Rollins Signing in Wake of Madson

The Phils agreed to re-sign SS Jimmy 'J-Roll' Rollins to a 3-year, $33-million deal Saturday (with an additional 4th year option).

"Gotta deal with me for 3 (4) more years!" Rollins wrote on Twitter Saturday.

Rollins, 33 years-old, has played his entire career with the Phillies. He is also the charismatic, outspoken team leader. Although manager Charlie Manuel has benched Rollins over the years, for not running out ground-outs and other antics, the manager has always shown Rollins the respect of a team captain and has expected him to act like one. For the most part, Rollins has.

In the '11 postseason, Rollins led the team with a .450 ave. and 4 2B in a losing 1st-round effort.

In 2007, Rollins famously predicted the Phillies would win their division, although no one else in baseball was ready to stake the same claim. The Phils hadn't won their division in 14 years and were nobody's favorite on paper. Rollins was right and the next year the Phils won the World Series.

He went on to win 3-straight Gold Gloves and to carry a swagger that set the tone for his team, which has now won 5-straight division titles and has made 2 World Series appearances in that span. It is Rollins spunk and spirit that has made him the poster boy of this Phillies era.

If once it seemed implicit that the Phils would retain Rollins, that assurance disappeared when the team recently parted ways with reliever Ryan Madson.

While Jimmy Rollins began his pro career a Phillie in 2000 and outlasted Pat Burrell as the longest standing member of the team, Madson had been with the Phils since 2003.

So, when the Phillies signed once-great closer Jonathan Papelbon to a $50 million, 4-year contract this offseason, it suddenly appeared that parting ways with Rollins might actually happen next.

However, it didn't. Rollins, whose numbers have declined greatly throughout the last 4 seasons and who has been plagued by significant leg injuries for 3 of the last 4 seasons, will now be a Phillie through probably at least age 37.

He is fourth on the Phillies' career list behind Richie Ashburn, Mike Schmidt and Ed Delahanty with 1,866 hits, and ranks among the franchise's top five in games played, plate appearances, runs, total bases, doubles, triples and stolen bases.

Rollins persistent injuries have shortened his playing time (to a career-low 88 games in '10), but he developed a new workout routine with a heavy emphasis on yoga, which he insists is helping a lot. "I don't even think about my calf injury anymore," Rollins said in June of this year.

He continues work as a stellar defender, whose trusty presence at SS has led the Phils as a superlative defensive team atop MLB.

However, his offensive decline at the top of the batting order has also paralleled the team's, in an unsettling fashion.

Rollins won the '07 NL MVP, hitting .296 with 20 triples, 30 HR and 94 RBI. In the 4 seasons since, he has averaged .261 with 5 triples and 14 HR per year.

The 2011 Phils scored 713 runs, the least for any Phillies team since '02.

Pat Gillick, former GM and present Phillies advisor reiterated the team's operating philosophy toward the offensive downward spiral: "The sort of solution is to pitch better and hit better."

It's the same 'it ought to fix itself' language the Phils front office has applied during the past 4 seasons of continuing offensive decline, which is now thought to be their roadblock to another World Series title.

Meanwhile, the dismissal of Ryan Madson is confounding. Yes, they replaced him with a big name in closer Jonathan Papelbon. However, they lost a key component of what has made the team work for the last several years.

Madson was invaluable and unflappable, especially in October. Madson's postseason ERA was 2.31. In '11, Madson's postseason ERA was 2.08. Papelbon's was 13.50.

Madson and Papelbon are both 31 years old. Over the next 4 years of Papelbon's $50 million contract with the Phils, his signature fastball might lose steam, while Madson's more varied repertoire of circle change-up and cutter, which so perfectly compliment his four-seam fastball, is more reliably poised for successful longevity.

Phils rookie phenom starter Vance Worley was dismayed by the Phils flushing Madson down the toilet:

"He's obviously very talented and one of the best closers in the league," said Worley, who, like Madson, is a Californian who was drafted by the Phils. "It would have been nice to have Madson back because he's homegrown and really took me under his wing in the bullpen over the last couple years."

In '08, Brad Lidge's legendary perfect season & postseason as closer (48 saves in 48 tries), culminating in a World Series win were set-up by Madson's 8th inning reliability. Etched in every Phillies fan's eternal mind is the reassuring, tall, commanding presence of Madson on the mound late in a game. Something that is, unfathomably, now a thing of the past.

In 2011, Madson was asked to do something new. He had been asked to be a starter, a middle reliever and a set-up man for the Phils over his 8 seasons with the team. However, in '11, his 9th season, he was asked to be the team's closer. Madson responded with a 2.37 ERA, his best since '04 and recorded 32 saves in 34 attempts.

Meanwhile, Papelbon, who recorded at least 35 saves from '06-'09, stumbled mightily in '10. While posting 37 saves that year, he also blew a career-high 8. He posted a career-high 3.90 ERA (nearly double his career average) and looked to be on an obvious decline. He bounced back in '11 with a 0.93 WHIP and 87 S.O. to 10 BB, but posted his 2nd-worst ERA at 2.94, a mere echo of his former self (i.e., '06: 0.78 WHIP, 0.92 ERA and '07: 0.77 WHIP, 1.85 ERA).

The Phillies have a long history of dismissing clients of infamous cutthroat agent Scott Boras (think J.D. Drew), so severing ties with Madson may be comprehensible from that perspective, but it is an otherwise unacceptable reality, which makes nearly no sense from a baseball standpoint.

The Phils gain more experience at the closer position, but give up one of their own and trade a closer at the height of his achievements for one whose numbers have clearly diminished.

This Wound Runs Deep

The Phils are no stranger to losing. Yet, this one, a drop in the bucket among the more than 10,000-deep well in the Phillies vast repertoire of dismal defeat, ranks pretty high. That's because it's a fresh wound among fans, who are left to commiserate in misery about what could have and should have been after a demoralizing 1-0 defeat ended the Phils' season. It's also because of the expectations this team built over 162 games that yielded the promising fruit of the most winning season (102-60) in franchise history.

"Very disappointing. This is the most disappointed I've been with the Phils since I suffered through the '64 collapse as a 9 year-old. But I always was and always will be a Phillies fan," said one reader, 2 days ago.

The Phillies are now a team people (outside of Philadelphia) love to hate. Unlike the Yankees, who have years of accumulated international fan base, the Phils are looked at as an upstart powerhouse 'moneyball' team, whose 'new money' visibility is resented and loathed by the general public.

This is unfair, as the Phillies grew organically, capitalizing on a successful nucleus that had been homegrown from the farm up.

In '06, the front office started dumping their high priced players, like OF Bobby Abreu, in acknowledgement that they couldn't compete and must re-build. Instead, that team went on to post the best record in the NL during the season's 2nd half. Ryan Howard was named NL MVP and the future was suddenly, startlingly bright.

The next year, '07, they staged a remarkable late-season comeback against a collapsing Mets team to win the division, their 1st NL East title since '93. They got swept out by the Rockies in the NLDS. My wife told me, "Don't worry, they'll come back next year and be even better." I said, "You don't understand, this is the Phillies. They're good once every 15 or 50 years. Besides, you don't comeback so easily in baseball, unless you're the Yankees." Well, of course, she was right, as they won the World Series the very next year.

