Yankees' World Series Game 6 Hopes Hinge on Pettitte, Home Park
(Bloomberg) -- The New York Yankees are back at their Bronx ballpark and can close out their 27th World Series title behind a pitcher with the most postseason wins in Major League Baseball history.
The Yankees hold a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series and have Andy Pettitte pitching Game 6 tonight against the defending-champion Philadelphia Phillies, who will start with Pedro Martinez.
The Yankees, who had the best home record in baseball this season at their $1.5 billion stadium, can become just the second team in 86 years to win a World Series in their first year in a new ballpark. Of the team's previous 26 titles, the last of which came in 2000, only nine were clinched at Yankee Stadium.
''This is the place we want to close it out,'' Yankees outfielder Nick Swisher said yesterday. ''We're here in front of our home fans, a place where we feel extremely comfortable, and we want to go out and do this.''
The series returned to New York after the Phillies ended a three-game losing skid two days ago in Philadelphia. It's the first time since 2003 that the World Series has been extended to six games. The previous five ended in four or five games, the longest such streak in history.
''These guys are the champs, they're not going to lay down for us,'' said Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia, who would pitch in the decisive seventh game tomorrow, if needed. ''But we have a lot of experience in this clubhouse in these situations, so it's up to us to get it done.''
Pettitte in the Playoffs
Pettitte has more World Series experience than all but one starting pitcher in history, former Yankee Whitey Ford. Pettitte's 17 postseason wins are the most all-time, as are his five victories in series-clinching games.
The 37-year-old Pettitte was the winning pitcher as the Yankees defeated the Minnesota Twins in the first round of the playoffs and again when they beat the Los Angeles Angels in the American League Championship Series.
''To be able to hopefully pitch the game that will bring a 27th world championship to this organization, to this city, this is what we set out to do,'' Pettitte said. ''I just feel very fortunate to have this opportunity.''
Las Vegas oddsmakers give the Yankees a 66 percent chance of winning tonight's game, said RJ Bell, president of Las Vegas- based handicapping information Web site Pregame.com. They're given an 87 percent chance to win the series, as a bettor would have to wager $650 to earn $100, plus the initial stake.
Two-Thirds
Of the past 60 teams to hold a 3-2 World Series lead, 40 have gone on to win the title.
''We took two of three (games) on the world champions' home field. We feel pretty good about that,'' Yankees first baseman Mark Teixeira said. ''Now we're in the same spot as we were in the ALCS, coming back home with a chance to close it out.''
This is the 24th time a team has come home for Game 6 holding a 3-2 series lead. Nineteen of the previous 23 won the World Series, including the past six.
''Any time you have a close-out game, you want to close it out,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ''But it takes more than wanting to do it. You have to execute, you have to have good at-bats, you have to do a lot of things. We had a chance in Game 5 and we didn't get it done.''
The Yankees have lost their past three games with an opportunity to close out the World Series, having also lost Games 6 and 7 in 2001 against Arizona.
1979
The Phillies are seeking to become just the seventh team to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the World Series by winning the final two games on the road. The last to do so was the 1979 Pittsburgh Pirates against the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees are 6-1 at home during the playoffs and have won 37 of their past 46 games at their new ballpark. Since the franchise opened the former Yankee Stadium with a championship in 1923, the only other team to win a World Series in its first year in a new stadium was the 2006 St. Louis Cardinals.
''Getting to play here on our home field, in front of the New York fans makes a ton of difference,'' Yankee reliever David Robertson said in an interview. ''It would be great to win a World Series here and a great start for this ballpark.''
(c) 2009 BLOOMBERG L.P. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
New Yorkers should know better by now.
When Philadelphia shortstop Jimmy Rollins talks, they should listen.
He had the folks in Queens in a tizzy prior to the 2007 season when he announced that his team, the Phillies, not the overrated New York Mets, were the team to beat in the NL East. Turned out he was right, even after a slow start.
So what happens?
The Phillies find themselves back on baseball's center stage, getting ready to make their run at becoming only the fourth NL team to win back-to-back world championships, and Rollins sends out a word of caution to the overzealous Yankee fans.
"Well of course we're going to win," he pronounces on the eve of Game 1. "If we are nice we'll let it go six, but I'm thinking five and close it out at home."
