The Phillies took care of business in Milwaukee today, defeating the Brewers 6-2 to win the National League Division Series in four games and earn the right to face the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL pennant, starting Thursday. Pitching and power were the stories again, with Joe Blanton tossing six brilliant innings and Pat Burrell slugging two of the team's four home runs in the win. 

Jimmy Rollins got things started with a solo shot on a full-count pitch to begin the game, and from the jump, the lineup had good at-bats against Jeff Suppan. But as in the first three games, the Phils struggled to cash baserunners, leaving two on in the second. More frustration seemed imminent in the third inning, but after Suppan intentionally walked Ryan Howard to put two men on with two outs, Burrell hit a majestic blast over the left-field wall on a 2-2 pitch to stretch the lead to 4-0. Jayson Werth followed with a solo shot, and the Miller Park crowd went silent. 

Joe Blanton kept them that way, striking out seven Brewers through six scoreless innings with an effective mix of fastballs and curves--and walking none. Finally tiring in the seventh, Blanton allowed a long home run to Prince Fielder and a single to J.J. Hardy, and took a seat. Ryan Madson put out that fire and allowed one run in the eighth; meanwhile, Burrell jacked his second homer off former Met Guillermo Mota. 

Brad Lidge nailed it down in the ninth, pitching around a one-out single, and the Phils had their first playoff series win since the 1993 NLCS. Now they wait until Thursday to host the Dodgers--probably the one franchise with which the Phillies could be said to have an actual playoff rivalry, having faced off in the NLCS three times in six years between 1977 and 1983. 

Savor this one today and tomorrow, then back to work. 

In their first 125 seasons of play, the Philadelphia Phillies had never swept a postseason series. It didn't happen in season #126 either, as the Milwaukee Brewers took a 4-1 decision to register their first playoff win since 1982 to pull within two games to one and extend their season at least one more day. 

This one seemed star-crossed almost from the beginning, as Jamie Moyer's usually pinpoint control deserted him when the veteran walked the first two Milwaukee hitters of the game. Both came around to score, and though Moyer stranded runners in each of the first two innings, he threw over 60 pitches in doing so and could only last four frames. Charlie Manuel, who managed such a good game on Thursday in Philadelphia, was at his semi-random worst tonight: Clay Condrey in the 5th, as the Brewers added a run to make it 3-0, then Chad Durbin and Scott Eyre--brought in to retire Prince Fielder in a key spot to close the 6th inning. The problem was that Manuel inexplicably left Eyre in to start the seventh against a succession of right-handed hitters, and after the Phillies had gotten on the board, the veteran gave the run right back. By the time Ryan Madson came in to clean up the mess, the damage was done. 

That four runs was not only enough, but comfortably enough, is tribute to the continuing struggles of Phillies hitters to deliver in this series. The team notched nine hits against Dave Bush and four Brewer relievers, but stranded runners in scoring position in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 8th, and 9th innings. The final frame was the most frustrating, as Ryan Howard, Greg Dobbs and Shane Victorino all singled off struggling Milwaukee closer Salomon Torres to load the bases with none out. But Pedro Feliz, first-pitch swinging, rolled a grounder to third baseman Bill Hall for an easy 'round-the-horn double play--and with Victorino called for runners' interference, Ryan Howard, who evidently had scored on the play, was ordered back to third, with Dobbs to second. A Carlos Ruiz groundout later, the game was over. 

Suddenly facing the prospect of a fully rested CC Sabathia out for revenge in Game Five, the Phillies try to end it tomorrow behind Joe Blanton. Tested Playoff Veteran (tm) Jeff Suppan gets the ball for the Brewers. 

It's hard to imagine how this could have gone much better. After a first-inning hiccup in which he walked three Brewers, the last to force in a run, Brett Myers allowed one hit over the next six innings and looked far more like the dominant, efficient ace of late July thru mid-September than the guy who was sent to the minors or knocked around in his final two starts.

Meanwhile, the Phillies worked the count against CC Sabathia--led by Myers himself, who drew an enormous walk to conclude a nine-pitch battle in the second, and was retired on a flyout after ten pitches in the fourth. Two batters after Myers drew his two-out walk, Shane Victorino blasted a hanging breaking pitch over the wall in left for his first career grand slam, giving the Phils a 5-1 lead they would not relinquish. Victorino had three hits and two steals on the night, while Jayson Werth and Jimmy Rollins--who played all game with the intensity to which we became accustomed in his 2007 MVP campaign--each had two hits and a steal. 