That '08 championship team was steered by Baseball genius GM Pat Gillick, who rode predecessor Ed Wade's nucleus to unpredictable glory by adding key pieces that fell together in just the right way.

After that, Amaro took over. He felt an enormous pressure to win, because of the shoes he was filling (Gillick's), the town he was in (Philly, where winning was now an expectation) and the nucleus of talent that was here now, but not forever (a fact he always cites when interviewed).

"I'm an aggressive personality. I like to make things happen. I also have a pretty good understanding what this fan base is about. Success kind of breeds success. Expectations continue to rise and don't stop rising. " Amaro Jr., 10.3.11

Amaro's desire to please and succeed and his aggressive tactics are admirable and well-documented. His plundering of the recently plentiful farm system is not. His stripping of the minor league teams, from A to AAA, have cast a far-reaching cloud over a future whose past is 129-years of mainly agony.

Furthermore, Amaro's depletion of much of the team's future talent has been ignored by fans who, in tune with today's sports climate, want to win now at all cost. Many of the key youth crop was spent in 2 separate deals to acquire the same player, Cliff Lee. Had they merely kept him the 1st time (which was his own desire all along), they could have saved themselves over a dozen solid prospects.

When they traded Lee and a plethora of top prospects, I wrote, in my post on 12.15.09,

"What they gave up was their future-- and we're not talking distant future."

They got Lee back and all was forgotten, but that's in large part because the cost of the talent they surrendered getting him twice remains yet unknown.

Ruben Amaro Jr. won't be around when the Phillies are no longer relevant. He'll have moved on after his day in the sun. It is fans who will have to brace for the potential steep downside to the last few years of winning.

It is fans who must watch former-Phils' minor-leaguers ascend the ranks and blossom in coming years as young teams with talent become the next '07 Phillies.

A quick glimpse at the Phils' trend indicates this team peaked in '08 and has since sloped downward:

Postseason Round Reached by Year & Result

'07 - NLDS - Lost
'08 - World Series - Won
'09 - World Series - Lost
'10 - NLCS - Lost
'11 - NLDS - Lost

It is pertinent to observe that it was the Phillies own minor league products that were stars this postseason:

Utley, Rollins, Madson, and Hamels, as well as superlative Amaro acquisition Halladay, all shined on baseball's brightest stage in '11.

Meanwhile, Lee and Howard, Amaro's high priced future for years to come are goats in this year's early exit. They are presently postseason busts the team is married to.

Lee is likely to return, a Phoenix from the flames, but he must shake this playoff monkey, which began in '10 vs. S.F. and which will last until at least next October. He is a fierce competitor and likely will regain the postseason dominance he began as a Phillie in '09.

Howard's tale is far more troubling. On 9.22.11, I wrote, "Howard, for example, is solved by following the Yankees' blueprint circa '09, which the Giants, in '10, did so effectively: throw him off-speed stuff out of the Zone and watch him flail."

St. Louis did just that to its hometown foe, bringing Howard to his literal knees: 0-for-his-last-8 with 5 strike outs.

It has become painfully obvious that Amaro overpaid for Howard, whose Achilles injury on the final play of the postseason may be the end of his effectiveness in MLB. The Phillies are saying that Howard could miss up to 9 months after surgery, and the 5-year, $125 million contract extension Amaro handed him looks like handcuffs for team management, who will be unable to trade Howard or use that money to invest in players who could actually contribute in the postseason or hit over .253 in coming years.

This is only one of the moves Amaro has made which has not worked out, moves often overlooked amidst a winning climate. That will change if the team's downward trend continues.

For example, Oswalt and Ibanez have been ineffective more than effective Phillies, while Polanco has been injured throughout his return tour here. I warned about Polanco in my 12.6.09 post, when the Phils re-signed him: "Polanco is slowing at 34, coming off the least productive complete season of his career (.285 Ave.)."

I pondered why they didn't sign 3B Adrian Beltre, who was also available for comparable money. Beltre went on to hit .321 with 28 HR and 102 RBI that year. Five days ago, Beltre launched his Texas team into the ALCS with 3 HR in a single game, matching the total the entire Phillies team hit this postseason and tying the all-time MLB record. Meanwhile, Polanco, Amaro's pick, now 36 years-old, followed the worst season of his career with a 2-for-19 (.105 Ave. and 0 BB) postseason and awaits surgery this off-season for the 2nd-straight year.

Equally troubling has been Charlie Manuel's reliance on the past and inability to see the present. He is 'Charlie faithful' when it comes to his players, and that is why they love him.

However, in '09, Lidge and Hamels combined for 20 innings pitched, 19 Earned Runs allowed and a 1-3 record against the Yankees to lose the World Series. Their season and postseason leading up to that moment was a consistent warning sign that read, "These guys won't help you, now." Manuel ignored that, and we lost.

Likewise, there were 2 tell-tale signs that he barreled past en route to this year's early exit:

1) Raul Ibanez over John Mayberry Jr.
2) Roy Oswalt over Vance Worley

1) Mayberry was that 'X' factor for the Phils, hitting .300 in July, .296 in August w/ 6 HR, .305 in September with numbers that projected to 30 HR & 100 RBI, but Manuel decided that he'd rather have former star Ibanez than the hot new spark-plug opposing pitchers had yet to decipher.

2) Oswalt had gone 9-10 for the Phils in '11, while plagued by back problems. Meanwhile, the team enjoyed a 14-game win streak in games Worley started, setting a new rookie record. Ignoring that winning trend, Chuck chose the past over the present.

The reliance on the past doesn't bode well for Amaro and Manuel, who will need to start trusting in youth to invest in the future and build these Phillies going forward.

Before the playoffs, I predicted, but hoped against a World Series of Texas vs. Milwaukee. Many friends asked me, when Tampa Bay jumped out in front of the Rangers with a game one 9-0 drubbing, if I wanted to revise my AL pick. I stood by the Rangers, and they won.

Texas may be a better team, right now, without the baggage of Lee's mental struggle to hold them back.

Every national newspaper talked about the amazing job pitcher Chris Carpenter did in shutting out the Phillies phenomenal lineup in game 5 to advance his Cardinals to the '11 NLCS. Yes, he was outstanding, but this perception that the Phillies lineup is star-studded is also living in the past, and the nation should get over it, as must the Phils. The Phillies offense has declined each year since '07, and they must re-think, learn to play small-ball and turn to Mayberry Jr. and Pence for full-season contributions to stage a '12 comeback.

Phillies Postseason team HRs by year

2008: 19 HRs
2009: 25 HRs
2010: 4 HRs
2011: 3 HRs

Phillies Postseason team batting average by year

2008: .260
2009: .247
2010: .210
2011: .226

There was so much assertion entering 2011 that this was the best Phillies team ever assembled. Obviously, that is now a hard claim to swallow.

At the end of the '10 season, Mike Schmidt said the Phils were "a unique group" that has already "surpassed our accomplishments." If they win the NLCS and return to the World Series, he felt the team would "officially be the best team in Phillies history, bar none."