After a day of the New York media wringing its hands in dismay, and the boys in the Bronx feeling betrayed by Rollins announcement, the Phillies took step one in their stroll to the world championship with a 6-1 victory in the first World Series game played at the new Yankee Stadium.
And it wasn't that close.
With Cliff Lee reinforcing the brilliance of the Phillies for passing on Roy Halladay of Toronto, and trading for Lee from Cleveland at the July 31 deadline, the Phillies only led 2-0 after seven innings but it seemed like a rout. The run the Yankees scored wasn't even an earned run, Rollins' errant throw on a possible double play ending Lee's shutout bid in the ninth.
But Lee did go a full nine, and while his former Indians teammate CC Sabathia is getting paid more than any pitcher in the history of the game, Lee is the one who is enjoying a postseason among the best in history. He's now 3-0 in four playoff starts, allowing two earned runs, 20 hits and three walks and striking out 30 in 33 1/3 innings.
What's more, with his complete-game effort in Game 1, the Phillies are playing with house money in Game 2 on Thursday night. Worst-case scenario, they go home having split the first two games at Yankee Stadium, and with the next three at Citizens Bank Park, where they have won four of five games this postseason by a combined 35-14 score.
Pedro Martinez, who describes himself as "the most influential guy to play in Yankee Stadium," starts for the Phillies in Game 2 against A.J. Burnett. And while Martinez turned 38 on Sunday, he is rested after the long layoff between the NLCS and the World Series. After allowing two hits in seven innings to the Dodgers in Game 2 of the NLCS, Martinez showed that taking off the first half of the season and resting was wise.
What's more, thanks to Lee and the fact the teams have a scheduled day off on Friday, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel doesn't have to push the envelope with Martinez. If he gets five or six strong innings, the bullpen is rested. Having finished off the Dodgers in five games, and thanks to Lee's complete game on Wednesday, the bullpen hasn't been asked to get an out since Oct. 21.
Yes, the Yankees had a best-in-baseball regular-season record of 103-59, and won the AL pennant.
The postseason, however, is a new season.
Think about it.
We haven't seen the team with the best record in baseball win a World Series since the 1998 Yankees, who were 114-48. That's 10 years in which the best in the regular season has been a bust in the postseason.
And this isn't the All-Star Game or interleague play, where the AL has been dominant. This is the World Series, where the NL and AL have split the last eight world championships.
Yes, the Yankees have won more world championships (26) than any team in baseball, but despite having the biggest payroll in baseball each year in the last decade they haven't won a world championship in that stretch, and they are in the World Series for the first time in six years.
The popular thinking is to rally around the Yankees offense, which has the glittery stats.
The numbers, however, don't add up to make them any more of an offensive factor than the Phillies, who led the NL in runs scored. Yes, they scored 95 fewer runs than the 915 the Yankees posted, but they also did it despite being in the NL, where pitchers hit.
And the Phillies have the type of rotation depth that they could afford to slip J.A. Happ into the bullpen, giving Scott Eyre left-handed help, and allowing Manuel more flexibility in late innings by pairing up Happ and Eyre with right-handers Brett Myers and Ryan Madson in bridging the game from the starter to closer Brad Lidge.
The Yankees, meanwhile, again have the highest payroll in baseball, but are worried enough about the rotation that they are looking at asking Sabathia to work on three days of rest once, possibly twice, in the World Series. That comes after he handled a three-day turnaround between ALCS starts, but it also comes at a time in which he already has worked a career-high 266 2/3 innings in his first year with the Yankees.
See, it's not like Jimmy Rollins was just talking to hear himself talk, and irritate New Yorkers.
He had a basis for his beliefs.
And he wanted to warn the Yankees and their fans to try and minimize the disappointment.
(c) 2009 Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
Yanks are proof you have to spend wisely
The free-spending New York Yankees in recent years have blundered their way through paydays without cashing in on a world championship since 2001.
But now look at them.
The Yankees have finally figured out not only how to outspend the rest of baseball, but how to spend wisely. And the truth, hard as it may be for some to admit, is that the Yankees are one victory away from their first World Series appearance since 2003.
Damn Yankees.
They have been an easy team to hate. They have thrown baseball's payroll structure out of whack, coming into this season, for example, not only with the highest payroll in baseball, but more than $50 million bigger than the nearly $150 million payroll of the Mets, who ranked No. 2.
