It's Beginning to Look Like Destiny

"Oh, man, this was so exciting," breathed Ryan Howard in disbelief, tired from the emotional turn of events and the on-field team pile-up celebration: "That's just our team. Until that 3rd out is made, it's never over, and we went out there and showed it today."

Of the 1,251 postseason games in baseball history, this was only the 3rd to end in a walk-off extra-base hit by a team 1-out away from losing.

They only got 5 hits, but it was when they got them that counted.

Rollins batted .167 for the month of June. After another disappointing hitless night on July 1st (in a game the Phillies lost 11-1 to division rivals Atlanta), Rollins' average had fallen to a season-low .205. Manager Charlie Manuel tried benching him, but nothing seemed to really help. There was talk of who the Phils had in the minors that might be able to replace him at shortstop for next season. Then, suddenly, Rollins got hot and managed to lift his average 31-points by hitting .313 in July. He would finish the month at .250, not great, but a dramatic improvement for so late in the season.

Then, the playoffs started. Rollins batted .143 in the 1st 7 games against Colorado and Los Angeles. He seemed mired in another funk, unable to climb out. Nobody noticed much while the Phillies were demolishing the Dodgers 11-0 in Game 3, but with 2-out in the bottom of the 9th, down by a run, it suddenly appeared that the Phillies had the wrong man at the plate in Game 4. There was no precedence in Rollins' season for what happened next.

Jonathan Broxton, the Dodgers' closer (and Charlie Manuel's closer when he managed the National League All-Star team this summer) was clocked at throwing a 101 MPH fastball that inning. Rollins was 1-4 on the night with a 1st-inning single and a run scored on Ryan Howard's monster 2-run HR. Howard has been textbook clutch this postseason, posting astronomical numbers with runners in scoring position. With his 1st-inning HR, he tied the all-time record for consecutive playoff games with an RBI, 8, set by Lou Gehrig from 1928-1932. At the time, the Phils had outscored the Dodgers 13-0 in the past 10 innings of the series and appeared to have begun another explosive offensive night. However, then former Phillies Randy Wolf did what only former Phillie Vicente Padillia has done for the Dodgers: he silenced the Phillies' bats. It was like you had to channel the Phillies to beat them.

Wolf seemed right at home in front of a fan base that had embraced and adored him during his 8 seasons as a Phillie. Wolf began his career in Philly and was there for Charlie Manuel's 1st 2 seasons as manager. Although the team never eclipsed 2nd place during his tenure, he was an all-star for them and beloved by the fans. Wolf departed in 2006, just as they were beginning their ascent to greatness. The '06 team appeared out of contention at mid-season, so management dumped high pricetag stars like Bobby Abreu (currently competing in the ALCS as an Angel). They posted the best 2nd-half record in the NL and Ryan Howard won the NL MVP Award. However, the Phillies were too little, too late that year. Their 2nd-half surge wasn't enough to propel them to the playoffs, which they missed by 3 games during the last weekend of the season.

The next year, team captain Jimmy Rollins won the NL MVP as he led the Phillies with his mouth-- famously declaring "We're the team to beat in our division" to a disbelieving sports world during the preseason-- his glove and his bat to win the NL East for the 1st time in 14 years, just as Rollins had predicted. It was a timely accomplishment, as it coincided with the year the Phillies lost their 10,000th game as a franchise, an accomplishment unmatched in all of professional sports (they also hold the record with 16-straight losing seasons). The Sporting News wrote of them that year: "No team has lost quite like the Phillies. Now, make it 10,000 times." The 2007 Phillies team was swept by Colorado in the 1st round of the playoffs, looking outmatched and overwhelmed from top-to-bottom. They would never look back.

“Going back to ’07, we got swept by the Rockies and I think everybody learned a lesson," said right-fielder Jayson Werth, who completed his 1st full season as a Phillies starter in 2009, when he earned All-Star honors.

"I remember, after we got beat by Colorado, everyone was going around slapping five and congratulating each other for a great season. But Ryan Howard said something to me that night that I haven't forgotten: 'Remember how this feels.' I think he probably said that to everybody. And I bet that stuck in everybody's mind over the course of that off-season, because I know it stuck in mine. … It was an empty feeling, and I don't think anybody wanted to go through that again. And we were able to build on that."

Since then, the Phillies' playoff record is 17-5 (11-3 in '08 and 6-2 thus far in '09), 10-1 at home. They have not lost more than once to any opponent in last year's or this year's postseason. That, in itself, is astounding when you consider that the 2nd and 3rd rounds of the playoffs are best-of-7 apiece. Their October dominance is even more remarkable when you consider the quality of the elite teams they have faced. Their crushed opponents have been baseball's finest. However, Monday night it appeared as though the Dodgers finally had their number behind Randy Wolf, who knew them so well he had even nicknamed their catcher, Carlos Ruiz, "Dodger-killer."

Rollins and the Phils went quietly through much of the night, failing to score on Wolf in innings 2-5. In the 6th-inning, with the Phillies trailing 4-2, Shane Victorino hit a 1-out triple, which was huge for the team. It was the 1st life their bats had shown in hours. The next batter was Chase Utley, and if the nation's reporters' exploiting of him this past week was on his mind, he sure didn't show it Monday night. He swiftly lined a single to shallow right to plate Victorino and cut the deficit in half to make it 4-3 Dodgers.