Well, the '10 team didn't win the NLCS and the '11 team didn't even win the NLDS. So, what does that say about history's take on the best Phillies team ever?

'11, meanwhile, may have been the most closely contested 1st round of playoffs in baseball's modern era, wherein 3 of the 4 series was decided in the 5th of 5 games by 1 run.

In the AL, the Tigers beat the Yankees 3-2 in game 5. In the NL, Milwaukee nipped Arizona 3-2 in the 10th inning of a game 5 classic, while the Cards edged the Phils 1-0 in their game 5.

It was well-matched, as the 162 game season melted away into evenly played sets all around.

If Rollins is not brought back in a Phils' uniform for '12 (his contract is up), he went out a hero. After a mediocre year at the plate, Rollins potential swansong was an electrifying 5 playoff games, wherein he batted .450 with 4 doubles.

It is impossible, after 12 faithful major league seasons played only with the Phils, to think of our infield without Rollins' trusty glove (career .984 fielding %) at SS.

Meanwhile, Utley was something of a superhero. He couldn't walk in April, due to knee injury and completed his worst-ever regular season, which featured a concussion from a ball thrown off his head in September. Yet, somehow, he resurrected previous seasons' playoff magic by hitting .438 and leading the team with a .571 OBP this postseason.

"I think all of us were concerned, but with Chase I think you kind of stay cautiously optimistic that he's going to be fine because it's Chase," the Phillies general manager said of his favorite player in August. "He's kind of wired differently than others."

Rollins and Utley will be remembered as heroes of this team, whether they return to the postseason with it or not.

Roy Halladay managed to stay positive after his 8-inning 126-pitch, 1 run effort was completely wasted by his punchless team, who managed not to score at all with their season depending on it:

“I don’t care where you go, there’s no team that you’re guaranteed to win anything,” Halladay said. “We have an unbelievable team here. Winning the World Series is always going to be the goal. When I came over here, I didn’t think it was going to be easy. I knew it would be hard. I knew it’s not something you do every year.

"I really enjoy the process of going after it and playing these games and getting to this point in the season," he added. "Hopefully we get to a point where things go our way. We’ll get back here and do it again."

Phils Season Hinges on 1 Game

It was evident to anyone who has followed the Phils since mid-'10 that Roy Oswalt (9-11 this season) wasn't going to come out and close out the Cards in Game 4 of the best-of-five series-- not without a little help from his friends.

The pitching matchup between Oswalt and Edwin Jackson in St. Louis Wednesday night promised to be an offensive battle, the perfect counterpart to Tuesday's Hamels vs. Garcia pitchers duel.

The Phils scored 1st, beginning the game on a scoring frenzy that yielded 2 runs, but should have plated more. Rollins, who has been scary good (9-for-14 with 4 doubles), hit a ground-rule double to the deepest part of the park. Chase Utley followed with a triple, then Pence singled and-- just like that-- the Phils were up 2-0 with nobody out. The next batter was Ryan Howard, a chance for more damage.

Howard struck out and Pence was thrown out in an unlikely double play that killed the inning and what turned out to be the only run-producing Phils rally of the game. It was the 1st of a hat trick of strike outs for Howard in the game and each one seemed, like the 1st, to lead to a series of unfortunate events.

Howard fell to 2-for-15 in the series with 6 S.O., hitting .133 with a .176 OBP (1 BB). At #4 in this lineup, he has the ability to drive in runs like almost no Phillie, ever. He also has the capacity to kill rallies and end dreams quicker than Mitch Williams.

Wednesday was that kind of night for Ryan Howard, the kind where dreams become nightmares.

After Howard's strikeout in the 1st, the Phillies would score only 1 more time in the game, and it wasn't off their bats, it was due to a wild pitch in the 8th. In that inning, Howard came up with 2-out, Utley on 2nd (again) and the run in cutting the deficit to 5-3 Cards. One swing of the bat could tie it.

On 9.22.11, I wrote, "Howard, for example, is solved by following the Yankees' blueprint circa '09, which the Giants, in '10, did so effectively: throw him offspeed stuff out of the Zone and watch him flail." La Russa did just that, bringing in lefty Marc Rzepczynski, who struck out Howard on 3 pitches. The Phillies never scored again and lost 5-3. Ouch.

Saturday, 4 short days ago, may as well have been another planet. The Ryan Howard who had a HR and 4 RBI in game 1 of this NLDS series vs. St. Louis a martian who had returned to his home planet. The Ryan Howard who remained? A fallen soldier, rescued from the front lines, palms sweating, hands shaking, terrified. The gun removed from his clutching hands for fear he would hurt himself.

Howard hit zero HRs throughout the '10 playoffs. It was that impudent aura that enveloped him again as his team put all the pieces together for him to be the hero, something they have done so effectively these past few years. Rollins was on fire, Utley was hustling, the 2 core Phillies, whose double-play combinations are regarded as the league's best and whose hearts have led them to awesome heights in this series (Utley .462 Ave., Rollins .563 Ave.), were relaying the ball to 1st and getting into scoring position for Howard to finish the play...

Only Howard was lost inside his head, driving it into the back-end of the bat in the dugout, instead of driving balls out of the park.

"I think I've been a little bit anxious trying to go up and trying to make things happen instead of letting things happen," Howard said. "Right now I'm just kind of jumping."

Meanwhile, St. Louis native Howard's counterpart, the slugger on the other team, baseball's best player, Albert Pujols was busy doing his regular superman act. Pujols hit .299 with 99 RBI this year, career lows by far. Yet, in game 3, Pujols went 4-for-5 at the plate. Wednesday, he had an off-day at the plate, 0-for-4. He appeared human. Looks can be deceiving.

Utley walked to lead off the 6th with the Phils trailing 3-to-2. Pence was the next batter, and he grounded into a fileder's choice to SS Furcal, who gunned to 1st for the standard out. However, Utley made a smart baseball move, very aggressive, very Utley. He wanted to be the tying run and would make it happen. Utley slowed at 2nd base, as if to stop there, faking Furcal, then began a sprint toward 3rd when Furcal began his throw to 1st to get Pence.

The thing is, someone forgot to tell Utley that Pujols isn't like normal mortals. His eyes rotate around his head, free standing, like Elmer Fudd after he has been hit by Bugs Bunny. Upon receiving the ball at 1st, Pujols ignored Pence and instead immediately gunned a perfect strike to 3rd to get Utley, easy.

"This is obviously the playoffs, but that's a play I can make in the regular season, too," Pujols said. "If I would have stayed on the bag, it was going to be tough to get the runner at third. Obviously, that killed the rally right there."

Every time Pujols stepped up to the plate, cameras flashed, capturing what many thought would be the last game he ever played for the Cardinals before sailing off into the free agency sunset to sign a 100-year, 200-zillion dollar deal with N.Y., Boston or L.A. en route to retirement.

They might be right. It may be the end of an era. However, the era ending might not be Pujols and the Cardinals. Winners of 16 of their final 21 regular season games and now toe-to-toe with the 102 game winning Phillies, the Cardinals are playing for house money Friday with very little on the line. It's the home team that has to sweat.