And the Yankee haters have been able to take joy in the fact that despite how much money they have spent, they haven't been able to buy a world championship since 2000.
The Yankees have been home stoking the fireplace in late October while their archnemesis, Boston, has won two world championships since the Yankees last celebrated, and Philadelphia, St. Louis, the Chicago White Sox, Florida, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim and Arizona have all hung up a world championship banner, too.
The Yankees didn't even get to the postseason last year, and they were victims of first-round eliminations the three postseasons before that. They only won four postseason games the last four years.
And then along comes 2009.
The Yankees not only spent more money than anybody else, but they spent it wiser.
General manager Brian Cashman and his lieutenants have, in the last few years, learned from their mistakes, and are ready to cash in.
Their pending clinch in the ALCS against the Angels underscores why the Yankees are prepared to return to the Fall Classic.
It was lefty CC Sabathia, a free-agent signee during the offseason, who dominated the Angels for eight innings in Tuesday's Game 4 victory. On Thursday night it is A.J. Burnett, the other free-agent starting pitcher the Yankees signed last winter, who gets the chance to wrap up the AL pennant tonight.
And these are not postseason wonders.
Sabathia, given that seven-year, $161 million deal last offseason, is 3-0 with a 1.19 ERA in his three postseason starts, including that eight inning domination on only three days of rest on Tuesday, after a 19-8, 3.37 ERA regular season that brought him Cy Young consideration.
Burnett, who signed a five-year, $82.5 million free-agent deal, was 13-9 with a 4.04 regular season ledge before seeing the Yankees win his first two postseasons starts, even though he doesn't have a decision to go with his 2.19 ERA.
What should scare the rest of baseball is after a run of free-agent blunders since their last world championship, which saw the Yankees waste multiyear deals worth multimillions on the likes of Carl Pavano, Kyle Farnsworth, Jaret Wright, Steve Karsay and Luis Vizcaino, the Yankees appear to have figured it out.
Knowing how to spend money is every bit as important as being able to spend money.
It is why a Tampa Bay, despite having the second lowest payroll in baseball, stunned the rest of the AL by winning the AL East a year ago.
It is why the Toronto Blue Jays stumbled into oblivion this year, under the guidance of recently dismissed general manager J.P. Riccardi, and deals like the seven-year, $126 million albatross he gave Vernon Wells.
And it is why this year, the Yankees are a win away from a best-of-seven showdown with NL champion Philadelphia — another team that showed it was willing to make that extra effort to add that missing ingredient to get a shot at becoming the first NL team to win back-to-back world championships since the 1975-76.
The Phillies landed Cliff Lee to fill out their rotation at the end of July when other teams balked, including the Dodgers and the Angels. Lee followed up, going 7-4 in 12 regular-season starts for the Phillies, but going 2-0 in the postseason starts and allowing only two earned runs in 24 1/3 innings.
The Dodgers, who Philadelphia knocked off in the NLCS, hemmed and hawed and found themselves stuck with the likes of Arizona giveaway Jon Garland, who didn't even make the NLCS roster, and NLCS elimination loser Vicente Padilla, who Texas was so anxious to unload that it released him despite still having to pay him more than $4 million.
As well as Padilla did initially pitch for the Dodgers, when they needed him the most, on Wednesday against the Phillies, he gave up six runs and never retired a batter in the fourth.
The Angels passed on the price tag that Lee carried from Cleveland, hoping to outsmart Tampa Bay by taking on erratic Scott Kazmir. The Angels should have known better. The Rays, after all, were still in the midst of the AL postseason hunt when they unloaded Kazmir, who has given up nine runs in 10 innings in two postseason starts, both of which the Angels lost.
It has been an expensive lesson for the Yankees, who have led the majors in payroll for 11 consecutive seasons. During their five-year World Series drought, they opened the season with an average payroll of $197 million, more than any payroll ever paid by a team other their own.
This year, is appears the Yankees have learned from their past mistakes.
(c) 2009 Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
Phils learn lessons of '07 failures vs. Rockies
DENVER - While the Philadelphia players sprayed champagne in the visiting clubhouse at Coors Field after their 5-4 win Monday over the Rockies to clinch the NLDS, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel had a flashback.