Utley also made an inconceivably great play in the field. With 2-out in the 8th-inning, Rafael Belliard tried to steal 2nd base. For Joe Torre and the Dodgers, it was a chance to put a man in scoring position in hopes of adding to their slim 1-run lead. However, it was also a test of Utley, who had famously botched 2 plays in L.A. before the series moved East (rumor is he's playing hurt again).

A rare Carlos Ruiz rushed throw bounced to Utley and Belliard arrived at 2nd Base at the same time as the ball. However, Utley couldn't see the ball, which had skipped behind Belliard's back, obstructing Utley's view of it. If that ball rolled through to centerfield, it could have cost the Phillies a run. Instead, Utley managed to glove it without seeing it, then applied the tag on Belliard, who slid into Utley's leg instead of the bag. The ump didn't notice that Utley had applied the tag before Belliard reached the bag, so called Belliard "safe" at 2nd. As it happened, the Dodgers didn't score in the inning. None-the-less, it was a marvelous play by Utley, one that defied the eyes. It was a virtual magic trick and reassurance that Utley is still a marvel at his position, injured or not.

In the bottom of the 8th-inning, George Sherrill came on in relief for the Dodgers. The Phils had beaten the unbeatable lefty in L.A. to take game 1. However, when they tried their luck again, fate caught up with them in the form of a 4-pitch strikeout to Superman Ryan Howard that proved Sherrill as reputable as the reports that follow him. Howard sat in the dugout with his head down, dejected, next to best friend and team captain Jimmy Rollins. Perhaps opportunity knocking rubbed off at that moment in preparation for the next inning.

In the 9th-inning, Scott Eyre allowed a runner to reach 2nd base and bring Andre Ethier to the plate with a chance to really bury the Phils in this game. Ethier had beaten them twice in L.A. on back-to-back nights during the final regular season series between the 2 teams. Lidge was on the mound both times to blow 9th inning leads in the consecutive games. Ethier had the winning at-bat both times, hitting a double off Lidge in the 9th one night and a walk-off homer (off Durbin in the 12th) the other.

Monday, Lidge was called on in a tough spot with the Phils trying to maintain a 1-run deficit. Manuel showed the utmost confidence in his closer, who was reliably unreliable all season long: 0-8, 11 blown saves and a 7.21 ERA. Lidge rewarded him by striking out Kemp and Ethier to end the inning and give the Phillies a chance to win it in the bottom of the 9th.

However, Jonathan Broxton was throwing 101 MPH and got 2 outs, followed by a 1st-pitch strike on Rollins. The Phillies were down to their last 2 strikes. They had been down to their last strike in Game 4 against Colorado before rallying to win and advance to round 2 of the playoffs.

“We will never give up. We never think the game is over," Rollins had said then.

This time, though, it was up to Jimmy Rollins, who hadn't played the hero at the plate in 2009. Broxton had already walked Matt Stairs and hit Carlos Ruiz in 5 wild pitches. However, he also got Ibanez to ground out routinely. Once he forced pinch-hitter Gregg Dobbs to line out to 3rd base, weakly, it appeared as though the game was over. It would be a 2-2 tie and the Phils would be in a must-win situation in their final home game of the series Wednesday before having to play the final 2 games in the best-of-7 in Los Angeles.

Rollins dug deep and with every ounce of his 5'7", 165 pound frame roped a double in the gap in right center off the 294 pound, 6'4" Broxton. Two Phillies crossed the plate and the score seesawed in their favor: instead of down 4-3, they won 5-4. "It was kind of like that David and Goliath story," Rollins said after the game. "I was able to knock the big guy off."

The defending champs are that 'big guy' now, and he knows it: "In the past, we were the team in 2nd place looking to knock somebody down. This time, we are the team that everybody is coming after. We understand when they say you are defending something," Rollins said.

They are "the team to beat" as he aptly predicted in '07, when they were the upset team who knocked off the Mets en route to that 1st NL East win since 1993. The 1993 team lost the World Series in 6 games. Their spark wasn't quite enough. This Phillies team not only won their division for the 3rd-straight year in 2009, they won the '08 World Series and are heading back to baseball's ultimate stage with a chance to be a NL team who wins it all for the 1st time since the 1975-76 Reds.

"Since '76? Since the 'Big Red Machine?'" Rollins asked with enthusiasm. "Maybe they'll call us the 'Little Red Machine.' We're going to give it our all. I can tell you that much."

"We really believe that we can do it," said closer Brad Lidge, presently 1-0, 3-3 in saves and a perfect 0.00 ERA this postseason. "We know that if we do, we can form -- I don't want to say 'legacy' -- but some kind of pretty cool thing in this game. It's too early to say 'legacy,' but I think we've got a lot of swagger on this team. The guys just don't want to be known as one-time World Series winners. They want to be in the same sentence as some of the great teams."

They may get a crack at baseball's all-time greatest team, the NY Yankees next week. One thing is for certain, whether it's the Yankees or the Angels, the Phillies will find a more complete, more formidable opponent in this year's World Series than they did in last year's Cinderella team, the Tampa Bay Rays, who the Phils disposed of in a thrifty 5 games.

"We're not afraid," Rollins said. "We're not afraid of anybody."

Why should they be? These Phillies are champions.