If the Phillies fall short of their 4th-straight NLCS and if Ryan Howard continues to free-fall to make it possible, their season will undoubtedly be a disappointment-- for the players, the franchise and the fans. It's hard to believe things are so good that we can honestly say that, but it is truer than the bluest sky. Losing the World Series title this season would be a disappointment. Losing round 1 of the playoffs would be a colossal disaster.

After all the money and expectations built in to this moment, walking away short of a playoff series win just wouldn't cut it. This isn't 2007. It's not 'one to grow on.' This is the culmination of 102 wins, which may as well be 90, which is what the Cardinals won, since the 2 teams are locked in an NFL-esque playoff showdown, where 1 game will decide their respective fate.

Lucky for the Phils, they will have the pitching equivalent of Pujols on the mound. Halladay is no Cliff Lee. The 2 men are very different. In both June and August, Lee was 5-0 with an ERA below 0.50. In July, he was 1-2 with an ERA of 4.91. Lee led baseball with 6 shutouts this season, because he can dominate a game from start to finish more often than Halladay.

'Doc' has those no-hitters on his dossier, but typically he will turn in a superlative performance, allowing 2 runs in 7 innings. The thing that makes him so special, though, is the number of times he will get smacked around and allow 6 or 8 runs-- practically never. It happened twice this year, in 33 starts. He allowed 6 earned runs to Boston in May and the Yankees in June. His ERA never went over 3.00, not for a single month, all season.

I saw Halladay with sub-par stuff at Dodger Stadium in '10. He won the Cy Young that year, but his location that night was all wrong. He allowed 11 hits in 7 innings, not great by any measure. He also allowed too many runs-- for him. He gave up 3. The Phils didn't win that night, but they could have. That's the point.

On 10/16/10 vs. S.F. in game 1 of the NLCS, Halladay pitched through a groin-pull injury, in a physical condition where normal people can't walk. He held the World Series Champion Giants to 4 runs in 7 innings, despite his pain. He S.O. 7 and walked nobody. At worst, he puts his team in a position to win; at best, he wins the game for them with impenetrable dominance.

Friday, 2-time Cy Young Halladay (1-0 in this series) will oppose his former Toronto teammate of 5 years and good friend, former Cy Young Chris Carpenter (0-1).

"They're good friends and old teammates, and Carp was really chomping at the bit for this opportunity to pitch against Roy on full rest in a huge Game 5," Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday said. "It should be quite a battle and then it'll be fun to watch two great competitors go head to head and two great teams get after it."

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel agreed."Might be fitting that it goes down to the fifth game," he said. "It's up to us to go get it. It's sitting right there for us. We've got our ace going, and we're at home, and so everything is sitting right there."

Friday, the Phils will try to become the 3rd franchise in baseball history to win a postseason series in 4 straight years. The Phillies can and should win game 5. Their ace will be on the mound, they will be at home, they are the better team. Anything short of victory will tarnish the armor-- Amaro's, Howard's, Lee's... this team in franchise and baseball history. Win and advance, shed themselves of the pesky, capable, adrenaline-driven Cardinals and the sky might just be the limit.

Hamels Plays Cards Perfectly

Since '02 in MLB, every team that won game 3 in a 5-game playoff series went on to win that series. So, in order for the Phils to advance to their 4th-consecutive NLCS, it was likely Cole Hamels was going to have to take command-- and keep it.

He did just that. Looking like the Hamels of '08, not the Hamels of '09, the southpaw dug deep, showing inner strength and outer mastery, silencing all base-runners and echoing his dominance of the team's title-run 3 years ago.

Like Lee's '11 postseason debut, Hamels picked up right where his '10 left off. Only Hamels' was a trail of triumph. In the '10 postseason, Hamels posted a 1.20 ERA in 15 innings, allowing just 2 earned runs, S.O. 17, while walking 1.

Tuesday in St. Louis was vintage Hamels, and it couldn't have come at a better time. It was the Cards 1st home game of this postseason. The St. Louis crowd welcomed its beloved team that had stunned Cliff Lee by stealing a 5-4 comeback win in Philly in game 2 to even their playoff series at a game apiece. Resilience was nothing new for the NL Wild Card team that was 8 1/2 games back a month before securing the final playoff spot on the season's last day.

Hamels, however, showed a calm resilience of his own. He allowed no runs through 6 innings. He painted himself into corners, but time and again pitched out of them with careful placement of his fastball and curveball:

"I was just trying to make good pitches and keep them down, and if I missed I knew I'd get another opportunity," he said. "That's where I was. If you make mistakes up in the zone, you're usually going to pay for it pretty badly. If you keep it down you have a better chance to get out of the inning."

Hamels allowed 5 hits and walked 3, but struck out 8 and never lost his trademark cool.

"He keeps his cool whether some people realize it or not," manager Charlie Manuel said. "And he's gutty, and he's been gutty ever since I've known him. I've always liked him because of his mental toughness, even when I saw him at Lakewood. I like him out there in any situation."

Hamels faced runners in scoring position 5 separate times throughout the contest and never let the ball leave the infield during those showdowns.

In some of the most stressful moments of the game, Hamels showed a veteran's poise by stepping off the mound, taking a deep breath and gathering his thoughts.

"It was a tight game," Hamels said. "I knew every pitch mattered. Every inning mattered. They had a great pitcher on the opposing team and I knew I couldn't let it get out of hand, especially because we were 1-1 in the series. We're not in our home park any more. You definitely focus and try to dig deep a little bit more. So I think that was me just kind of psyching myself up again. You can be your worst enemy, I guess. I understand how to pitch. I know how to go out and succeed, but at the same time this game can really get after you and you have to really dig deep and put things in a different perspective because if you get out of your element you're going to really get hurt."

Ryan Howard looked remarkably 'out of his element.'

In the 6th inning, with Chase Utley on 2nd base, 2 out and the game knotted at zero, the Cardinals disrespected St. Louis native Howard. Cardinals starter Jaime Garcia, who shut the Phillies out for 6 innings, intentionally walked Hunter Pence in order to bring Howard to the plate. Howard had looked bad, striking out in his previous 2 at-bats, and he promptly grounded out to end the inning, making Cards' manager Tony La Russa look good.

The move that made La Russa look bad, however, the one that will keep him up at night, was also an intentional walk. It was to Carlos Ruiz with 2-out in the 7th, and it set up a pinch-hit 3-run HR by Ben Fransisco, which accounted for all of the Phillies runs in the game they won 3-2.

“Well, it didn’t work, so that’s bad managing,” La Russa said. “I’m watching him pitch and was really pleased. I thought he was the guy to continue pitching and I knew the match-ups were in our favor. It didn’t work.”

“That wasn’t my idea,” Garcia said. “That’s what [La Russa] wanted to do, and that’s what we did.”

Fransisco, who hadn't hit a HR since May 25th, had a disappointing year after a torrid spring training promised more than it became. However, with one swing of the bat, Fransisco joined the ranks of Philly sports folk heroes like Matt Stairs.