Two years ago, in the same clubhouse, the sounds of silence were deafening for the Phillies. The Phillies had ended a 14-year postseason drought in 2007, putting three consecutive seasons of second-place frustration to rest by claiming the National League East and felt invincible.
Then reality hit. Good as the Phillies thought they were, the Rockies left them in stunned silence after a 2-1 win at Coors Field, as Colorado swept the NL Division Series.
This time around, it was the Phillies who provided the silencing effect to the sellout crowd at Coors Field and the Rockies. It was the Phillies who not only took three of four from the Rockies, but also won back-to-back games in Coors Field, where the Rockies had not only gone 50-31 during the regular season, but had been 42-18 since Jim Tracy became the manager.
And the irony wasn't lost on Manuel.
"Definitely last year's experience helped our guys," Manuel said of the 2008 world championship the Phillies possess, "but I think it goes back to (2007). The fact they beat us three straight, kind of told us that we weren't quite ready, and that we had to improve mentally and physically.
"My first meeting I have in spring training, we talked about it and it can get a little hot. I'd call guys out and tell them they couldn't be scared. When you get in the moment, if you're scared, you're not going to win. It took us a little while to get over that."
Mission accomplished.
Now the Phillies are on a mission to reinforce what they proved a year ago when they went on an 11-3 postseason run, losing one game in each series while knocking off Milwaukee in the Division Series, the Dodgers in the NLCS and Tampa Bay in the World Series.
They again face the Dodgers in the NLCS starting Thursday at Dodger Stadium.
And there's no reason to doubt the Phillies' ability to get the job done. They are a team with superstars, but it's a team effort that gets the job done. And it is Manuel who is a master at mixing and matching his way through games in a method that at time seems insane, but often proves successful.
Think about Monday's Game 4 Division Series-clinching victory. After seeing Ryan Madson turn a 2-1 eighth-inning lead into a 4-2 deficit, the Phillies not only rallied against Rockies closer Huston Street to take a 5-4 lead in the ninth, but then saw Manuel call on lefty Scott Eyre, who turned his ankle in Game 3 on Sunday, to open the bottom of the ninth.
In the end, however, it was Brad Lidge who was summoned to get the final out, and for the second night in a row he did it by retiring Rockies MVP Troy Tulowitzki -- a fly ball to left to end Game 3 and a strikeout to end Game 4.
The Phillies' target is to become the first National League team since the 1975-76 Cincinnati Reds to win back-to-back World Series. Heck, there hasn't even been an NL team that won a World Series and got back to the World Series the next full season since Atlanta knocked off Cleveland in six games in 1995 and then got knocked off by the Yankees in six games in 1996.
"This is the second step in a four-step process for us to get to where we are trying to get," Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard said in reference to a third consecutive NL East title followed by the elimination of the Rockies in the Division Series. "We said we weren't going to forget what happened (in 2007), that it was something we could use to make us better.''
It has.
Their confidence has grown with their success. It's why they can walk onto a foreign field and still feel at home. They were 48-33 on the road during the regular season, matching the Los Angeles Angels for the best road record in the big leagues. And they added to that with the two wins at Coors Field, where the Rockies won more home games than any other NL team except San Francisco.
And they have patched some holes. There is a remaining nucleus from 2007 that includes catcher Carlos Ruiz, Howard, second baseman Chase Utley, shortstop Jimmy Rollins, center fielder Shane Victorino, right fielder Jayson Werth and pitchers Cole Hamels and Brett Myers. But there have been major reinforcements from outside the organization as well with the likes of closer Brad Lidge, starters Cliff Lee and Joe Blanton, third baseman Pedro Feliz and left fielder Raul Ibanez.
The new faces have meshed well with the old crew.
"The last three years I feel like our fan base has grown and nationally people have started talking about our team and how we play hard and hustle, and that they like our talent," said Manuel. "I look at them and say without a doubt in all my years in baseball, this is the best attitude, the best chemistry I've ever seen on a team I've been on.
"I give our guys all the credit. We are loose, and if you ask me why we are loose, it's because of who we have on this team."
(c) 2009 Fox Sports Interactive Media, LLC. All rights reserved.
Pedroia, Red Sox begin quest to get back to World Series
Dustin Pedroia agreed that it's starting to seem like a routine.
