Does This Look Familiar?

Are the 2008 Brewers the 2007 Phillies?

2008 Phillies, meet your 2007 dopplegangers. A team that goes on a run down the stretch to make the playoffs for the first time in a long time? Check. Dominant starting pitcher in the regular season who loses his playoff start? Check. General "Just Happy to Be Here" Attitude? Check. High-scoring, HR-based offense that disappeared in the postseason? Check.

Phils Win 5-2.

In the playoffs, you need someone to step up besides your all stars. Enter Shane Victorino and Jason Werth. We know them well, but they're far from household names. First four times these two got to the plate resulted in 3 doubles and a Grand Slam. That's a good day.

Charlie Manuel also got props from the announcers for switching Victorino and Werth in the lineup. Werth went on to get two doubles in the game. Of course, Utley and Howard are a combined 1-8 in the series, which is keeping me up at night. Unfortunately, that's not a joke.

The Good: Victorino, Myers, Werth, Feliz. It was a righties day at the ballpark. Lidge needed only 12 pitches to record his second save of the postseason. Maybe Mitch Williams was right, and Lidge was too well rested for his pitches to be effective. Maybe Milwaukee has already given up on this series. Maybe this was the one-game quiet before the Lidge-implosion storm. I'll take it.

The Bad: Myers first inning, in which he had the bases loaded with one out and got a miracle double play ball. Wow. That could have been a lot worse. Kudos to Myers for shaking it off and pitching a good game. Myers also walked in a run, which is generally frowned upon in baseball circles.

The Hero: Shane Victorino. A Grand Slam off of the unhittable CC Sabathia in the playoffs? If you made it up, no one would believe you. Runner up to Brett Myers. 7 strong innings, gave up only 2 runs.

The Goat: CC Sabathia. He struggled with his location (and the umpire's strike zone) all day, only lasting 3 2/3 innings and throwing 98 pitches. Of course, he single-handedly got Milwaukee here. This was his fourth consecutive start in three days rest.

The Take-Away Point: This Phillies team is for real. Now, if we can only get Utley and Howard to start hitting, and if we face the Dodgers in the NLCS...

Is the Long Nightmare Finally Over?

For those of you just emerging from your bomb shelters after the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Phillies won Game 1 of their NLDS series with the Brewers yesterday, 3-1. This game featured 8 shutout innings buy Cole Hamels, a heart attack save by Brad Lidge, a crappy offense, and miscues by the Brewers that basically gave us the three runs.

(Also, as an aside, a lot has happened since then. Kennedy got assasinated, his little brother ran for President and also got shot, their was this big bruhaha about a conspiracy. Also, the Phillies won a World Series! Crazy, right? There was this third baseman, Mike Schmidt, who was pretty much the best in the history of the game. But we're pissed again, cause that was 28 years ago. We'll catch up more later.)

The Good: The Phils offense did nothing, and they won.

The Bad: The Phils offense did nothing. Also, Brad Lidge is no longer "Lights Out" but more "Is Someone Messing With The Dimmer Switch, 'Cause I'm Trying to Read the Paper."

The Hero: Cole Hamels. 8 shutout innings, 2 hits. Good thing they didn't let him come out in the ninth.

The Goat: Mike Cameron/Rickie Weeks. Weeks misplayed a bunt by Hamels for an error, allowing Hamels to get on base and the runner to move to second. Cameron then misplayed a line drive by Chase Utley, in what should have been an error, allowing the Phillies first two runs to score. Gotta love that hometown scoring!

The Take-Away Point: Undecided. On one hand, you need things to go your way to win in the playoffs. On the other, your offense is going to have to eventually score some runs to win, also. We'll see.