“All that matters is we’re here today and whatever you do today is going to pretty much define you,” Francisco said. “Charlie put me up there, and I got a big hit.”

Fransisco was 1-for-18 in the postseason and batted .244 for the year, but Manuel gave him the chance, and he made it memorable.

“I didn’t know it was a homer, I knew I hit it good,” Francisco said. “I saw it bounce over the fence and just... pure excitement, pure joy.”

Wednesday in St. Louis, the Phils will try to close out the best-of-five series with a win. Roy Oswalt will take the mound. If they can't win Wednesday, the series will return to Philadelphia on Friday, where they'd have another chance to win 1 and advance.

“We have 2 Roys going for us, if we need to get to that 2nd one, and you have to feel pretty good about your chances when that’s the case,” reliever Brad Lidge said, referring to Oswalt and 2-time Cy Young Halladay, who is 20-6 (including the playoffs) this year and is scheduled to start Friday, if necessary.

Note:

Jimmy Rollins had another 2 hits Tuesday and is now 7-for-12 with 3 doubles in the series.

Next up:

6:07 PM ET, Wednesday, October 5th at Busch Stadium, St. Louis, Missouri

PHI: Roy Oswalt (9-10, 3.69 ERA) @ STL: Edwin Jackson (12-9, 3.79 ERA)

Oswalt is 5-0 with a 3.25 ERA in 10 career postseason starts, including 2-0 with a 3.15 ERA in 3 of those vs. the Cardinals.

Albert Pujols, possibly entering his last game in a St. Louis uniform with free agency lurking, has hit .316 (30 for 95) with 7 HR in his career vs. Oswalt.

Cards Comeback, Clock Cliff, Tie Series 1-1

The prized Phils rotation was supposed to be invincible. There was no way for the Cardinals to penetrate it. Instead, the National League Division Series would hinge on whether the Phils on-again, off-again offense would show up for the postseason.

Instead, Roy Halladay faltered to start game 1 and Cliff Lee followed suit in game 2, leaving the offense to attempt to bail out both star starters to salvage wins for the lauded pitching team.

Lee was everything he was this regular season wrapped up into 1 game. He struck out an improbable number of hitters (9) and had stretches of perfect location, yet he surrendered 12 hits and 5 runs in his 6 innings of work.

To start the 2nd inning, St. Louis's Molina and Theriot were caught looking, as Cliff Lee did a terrific job of mixing in 2-strike fastballs in the strike zone, when he would typically bounce a curveball in front and out of the zone.

However, devastatingly, he squandered the 4-0 lead his team staked him to, which was a disappointment by any measure.

"I wasn't able to make my pitches, so I take full responsibility," Lee said.

Unfortunately, Lee had picked up in the '11 postseason where he left off in the '10 World Series, where he went 0-2 with a 6.94 ERA vs. the World Series Champion Giants. Lee is now 0-3 with a 7.13 ERA in his last 3 playoff starts.

Brad Lidge relieved Lee in the 7th, with 2 on, no outs and a run already in. Lidge coolly threw 2 pitches to get 3 outs, like it was 2008.

The Cardinals' Chris Carpenter, a 13-year veteran who led the NL in '11 with 238 innings pitched, started on 3 days rest for the 1st time in his life. Carpenter, a former Cy Young Award winner ('05), finished the season very strong (3-0, 2.15 September), but clearly was not himself on short rest.

41 year-old former Phillie Arthur Rhodes, 19 years in the majors, came in to pitch to 1 batter, Ryan Howard. Rhodes promptly struck Howard out on 3 pitches, making 66 year-old manager Tony La Russa look 1) not so old, in comparison and 2) like a strategical genius (except that the premature use of Carpenter nearly cost him the game).

The Cardinal bullpen was the untouchable pitching star that out-shined the Phils' rotation in game 2. The Cards' bullpen mesmerized the Phils, as 6 relievers combined to allow just a single hit in 6 immaculate innings of work.

Pujlos had been 0-11 vs. Madson, but in the 9th got a broken bat single off him to lead it off. However, Madson, who posted 17 shutout appearances to end the regular season, S.O. 2 of the next 3 to set-up the Phils' final chance in the bottom of the 9th.

However, Jason Motte (4.73 September ERA) pitched a 1-2-3 9th to shut the door on the Phils' offense, which was too little, too early to get the win.

"We've been doing this all year. We don't give up," Motte said. "People counted us out, (but) we kind of went out there and just kept playing hard."

The 46,575 person Citizens Bank crowd was the venue's largest, ever.

Next up:

Tuesday, October 4th, 5:07 PM EST:

Philadelphia: Hamels (14-9, 2.79 ERA) Hamels is 2-3 with a 3.27 ERA in 9 starts vs. St. Louis.
@
St. Louis: Garcia (13-7, 3.56 ERA) Garcia is 2-1 with a 1.20 ERA in 6 games (4 starts) vs. the Phils. The lefty has held Philadelphia to a .178 batting average.

Phils Hold All the Cards

St. Louis enjoyed a 16-5 run to end the regular season and incredibly sneak into the playoffs on the final day. Saturday, the Phils brought the NL Wild Card Cards back to earth, reminding the baseball world with their 5th-straight win and 103rd of the season that the road to the World Series travels through Philadelphia.

Surprisingly and importantly, it was the offense that keyed the win. The Phils offense was missing for much of the year and was the team's biggest question mark entering the postseason.

It was one game, but there was a lot to build on, as the #1-6 hitters Rollins, Utley, Pence, Howard, Victorino and Ibanez, each came up huge.

Unexpectedly, Roy Halladay allowed a 3-run HR in the 1st to Lance Berkman, putting his team in a hole, something he has rarely done since joining the Phils before the '10 season.

"I couldn't think of a worse start and putting your team in a hole like that," Halladay said. "But you get to this point, you're not going to pack it in."

He proceeded to retire 21 batters in a row and never yielded another run in the contest.

"That's why he's the best in the game," the Cardinals' Albert Pujols said. "We wanted to keep adding on it, but we just never put that inning together again."

"You have to beat those guys 3-to-whatever," Berkman said. "He's not going to give up much more than that. He's a great pitcher."

"He was kind of like a 'Rocky' movie," manager Charlie Manuel said of Halladay. "He got mad after he gave up that homer. That ticked him off, and he hung in there and he got going. But he's special. He's everything people talk about."

The Phillies were down 3-1 in the 6th when Ryan Howard hit a 423 foot 3-run HR to right to put the Phils up, 4-3, a lead they would keep. Ibanez also homered in the inning, a 2-run shot that put the Phils up 6-4 and chased former Phil Kyle Lohse from the game.

Lohse had retired the 1st 10 until Utley doubled off him in the 4th. Utley was 3-5 overall and scored 3 times, seemingly regaining his postseason stride after a year rife with injury and career-low production.

Howard, who had been the goat in the last 2 playoff series losses since the '08 title, in '09 vs. the Yankees and in '10 against S.F., sent a message of his own with the go-ahead 6th inning HR.

"I left last year in the past," Howard said. "You can't let what happened last year affect this year. It's a fresh start."