For the third year in a row, in the third year of the Woodland native's MLB career, his Boston Red Sox will face the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the American League Division Series.
"Obviously we are used to each other," Pedroia told me in a cell phone conversation Wednesday afternoon. "We have played each other a lot."
The Angels won the regular season series (5-4), but the Red Sox have knocked the Angels out of the division series two straight years, including a 2007 sweep en route to a World Series championship for Boston. Game 1 is today at 6:30 p.m. in Anaheim.
The BoSox head into the playoffs with a four-game win streak, which preceded six straight losses.
Pedroia said the Sox were more concerned with healing banged up players towards the end of the season than winning once the New York Yankees had secured the American League East title.
"We wanted to get everyone healthy and get our pitching back in order," the 2008 AL MVP said.
Speaking like a team's most valuable player, Pedroia said his biggest goal this season was to be consistent and help his team win.
Pedroia scored more runs (115) than all his teammates and had the second most hits (185) on a high-powered offense that includes Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz and Jacoby Ellsbury.
In the final two games of the regular season, Pedroia hit two home runs at Fenway Park.
Asked if he will be sporting the long ball throughout the playoffs, Pedroia laughed and said, "my job is to get on base and score runs.
"If I end up hitting it out, I hit it out."
Pedroia also said the biggest thing for him to do is startup the Red Sox's offense.
And he's certainly done a good job at it, even though he finished with a career low .296 batting average this season. The Red Sox finished third in overall runs scored (872) between both AL and National League teams in 2009, trailing only the Yankees (915) and Angels (883).
Speaking of the Yankees, Pedroia said his team's goal at the start of the season was to beat New York for the AL East title, but, "the Yankees got extremely hot and didn't really cool off."
So the Red Sox (95-67), who finished with the third best record in all of baseball, had no choice but to settle for the AL Wild Card.
"The biggest thing is that when (the Yankees) put (the division) away, (we) got to get in (the playoffs)," Pedroia explained.
"There is four teams in the American League still playing. We want to try to get it to two, then to one and play for it all. We are just trying to play good baseball right now."
ALDS Predictions
Red Sox vs. Angels -- While the Angels (97-65) have earned home-field advantage in this series, the Red Sox have eliminated the Angles the last three times the two clubs have faced each other in the playoffs (2008 ALDS, 2007 ALDS, 2004 ALDS). The Red Sox are an impressive 9-1 against the Angels in the playoffs since 2004. Beating the Angels, though, will be no easy task for the Sox.
"They have a lot of speed and they have power as well," Pedroia said. "Our biggest thing is to keep the speedy guys off the bases and we should be OK."
And I agree with Pedroia, keep Bobby Abreu, Kendry Morales and Chone Figgins off the bases, and the Sox should be able to knock off the AL West champions. Plus if I picked against the Red Sox -- especially this early in the playoffs -- I'd get some angry phone calls from my grandmother who was born in Boston. PREDICTION: Red Sox in five
Twins vs. Yankees -- Yea, I know this prediction (amongst the following three are made after Game 1s have been played), but I'm pretty set in my ways, and I couldn't get a hold of Dustin until Wednesday. ...
The Minnesota Twins (87-76) forced a tiebreaker to edge out the Detroit Tigers (86-77) for the AL Central title. The Yankees (103-59) had the best record in baseball, along with a dominating pitching staff and lineup to backup their case. The Yankees haven't advanced to the American League Championship Series since 2004; they're due to return. And just to refresh your memory, the Yankees faced the Red Sox that year.
Personally, I've had no choice but to be a Yankee fan my entire life -- my father was born and raised in the Bronx -- and the team hasn't looked this good in years. Even if it causes a family feud, I'm hoping to see the Sox and Yanks face each other once again. Pedroia didn't seem to mind the idea, either, when I pitched it to him on Wednesday.
"That would be exciting," he said. "The fans love it, the media loves it, and everyone enjoys those games. It would definitely be fun." PREDICTION: Yankees in four.
