NLCS: The Other Series

Baseball is back today as the Phillies head to LA with a battle of talented southpaws in Cole Hamels and Clayton Kershaw. Hamels hasn't been the same MVP-caliber pitcher he was last year as he led the Phillies to a championship but it's interesting that Vegas has lined him +127 even on the road against the young Kershaw. The Phils are a very good road team and with the more experienced arm. Game two will be tomorrow and is scheduled with a sickening matchup of Pedro Martinez and Vicente Padilla. Padilla is fresh off a complete gem but is Vicente Padilla...and Pedro has been magical down the stretch, until they decided he was '08 CC Sabathia and threw him 115 pitches and then came back with a 130+ pitch outing down the stretch. Now, I believe his arm is actually detached from his right shoulder and they have to glue it into place before games.

Game 3 will be Sunday night as both teams will travel eastward to Philly and it will be Hikori Kuroda vs. Cliff Lee. Kuroda is a very underrated pitcher but this is clearly a game you have to expect the Phils to win at home.

Game 4 is Tuesday. The man originally projected to toss game 1 for LAD, Randy Wolf is scheduled to face Joe Blanton. Obviously, these things can sometimes change depending on what the series is at. This would be a good battle of crafty pitchers, or possibly a good battle of mashing lineups.

Game 5 Wednesday 9/21. Back to Hamels/Kershaw except this one would be played in Philly.

Game 6 - Friday back in LA, Pedro/Padilla.

Game 7 - Saturday. Lee/Kuroda.

Not a terrible job by MLB in spacing out the games too much. This is about as tight as it is going to get. Kind of strange to schedule a game 7 on Saturday I feel? That is one you'd almost rather they skip a day and play Sunday night as everyone would be watching (Yanks/Angels possible game 7 is scheduled for that Sunday).

So beside that, what actually matters here - what is going to happen? Well, while most everyone is rooting for Joe Torre to bring his team to the World Series for a possibly electric rematch his the team that made him, the Yankees...no one seems to want to give the defending champs their due. This is essentially the same Phillies team that won the whole thing last year, the difference?
Last year their bullpen was a huge strength and this year they can't get anyone out. There is no question the bullpen could end up costing them, but it seems as if it has quietly settled in a touch. On the other side Joe Torre knows his biggest (and arguably only) advantage is the strength of his bullpen. What he will need is big outings from Kershaw and Wolf and will be asking Padilla and Kuroda to give him something like 6 innings, 3 runs...then he can turn it over to a dominant bullpen and see if his lineup can get to 4.

The problem is this Phillies lineup is getting hot at the wrong time for LAD. People for some reason still don't realize that if Rollins or Victorino get on ahead of Utley and Howard it's almost a lock they're going to score. And when they both get on, it is huge trouble. Not to mention a guy like Jayson Werth who gets absolutely red-hot at times. The Phillies lineup might not be the absolute best in the MLB, but it is the most dangerous (certainly in the NL at least). Throw in Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels and suddenly you have a team which I think should be the favorite to win this series (they are not) and ultimately the most dangerous team remaining in the playoffs for the Yankees (unless the Angels continue to be their kryptonite).

Prediction: Phillies in 5 (originally said in 6 but it's so pewch to predict a team in 6 games, everyone always predicts - this team in 6, that team in 6...show some creativity).


I would like to mention that USA tied Costa Rica in a thriller yesterday. I caught the tail end...they were trailing 2-1 in extra time, must have been the 94th minute (scheduled for 5 extra minutes), USA gets a corner kick and despite being a man down, somehow some cat is left completely unguarded and drills a perfect header past the goalie and a defender sitting in net. Of course, therein lies the problem with soccer, they just got a tie and you would have thought they just won the World Cup. No game that ends in a tie can really be considered a classic either... It's just a problem with soccer in my opinion.

Another exciting finish to any of us who bet Argentina +175 yesterday when they broke a 0-0 tie in the 86th minute for the 1-0 win.