It was a feel-good night all-around for the Phils' offense, who compiled 14 hits and 11 runs, 10 of them earned.

The 46,480 raucous and adoring fans felt pretty good, too. It was the 218th-straight sellout at Citizens Bank Park.

notes:

Pence was 2 for 5 with 2 RBIs and 2 runs in his first postseason game.

The Cardinals didn't have five-time All-Star, LF Matt Holliday because of a hand injury.

Next up, game 2:

Sunday, 8:37 pm EST

St. Louis - Chris Carpenter (11-9, 3.45 ERA)
@
Phils - Cliff Lee (17-8, 2.40 ERA)

Heart of a Champion?

The 2011 Phillies set a franchise record in wins at 102. It was also the 3rd 100-win season in team history. The Mike Schmidt-led teams won 101 games in back-to-back season, '76 and '77, and the 2011 Phils eclipsed them at 102-60.

Debates will endure as the book is open on who is the best Phillies team in the franchises 129-year history. Many will remember Schmidt, Luzinski, Carlton and McGraw as the best ever. Others will insist that the plethora of all-stars, includuing Halladay, Lee, Utley and Howard, on the current team make it the all-time best.

For the 12th straight week, the Phillies are the No. 1 team in baseball, according to the ESPN Power Rankings.

That won't guarantee them a World Series birth, but it will raise the stakes on the expectations now before them. As baseball's 2nd season begins, the Phils are odds-on favorites to win it all, especially now that preseason darlings Boston has completed an epic collapse.

The Red Sox went 7-20 in September to propel Tampa Bay into the playoffs. They didn't win consecutive games after August. They spent the last week of the season getting pounded by the lowly Baltimore Orioles. Their manager, former Phillie skipper Terry Francona was let go.

In March, all analysts favored the Sox and the Phils in the '11 World Series. Now, it looks like the Phils and the Yankees, which would be a rematch of '09, are the on-paper favorites to meet in the October classic.

Of course, sports are played because of the element of surprise, and if there's one thing you can count on, it's the fact that at least one team will surprise in the playoffs.

“Last year, we had the best record in baseball, and we didn’t win [it all],” Shane Victorino said. “It’s nice to win 100 games, but ultimately, when the postseason starts, that all goes out the door.”

The high expectations for the Phillies entering October will not necessarily help them in history's eyes.

Now that no Phillies team has ever won more games than the current one, the 2 pivotal questions become:

1) Would it be a successful season if... ?

A) The team loses in the World Series? B) Or, the unthinkable: They fall short of reaching it?

2) Does this team have the heart of a champion?

The 1993 team went from last to 1st in 1 year. They were not the best team in the NL on paper, yet they won 93 games and laughed themselves all the way to the World Series and into the hearts of Philly fans like perhaps no other team, ever. Harry Kalas always said that incarnation of long-haired crazies was his favorite team, ever.

The 2008 team was a nucleus of home-grown talent that culminated and peaked at just the right time. Like the '10 Giants, it was a matter of timing as much as talent.

Since 1980, 40 baseball teams have won 100 games. How many have won the World Series? Just 4.

The '08 Phils won just 92, but they built late-season momentum, the kind that St. Louis is enjoying (16-5 in their final 21) on their current amazing run to an unlikely playoff birth, then utilized that momentum to win it all.

The 1980 Phils fell well short of their 101 win seasons in '76 and '77 in winning just 92 games. However, unlike the '76 and '77 teams that the '11 team has just surpassed, the '80 Phils saved best for last.

Will the 2011 team be remembered for their regular season wins or their postseason glory?

The book is still open, waiting to be written.

Phils Falling Faster Than Stocks

The Phillies have it all under control. This is nothing. It's the post-'Senior Week' blues, they have nothing to play for, so they're not playing well. Right?

In the immortal words of famous Philadelphian Bill Cosby, "Riiiight."

The Phillies, everyone's choice to represent the NL in the '11 World Series this past preseason, have now lost 8-straight for the first time since 2000, predominately at home and mostly to the lowly Nationals and Mets.

If it's any consolation, the Boston Red Sox, the popular preseason pick to play the Phils in the '11 World Series, may miss the playoffs altogether amidst a catastrophic 5-17 tailspin.

Meanwhile, Jayson Werth's Nationals (no thanks to Werth) are 12-4 in their last 16.

Baseball has a funny way of pranking players, of twisting fate around your neck. Ask Charlie Manuel, who is presently fit to be tied:

"We've got to find a way to score some runs," Manuel said, after the Mets swept the Phils in a doubleheader Saturday. "Do we have time? We'll see. It'll be a test of how good we are. This is the first time this year that we've actually gone bad. It's not a real good time to go bad. At the same time, this will be a good measuring stick for us. We created this ourselves, so we'll see."

There were some signs of life for the Phils offense during the doubleheader:

Jimmy Rollins, who batted .083 (2 for 24) in the previous 7 games, had 3 singles. Shane Victorino, who began the day also batting .083 (2 for 24) in his prior 6 games, had a hit in each game. Chase Utley, who’d been batting .194 (6 for 31) with neither a HR nor an RBI since suffering a concussion Sept. 7th, hit a double off the CF wall in game 2.

Manuel has always been a player's manager. The organization went the opposite way from Larry Bowa, who players despised, when they hired him in 2004. A week ago, it looked as if 2 milestones would converge this season to make Phillies history.

In the same game, the Phils would win their 102nd game for the 1st time in the team's 129 year history and Charlie Manuel would win his 646th game as the team's manager, tying him with Gene Mauch for the all-time most. Of course, Dallas Green had a higher win % and the same number of World Series titles (1 in '80) as Manuel (1 in '08) and Mauch presided over more losses than wins.

Now, it appears, both records will have to wait. The Phils would have to win all of their remaining 4 games to eclipse the team record 101 wins posted by both the '76 and '77 Mike Schmidt-led Phils.

Instead, this year's team is suddenly reaching back to another element of Phillies history, the propensity for losing that enabled the Phillies to reach 10,000 losses before any other team in any sport, and which was infamously embodied in the greatest defeat in sports history, the '64 Phils collapse, when they blew a 6 1/2 game lead with 12 left to play by losing 10-straight, then winning the final 2, managing to miss the playoffs by a single game.

Mauch was the manager of that team, Manuel is the manager of this one:

"I've said this over and over, when you start messing with your lineup . . .," he said after the team's 8th consecutive defeat. "All of a sudden, we wanted guys who are hurting to get well, and we start giving them two, three days off, and then you look around and all of a sudden you lose your mojo. You lose your timing. You lose your rhythm. I know what I'm talking about. I've been in the damn game for 50 years. I know exactly what I'm talking about. We're out of sync. We're out of focus. We're searching and nothing's going right."

Sounds like the Phillies, doesn't it? I mean, deep down, those of us who are Phillies lifers, who are 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation Phillies fans, we understand-- and maybe are even guilty of having anticipated this kind of defeat.

In their last 17 games, the Phils have scored more than 3 runs only 2 times.

