitch to get the most dangerous hitter in the Brewers lineup to ground out to first. And finally, the ninth inning. I must admit, i was really nervous when Lidge entered the game. Not that I thought that he would blow the save, but he's been asking for it recently. He's been making it too close for comfort. Tonight, he made it look as easy as he had in the beginning of the season. It was a one-two-three inning with each of the outfielders getting to catch one of the fly outs. This time, it only took him 12 pitches. That's a far cry from the 35 from the night before.

Now the Phillies take the series back to Milwaukee, where the ageless wonder, Jamie Moyer will take the mound for one of the most important games of his career. The Phillies could possibly sweep the series and move on to the NLCS; somewhere we haven't been since 1993. Opposing Moyer will be right-hander Dave Bush. This match-up looks to be favored towards Moyer. Moyer was 16-3 with a 3.71 era, and he has already shown that he can beat the Brewers like he did on Sept. 11. Bush was 9-10 this year with a 4.18 era and earned a no decision in the last game that he pitched against the Phillies, a game in which they lost and gave the Phillies a huge lift in momentum in not only the wild card race, but their own division race.

Should the series go to a game four, the Phillies have already announced that Cole Hamels will not be pitching that game. They haven't declared a possible starter yet, but I'd be willing to bet that it'll be Joe Blanton. This isn't a bad strategy either. You can save Cole Hamels for game 5 of the series, if need be and have Myers start the first game of the next series, or you have Moyer close this series out and Hamels start game one of the next series. Either way the Phillies look like they have set up their pitching rotation beautifully for the rest of this series and for the rest of the National League portion of the playoffs.

GO PHILLS!

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.