After Myers was lifted for a pinch-hitter in the seventh, Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero worked through some trouble in the eighth, and Brad Lidge--looking like a very different pitcher than the guy who struggled through the ninth on Wednesday--set down the Brewers in order to give the Phillies the 5-2 win. 

Those inclined to quibble might point to the ten runners stranded by Phillies hitters, including eight in the middle innings when they had chances to salt the game away. But the bottom line is that they didn't let this one get away--and that, as TBS noted at the end of the broadcast, this win gives the Phillies their first 2-0 lead in a playoff series since the 1980 World Series. Gotta like that. 

In the biggest start of his life, Cole Hamels pitched arguably the best game of his life. 

That might sound like hyperbole, but against a lineup that smacked around lefthanders at a .269/.348/.458 clip during the regular season, Hamels put up eight innings of scoreless, two-hit, one-walk ball, striking out nine. (And for the sake of my stomach lining, seeing him go for the complete game might have been nice.)

In earning the first Phillies postseason win since Curt Schilling's 147-pitch (!) effort in Game Five of the 1993 World Series, Hamels silenced the doubters who had pointed to his so-so performances in two earlier tests: last year's playoff opener and his early-September showdown against the Mets and Johan Santana. This was the biggest of stages, and he stood taller than any Phils pitcher since Schilling on that October night fifteen years ago. Signs of Hamels' growing maturity--staying healthy thanks to great diligence in his pre- and post-game conditioning, staying focused despite a painful lack of offensive support for a six-week stretch over the summer--have been evident all year. Today was the payoff, and perhaps the coming-out party of Philadelphia's next legendary pitcher. 

As for the offense, they were opportunistic and patient in key spots, taking advantage of shoddy defense and Yovanni Gallardo's wildness to score three runs in the third inning. But against a supposedly shaky Milwaukee bullpen, they went down quietly again and again, putting just one runner in scoring position. With CC Sabathia looming tomorrow, a quick turnaround seems unlikely--but eventually the bats will have to deliver if the club is to play deep into the month.

Three runs and four hits won't often be enough. Thanks to Hamels--and to Brad Lidge, making huge pitches when he absolutely needed to--it was today. 

As the Phillies wait to begin what they hope will be a deep playoff run, one of the players most responsible for their reaching the post-season has been recognized for an unexpectedly great season: 

Cliff Lee, who won the American League leader in wins and ERA, and Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge, who converted 41 of 41 save opportunities to help the Phillies win a second consecutive National League East crown, are MLB.com's Comeback Player of the Year Award winners for their respective leagues.

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Lidge finished with 53 points and was followed by Kerry Wood of the Cubs (34), Ryan Ludwick of the Cardinals (27) and Jorge Cantu of the Marlins (23).

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Lidge was traded by Houston to the Phillies last November after going 5-3 with 19 saves and a 3.36 ERA for the Astros in 2007.

The right-hander quickly showed he still had dominating stuff. Lidge had a 0.82 ERA in his first 12 save opportunities and retired 21 of 24 batters at one stretch. As the months went by, Lidge kept converting every opportunity. His reliability, especially after the Mets lost closer Billy Wagner to injury, was a key factor in the outcome of the division race.

Lidge finished the regular season 2-0 with a 1.95 ERA and was 41-for-41 in save opportunities. His place as the most reliable closer in Phillies history became all but official. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, no Phillies closer with 20 or more saves in a season had lasted an entire year without a blown save since saves became an official statistic in 1969.

 

"That's kind of tough to beat," Phillies assistant general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. "It is what it is. It's pretty amazing that he went out there for 41 chances and did it 41 times. Hopefully he can do it another 10 or so."

I'm barely old enough to remember some of Tug McGraw's hair-raising escapes in 1980, and Al Holland's strong bullpen work in 1983. Steve Bedrosian obviously was effective in 1988, when he won the Cy Young Award, but that was for an awful team and I don't recall his work very clearly. Lidge has set the standard for Phillies closers. 

From David Murphy at High Cheese: 

According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, the Brewers are going to throw young righty Yovani Gallardo against Cole Hamels in Game One on Wednesday. A very interesting move. Stuff wise, this guy is probably the second-best pitcher on the staff. He went 9-5 last season with a 3.67 ERA in 20 starts. The Mexican-born 22-year-old was considered one of the top young pitchers in the game, but he has made just four starts this season. He underwent arthroscopic knee surgery in spring training, then aggravated the injury early this season. He made his first start since May on Sept. 25, allowing one run on three hits in four innings before leaving after 67 pitches.