They are 98-60 with 4 games left, all on the road; 3 in Atlanta against a team playing hard, desperately trying to hold onto a playoff spot (St. Louis trails them by 2 games for the Wild Card).

Hunter Pence (.310) played Saturday for the 1st time since missing 3 games with a strained patellar tendon in his left knee. Pence, 0-for-5 on the day, appeared still injured when he made his 1st error as a Phil on a routine play that led to the 4 unearned runs that cost the Phils the game.

Skipper Manuel has steered the Phils through floundering before. He has seen his share of slumps and ineptitude during the last few years of winning that is unprecedented in the history of the franchise. World Series title, 2nd ever-- in 129 years. 5-straight division titles, 1st time, ever. 98 wins, surpassed in 2 Phillies seasons, ever.

Yet, the 'player's manager' is human and has made his share of human errors.

Take '09. The Phils made a miraculous return trip to the World Series, after winning it the year before, to defend their title.

The Phils had renewed Manuel's contract a couple years prior because he was unanimously backed by rising stars like Utley and Howard, as well as core players like Rollins and Burrell.

It was that same player-manager bond that caused him to put faith in 2 pitchers that had proven throughout every month of the '09 season, as well as each and every step of the postseason that they simply couldn't do it that year. The 2 pitchers were Lidge, the injured and unreliable closer, and Hamels, the fallen star, who had lost his groove.

In '08, Hamels was invincible, especially in the postseason, while Lidge was immaculate from beginning to end.

Manuel looked to the past to determine the present. The result? The Phils got to the '09 World Series despite Hamels and Lidge and lost it because of them. The 2 pitchers combined for 20 innings pitched, 19 Earned Runs allowed and a 1-3 record against the Yankees, who beat the Phils 4-games-to-2 to take the title away from them.

Manuel has done it again with the left field shuffling of 2011. Raul Ibanez, in his Swan Song as a Phil, re-emerged with just enough offense to steal back his position from rising star John Mayberry Jr., who had been on a tear in August, hitting 6 HR.

This was a big mistake for 2 reasons:

1) Mayberry Jr. has the capacity to uniquely spark the team, like Hunter Pence, because he has so much to prove and brings a fresh thirst for World Series glory.

2) Pitchers haven't solved him yet. He's a quagmire, whereas Howard, for example, is solved by following the Yankees' blueprint circa '09, which the Giants, in '10, did so effectively: throw him offspeed stuff out of the Zone and watch him flail.

Mayberry could be that 'X' factor for the Phils, but instead, his spirited run-- .300 in July, .296 August, .341 September, 12 HR in 3 months and a season that projects to 30 HR, 100 RBI -- was cut short when Manuel relegated him to off-the-bench opportunities.

Ibanez has had some big hits and may yet prove me wrong, but relying on him now is a throwback to his consistent productivity, which ended after the 1st half of '09 and an echo of Manuel's managerial style, reliance on former stars, that terminated the '09 title run abruptly.

Cole Hamels, having the best regular season of his career, gave it all he had in N.Y. during Saturday's 2-1 loss. Hamels allowed 4 hits and only 1 run, while striking out 7 in 7 innings, but failed to get the win when the Phils scored just 1 run. His record is now 14-9, short of even a personal best, but his WHIP is 0.98, best in the entire NL.

Hamels is now 2-4 since July 22nd, due to a combination of his late-season health problems and poor run support. He was visibly unnerved after Saturday's loss:

"I know, the pitchers, we're ready to go," said Hamels. "We're going to go out there and try to throw nine-inning shutouts. I know it's not possible, but that's our plan, so everybody just needs to get on board."

They better get on board fast, before the board sinks.

Sunday, 2:10pm ECT Phillies
(98-60, 46-31 away)
@Mets
(76-82, 33-44 home)

PHI: Halladay (18-6, 2.41 ERA)

NYM: Pelfrey (7-12, 4.58 ERA)

Halladay Leads Phils into Playoffs

This week, the Phils were visited by some past demons, haunted by ghosts of yesteryear.

A history of over 10,000 losses, the most in professional sports history, and former Phils pitchers J.A. Happ and Brett Myers stood between them and the playoffs the last couple days. The Phils sought 1 more win to secure their spot in the 2011 postseason. With 17 games left to play, you had to think the team with baseball's best record (95-51) would get one more win-- at least.

Then again, this is the same Phillies who in 1964 led the NL by 6½ games with only 12 games left in the season. They lost 8 in-a-row at home, then departed for St. Louis, where they lost 2 in-a-row to finish the season 1 game out of a playoff birth.

Wednesday, '03 & '10 Cy Young Roy Halladay took the mound against Bud Norris, a 26 year-old who has been in the majors for 2 years and who ranks 9th in the NL in BB (68).

A Phillies playoff birth was in the air.

However, the demons continued to harass the Phils, when Norris & 2 relievers held them to just 1 run and 1 walk, while striking out 7.

The man on the mound for the Phils, however, nickname 'Doc', had the cure. He made the meager 3 hits his position players supported him with stick and even added a hit of his own.

"We gave him a big cushion to work with," Charlie Manuel said, sarcastically. "We motivated him. We came out and got him one big run."

Houston's starter Norris stymied the Phils, who have scored just 9 runs in their last 5 games/46 innings (1.76 runs a game).

"The biggest thing I'm concerned about is we've got to score some runs," Manuel said of his often punchless squad.

The Phils secured a spot in the playoffs for the 5th consecutive year, which is unprecedented in the team's 129-year history.

Meanwhile, the praise for Halladay, who yielded no runs to confirm it was abundant and pervasive within his team and the opposition alike:

"Roy did a heck of a job," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel told reporters. "He had good command, especially (against) the young hitters. He threw them a lot of offspeed stuff. He didn't throw them a lot of fastballs that they could get to. Where he's putting the ball is what really counts, but that comes with a lot of preparation, and he's always ready."

"It really came down to us having the bases loaded in the second inning with nobody out and us not being able to get anything across," Astros manager Brad Mills said. "Against a tough pitcher we weren't able to get those runs across early."

"This was a tough one," Norris said. "Four pitches into the game and I am down 1-0. Roy Halladay is Roy Halladay."

Lately, there has been a lot of debate as to whether Halladay should start the playoffs, game 1, for the Phils. It may sound like an absurd question when you have the Cy Young defender in your rotation, but when Cliff Lee flashes months of almost unprecedented dominance within the modern era, it is a valid and understandable question among fans and baseball analysts alike. After all, Lee has won in the postseason like almost no one before him.

Lee is the only player in the history of baseball to have struck out the opposition 10 times or more 3 times in a single postseason (2010).

Lee went 7-0 with a 1.26 ERA in the 1st 8 playoff starts of his career.

He was named the National League Pitcher of the Month in both June and August.

One ESPN article had Lee ranked 8th All-time among postseason starting pitchers.

Yet, he pitches on the same staff as Roy Halladay. A point that's not lost on him.

"I want to be the pitcher of the month every month," Lee said, when he 1st faced reporters after it was announced he had captured the honor in August, after claiming it in June.

