SportsDystopia

Just a month and a half ago, the LA Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies were on the outside of the playoff picture looking in.  LA had limped along all season, and even the first month after the Manny Ramirez acquisition had been more of the same, as the Dodgers went 13-16 in August, in spite of Ramirez hitting .415 for the month with 9 HR’s and 25 RBI.  The Phillies trailed a Mets team that looked like it had conquered it’s demons of the past 2 years, after they dismissed manager Willie Randolph midseason, who the players had clearly tired of and lost respect for.  Philadelphia too sleep-walked through August, and opened September by losing 2 of 3 games to lowly Washington.

But now, is there any doubt that these are the two best and most complete teams in the National League?

For the Dodgers, who played in baseball’s worst division this year, it was as simple as deciding to play Andre Ethier everyday, and bat him number 2 in the order in front of Manny (though Torre had him batting cleanup against the Cubs in the NLDS).  Ethier responded by hitting .462 with an other-worldly .557 On Base Percentage in September, and with an offense suddenly capable of putting crooked numbers on the board to back their strong pitching staff, the Dodgers quickly put away the division title over the sputtering Arizona Diamondbacks.

In spite of taking 2 of 3 off the Mets early in September, the Phillies didn’t really come to life until they swept Milwaukee in 4 games, then kept the momentum going by sweeping Atlanta and then taking 2 of 3 off a frisky Marlins team.  They got hot at the right time, and the Mets bullpen imploded to a historic degree, and for the 2nd year in a row, the two teams swapped spots in the closing days of the season.

So how does the Dodgers-Phillies matchup look?

Well, the they split their season series 4-4, with all the games being played in August.  Interestingly, they took turns sweeping a 4-game series, with each winning at home.  The Dodgers’ right-handed pitching made quick work of the Cubs’ right-handed hitting line-up, but the Phillies will be a much tougher matchup for them, as they have a veritable murderer’s row in the switch-hitting Jimmy Rollins, and lefties Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, who right now is the best hitter in baseball when there’s someone on base in front of him.

LA has the better, deeper starting rotation, Philadelphia the better, deeper bullpen.  And in spite of the small amount of respect shown to the Dodgers’ line-up aside from Manny Ramirez, who is indeed the best postseason player of his (and maybe anyone’s) generation, they both have balanced and productive offenses.

The phrase “Manny being Manny” takes on a whole different meaning in October, and the all-time playoff home run leader is going to do what he’s always done: knock the cover off the ball if the Phillies are unable to pitch around him.  The series could come down to whether or not the Dodgers are able to keep the bases clear in front of Ryan Howard, who’s an utterly different hitter when there are guys on base for him to drive in.  (.196 average and a .422 slugging percentage with the bases empty, .309 average and .648 slugging with runners on)

Both teams will be trying to exorcise demons of some type, for the Dodgers, it’s Manny and Joe Torre trying to prove themselves after unceremonious exits from the teams with which they’d had the most October success of any batter or manager of their time.  For the Phillies, it’s an organizational demon.  The Cubs get all the headlines for being the long-suffering franchise, but Philadelphia has won only 5 playoff series in 126 years of existence, and before their first and only championship in 1980, they went 98 years without a title, establishing a record for futility only recently broken by…well, you know who it was broken by.

This series has all the makings of one of the all-time classic NLCS’s.  Lets hope that the two teams provide more drama than they did in easily dismissing their first round opponents.

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