NLDS Predictions
Rockies vs. Phillies -- As I said before, I'm pretty set in my ways. The fact that the Colorado Rockies (92-70) will have to make due without ace Jorge De La Rosa certainly doesn't help their case against the defending World Series champions. Before the series began, I knew that the Philadelphia Phillies' (93-69) Cliff Lee would be tough to beat. In fact, I figured the 2008 AL Cy Young winner would beat the NL Wild Card Rockies (92-70) twice in this series. One down, one more to go? PREDICTION: Phillies in five
Cardinals vs. Dodgers -- The Los Angeles Dodgers (95-67) finished the year with the best record in the NL and were awarded the right to home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. The Dodgers were also awarded a seeding in which they go up against arguably the most talented club in the NL in the St. Louis Cardinals (91-71). Despite the Cardinals dropping Game 1, I still believe they have a better starting rotation than the Dodgers and a better lineup. PREDICTION: Cardinals in Four
(c) 2009 - Daily Democrat.
Manuel kept Phillies on even keel
Now that the Phillies have clinched their third consecutive National League East title, Derek Jeter's insights are worth remembering.
Jeter, the New York Yankees shortstop and four-time World Series champion, has a favorite saying.
"The hottest teams win in the playoffs," he often says, the wording varying slightly but the idea consistent. "But the best teams in baseball are the ones who get there."
The Phillies have proved that - and no matter what happens in October - they were one of the best teams of 2009.
Their achievement matches the longest streak in franchise history (Danny Ozark managed the team to division crowns from 1976 to '78) and is a true accomplishment, regardless of a bumpy landing and questions concerning their playoff viability.
To win a division title, a team must prove over a long season that it is thoroughly better than the competition. It must remain steady during inevitable downturns, and resilient despite injury.
Why have the Phillies been able to successfully navigate three consecutive regular seasons?
Most players credit a positive atmosphere created by manager Charlie Manuel. This year, he has helped steer the club through deep challenges such as shortstop Jimmy Rollins' springtime struggles, pitching ace Cole Hamels' inconsistency, and closer Brad Lidge's sad crises.
"I've played on two other clubs in the big leagues, and I have never been in a situation like this," said rightfielder Jayson Werth, a former Toronto Blue Jay and Los Angeles Dodger. "As far as jobs go and going to work every day, I don't know if there would be a better atmosphere to work, no matter what your job was.
"Sometimes they say players reflect their manager. That isn't always true, but in this case it is very true. He keeps things fresh. The way we go about our business is very professional. We don't get too high or too low."
That ability to maintain a calm clubhouse during winning streaks and slumps alike has been essential this year. Following last season's World Series championship, the team has endured stretches of poor play.
The first deep swoon came from June 12 to June 26, when the Phils lost 14 of 18 games. By the end of that stretch, they had fallen into a tie for first place, after having led the division since May 30.
On June 26, Manuel called a team meeting for his underachieving squad, after the Phillies lost a sloppy game in Toronto. The manager spoke passionately in the middle of the visitors' clubhouse at the Rogers Centre, reminding his players that their ability exceeded their play.
That is why most of the Phillies receive Manuel's message so willingly. While other coaches lecture and harangue, Manuel speaks as he would like to be spoken to. Even when angry, his theme is positive: "You're better than this."
Take what he said that very day about third baseman Pedro Feliz, who had made a costly baserunning mistake by miscounting the number of outs in an inning: "I can stand up in a meeting and scream and holler. I can call you a dumb ass. But what good is that going to do if you don't know the situation in the game and how many outs?"
During that period, the Phils were dealing with a virtually nonexistent leadoff hitter. By the time, Manuel finally benched Rollins for four games in Toronto, the shortstop was batting .211, with a .254 on-base percentage.
It is the leadoff hitter's job to reach base and ignite the offense. Because Rollins was not doing that, the Phillies struggled to score and win. But Manuel repeated endlessly that "Jimmy is our leadoff guy," and returned Rollins to the job after a four-day break.
Faith and patience helped restore Rollins to relative productivity, and the Phillies cruised though most of the summer. Even Hamels, who dealt with physical problems and the pressure of living up to last season's World Series dominance, mostly stabilized in the second half.
But Lidge, the closer who was perfect in 2008, kept the team from an issue-free stretch. Appearing to pitch with less confidence as the season progressed, Lidge helped to destabilize a bullpen that had been a team strength.
With the luxury of a large lead over Florida, then second, Manuel granted Lidge most of the season to reverse his performance. But the closer never became steady, and his 11 blown saves helped delay the Phils' division-title celebration.