The move has a couple of benefits for the Brewers. First of all, the Phillies haven't seen Gallardo at all this season. They faced him once last season, when he held them to one run on four hits in 6 2/3 innings on Aug. 3. But Gallardo has pitched just one game since May, and he has never pitched in the playoffs before.

Gallardo is an ace-quality pitcher whose May injury, ironically enough, arguably created the need to go get CC Sabathia. He came up huge last Thursday in his first start after a layoff of more than four months. That he threw 67 pitches in four innings offers the hint for how the Phils will have to go at him: with patience. It's not that Gallardo is wild--he's never walked more than three in a big-league start--but as a young strikeout pitcher, he's generally not super-efficient. At age 22, coming off the long layoff, it's hard to believe the Brewers would let him throw more than 90 pitches at the absolute most. The Brewers' bullpen isn't bad--their collective 3.83 ERA was fourth in the NL this season--but they will give the Phils shots. Even if Gallardo is lights-out, it's a winnable game for that reason. 

The championship hopes of a venerable franchise, with a long-suffering fan base and a boatload of heartbreak in its distant and recent history, rest in large part upon a big right-hander who starts the postseason with a question mark over his head. His 2008 season was filled with peaks and valleys—none more pronounced than what he did in its final month. The pinnacle came with a dominant, headline-grabbing performance on Sunday night, September 14: a complete-game masterpiece that changed the entire playoff picture. But the two starts after that, his last two of the regular season, were nothing short of disastrous. After past incidents of public tantrums, his temperament—arguably even his stability—is always at least a little in question. Nobody doubts his talent, but consistency has been sufficiently elusive that he’s a considerable X factor as the playoffs begin.

Brett Myers?

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Edit: Game 1 will start at 3pm on Wednesday, Game 2 at 6pm Thursday, Game 3 (in Milwaukee) at 6:30pm Saturday. Blame the networks' yen for Dodgers/Cubs and Red Sox/Angels in prime time. If the other AL series turns out to be Twins/Rays, I'm half-expecting it will air on local access channels at 3am, between infomercials.  

Battling for the wild card deep into Sunday afternoon, both the Mets and Brewers were tied in the eighth inning today. But minutes apart, the Florida Marlins hit back-to-back homers--from former Phillie Wes Helms and Dan Uggla, who ends the season with a better New York memory than his all-star game disaster--and Ryan Braun clubbed a two-run blast for the Brewers. Neither the Cubs nor the Mets could respond, and the 2008 regular season ended with the Milwaukee Brewers emerging as the National League's wild-card playoff entrant. 

Since the wild card team cannot play the champion of their division in the Division Series (the Cubs, who finished with the best record in the league), the Brewers return to Citizens Bank Park Wednesday to face the Phillies. Milwaukee's rotation is a work in progress, with one ace, Ben Sheets, evidently injured and the other, CC Sabathia, coming off a heroic complete-game win today on three days' rest. What we do know is that Cole Hamels will take the hill for the Phillies on Wednesday. 

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The Phillies play their first welcome "meaningless" game in 15 years today as the regular season comes to a close, and presumably most of the regulars will be spending their Sunday afternoon the same way I will: hungover and watching a sporting event. 

Kyle Kendrick, bound for the Florida Instructional League and Changeup 101 after the game, gets a chance to end 2008 on a high note and possibly put himself in the mix for the playoff roster in a later series, should the team advance. The lineup also might feature catcher Lou Marson's major league debut, Greg Golson's first start, and Tadahito Iguchi drawing a loud round of cheers. All good stuff.

It wasn't easy, and it wasn't always fun... but the Phillies hung on for a 4-3 win this afternoon at Citizens Bank Park to clinch their second straight National League East division crown. 

Huge ups to Jamie Moyer, for six great innings of one-run ball; Jayson Werth, for his solo home run; Shane Victorino, for great play on both sides of the ball--and to you, the TGP familyhood, for sweating it out with us, today and all year. Today's game thread set a site record for comments, and we deeply appreciate your joining us for the wild trip... what's behind and what's ahead of us. 

The win today means that the Phils set up their National League Division Series rotation with ace Cole Hamels, on eight days' rest, in Game One, followed by Brett Myers (eight days' rest) in Game Two, both at home, and then Moyer in Game Three off a week's rest. 

As for me, I'm heading to a party full of Met fans tonight, and I'm gettin' drunk. 

GO PHILS!