When Lidge lost a game Sept. 23 in Miami, his team began its final regular-season swoon. Sporting an 81/2-game lead the day before, the Phils temporarily forgot how to win.
It was perhaps an appropriate coda for a team that has always seemed to create anxiety in its home city. The franchise has, after all, lost more than 10,000 games, and suffered the worst collapse in baseball history in 1964. The 2007 and 2008 titles were stressful slogs that ended in the final weekends of their respective seasons.
This year's Phils could have clinched their third title much earlier, but seemed both tired and tight for much of the last week. Talk about 1964 began to swirl, but the team's confidence prevailed.
"None of that stuff freaks us out," centerfielder Shane Victorino said.
Victorino conceded that outside expectations for the team were higher since the World Series and had created a new set of pressures. "You are defending champs, and you are held to a higher standard," he said. "You are expected to win."
No player confessed to pressing during the last week. But because of the division lead they had built, the Phils could afford to slump without fading from contention. Now, with the title sealed, that alarming set of games is irrelevant.
In addition to pressures on the field, the team has dealt with unusual distractions. On April 13, longtime broadcaster Harry Kalas died after suffering a heart attack at Nationals Park in Washington. That loss, and the subsequent mourning, created a difficult spring.
One month later, the team visited the White House to receive congratulations on 2008 from President Obama, a high-profile reminder of what had already passed.
However, a marquee moment came in July, when the Phils signed pitcher Pedro Martinez, whose legend and personality are almost as large as his talent. The acquisition came during the break for the All-Star Game, bolstering a team that sent five players to the event, in St. Louis.
Some of the memorable experiences were simply odd, such as the unassisted triple play turned by Eric Bruntlett on Aug. 23. It was just the 15th such event in major-league history, and ended a game in New York against the rival Mets.
With all that now behind them, the Phillies hope their issues do not follow them into the playoffs. A streaky offense, shaky bullpen, and sometimes inconsistent starting rotation is not a recipe for another World Series title. The baseball postseason is famous for unpredictability, but the Phils enter with more problems than they did last year.
No matter what awaits, though, the Phils today are rightfully savoring a success that is in many ways more impressive than a hot October - though they do not see it that way.
"We still have a lot of baseball to play," Werth said. "We will not be satisfied until the last pitch is thrown."
(c) ThePhiladelphia Inquirer.
Team USA raps 17 hits in win over Italy
Team USA clinched a spot in the final round of the International Baseball Federation (IBAF) Baseball World Cup on Saturday, but that didn't stop it from unleashing an offensive assault against Italy when second-round play continued on Sunday.
The U.S., led by Rangers prospect Justin Smoak, cranked out 17 hits, and seven players registered multihit games en route to a 12-3 thrashing of Italy, one of the two host countries of the second round.
Smoak led the charge -- as he's done throughout most of the tournament -- with two home runs and four RBIs.
The 22-year-old switch-hitting first baseman gave his team a three-run lead in the top of the third with a three-run homer. Then he kicked off a three-run fifth inning that eventually allowed the U.S. to pull ahead, 8-3, with a solo shot.
Also putting up multihit games for Team USA were Buck Coats (Blue Jays), Trevor Plouffe (Twins) -- who now has an eight-game hitting streak -- Jon Weber (Rays), Pedro Alvarez (Pirates), Jason Castro (Astros) and Tug Hulett (Royals).
Right-hander Lucas Harrell, from the White Sox organization, pitched three no-hit innings of relief to get the win.
Team USA is now 6-0 in the second round and 8-1 overall. It will have one more second-round game, on Sunday against Australia, before beginning play of the third and final round -- exclusively in Italy -- on Tuesday.
A champion of the eight-team final round will be crowned next Sunday.
In addition to the U.S., the Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Cuba, Venezuela, Canada and Chinese Taipei have locked up spots.
In other Sunday action, Puerto Rico stormed past Nicaragua in seven innings, 16-0; Cuba defeated the Netherlands, 5-3; Venezuela beat Great Britain, 6-1; South Korea edged Spain, 2-1; Australia one-upped Mexico, 6-5; Canada sneaked by Chinese Taipei, 5-3, in six innings; and Japan routed Netherlands Antilles, 10-1.
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