Then, when asked if he wanted to be the game 1 playoff starter, he shrugged, showing his characteristic stoic side, calm, unflinching:

"I don't really care at all," he said. "Whenever they want me to pitch, I'll pitch. That's it. It all depends on how the season finishes up and who's pitching when and who's in a better position at that time. We've obviously got the best pitcher in baseball, in Halladay, on our team."

It takes one to know one.

A recent study by the Sporting News determined Halladay to be the #6 best player in all of baseball.

Lee was ranked #19 in the same study, which quoted his former teammate, Rangers 2B Ian Kinsler: "His competitiveness is off the charts. We're all competitive, but Cliff just competes at anything—who can eat the fastest, who shot the biggest deer, random stuff. That helps him out a lot when he's on the field. And when he gets in jams, he's able to buckle down, slow down and put the ball where he wants it."

Lee is a marvel, one of a kind. There is no denying that. When he is 'on,' he is in full control like almost no other pitcher in the game today.

Yet, for each month like his impossibly immaculate June (5-0, 0.21 ERA) and August (5-0, 0.45), there is an April (2-2, 4.18) and July (1-2, 4.91) in the same season to balance the scales, just enough to make him human.

Lee and Halladay's stats are eerily parallel.

Cliff Lee: 16-7, 2.44 ERA, 210.2 innings pitched, 57 Earned Runs allowed, 211 S.O., 1.03 WHIP
Halladay: 18-5, 2.34 ERA, 219.2 innings pitched, 57 Earned Runs allowed, 211 S.O., 1.04 WHIP

Yet, Halladay's consistency is, perhaps, even more eerily unfaltering.

The highest ERA he has posted in a single month this season is 3.00 in May. He won 4 games in April, then 3 in each subsequent month: May, June, July and August. Steady as a master poker hand.

Halladay has walked 30 men this entire season, while allowing only 9 HR, despite playing the majority of his games in hitter-haven Citizens Bank Park.

To put that in perspective, his foremost Cy Young competition is teammates Lee (15 HR, 42 BB) and Hamels (15 HR, 41 BB), along with Ian Kennedy of Arizona (19 HR, 52 BB) and the Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw (13 HR, 51 BB).

Halladay's 9 HR and 30 BB are by far leading the pack, which means 2 things:

1) The consistency with which he displays control is unmatched.
2) In the postseason, when advancing to a title hinges on the wrong walk here or the killer HR there, Halladay is your man.

Ask Clayton Kershaw:

"I think Halladay, for me, personally ... he's the guy," Kershaw said in an LA Times interview on 7/3/11.

Kershaw said he admires Halladay's consistency, pointing to how the Phillies had won each of his past 8 starts at that time.

"There's a lot of guys having really good years, but day in, day out, what he brings to that team," Kershaw said, "You just know, that team, when he goes out there, they're feeling pretty good about their chances. That's definitely where I'd like to get to."

Last October, Halladay made good on the 1st playoff performance of his life. After 11 years of pitching for the lowly Blue Jays, Halladay had his 1st shot on the October stage for the Phils.

How did he respond?

Famously, against MLB's #1 ranked offense at that time, Halladay, on October 6th, 2010, threw a no-hitter. It was the 2nd time a no-hitter was thrown in the playoffs in the history of baseball and Halladay's 2nd no-hitter of the year.

Can anyone really doubt that he is the ace of aces? He has led the staff all season, as last season, from game 1, as their ace. Has he steered the ship astray? Not for a single month.

Regardless of the remarkable accomplishments of Lee, Halladay's assured reliability is arguably what has enabled Lee and propelled Hamels and Worley around him.

Wednesday, despite becoming the 1st team in baseball to clinch a playoff spot, the Phils shook hands and shook off any celebration after the game:

"That's the beauty of being here," Halladay said. "We expect to win," said Halladay. "It's a great mentality to have. There's business to be done and until that point, there's not a lot of celebration."

Utley Suffers Concussion in Dramatic Win

The Phillies dramatic come-from-behind win over division rival Atlanta was marred by injury to the team's invaluable 2nd baseman.

Chase Utley was hit on the tip of the helmet by an Eric O'Flaherty 91 mph pitch in the 6th inning. Utley left the game for precautionary reasons after complaining of headaches. He likely has a "mild concussion," but was going for testing, said GM Ruben Amaro Jr. late Wednesday night.

"The way to describe it, he didn't feel 100% after getting hit," Amaro said. "He felt okay right afterwards, then started feeling a little fuzzy. We took the precaution to get him out of the game."

Amaro said it appeared Utley would be out at least a couple of days and that the 2nd baseman may not go to Milwaukee for a series this weekend against the Brewers, who have the 2nd best record in the NL. Utley wasn't on the team plane Wednesday night.

This has already been the smallest workload in a single season in Utley's career, which has often been injury shortened, but never like this. He is on pace to barely top 100 games this season and may now be headed to the DL.

"When you get a 90-plus mph fastball off the melon, you have to be cautious about it," Amaro said.

The GM also said the Phillies would activate Jimmy Rollins from the disabled list.

"I'll have Charlie use him (Rollins) in emergency purposes," Amaro said.

Rollins has been on the DL since August 22nd with a strained right groin.

Utley acted nonchalant when he was 1st struck. In his typical stoic style, the Phils iron-man who perennially leads baseball in being hit, took 1st base as though nothing had happened. "It seems like Utley doesn't know he was hit," said the announcers, although a glazed look in Utley's eye was noticeable when the cameras lingered on him at 1st before the next pitch of the game.

However, Utley quickly developed headaches and had to leave the game for a pinch-hitter in the 8th with 2 on and 2 out. He was taken to the locker room for further examination of a possible concussion.

“He won’t play the next couple of days, at least,” general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said. “The question is whether he will go to Milwaukee. We don’t know. We’ll have to see. Hopefully, he’ll be back for the weekend.”

The Phillies left Citizens Bank Park for the airport after Wednesday’s game to travel to Milwaukee for a four-game series against the Brewers that begins Thursday night.

Utley didn’t move to avoid the ball, which apparently took him by surprise.

“He didn’t see it,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “He definitely didn’t want to get hit in the head.”

Utley stayed in the game and played the field in the seventh and eighth inning before being lifted for pinch hitter Ben Francisco in the bottom of the eighth. He was treated in the trainer’s room after the game for the headache and was unavailable for comment.

The good news was that the Phils pulled off an 8th and 9th inning comeback against baseball's best bullpen.

The Phils lead the NL in batting average with 2 out and Runners in Scoring Position. They did it again Wednesday night behind league leader with 2 out and RISP Placido Polanco, who is hitting .269 in those situations.

Meanwhile, manager Charlie Manuel wanted to see if Roy Oswalt could pitch deep into games and be relied upon as the team's 4th playoff starter. Oswalt didn't disappoint, holding the Braves to 2 runs and 4 hits and striking out 7 in 7 innings. His fastball was consistently clocked at 92-93 mph, and he threw 116 pitches.

Coming in, Oswalt had been shellacked by the Braves. In 9 previous starts, he was 1-3 with a 5.56 ERA.

So, while Vance Worley has enabled the Phils to win each of the 14 times he has taken the mound, he is likely to be a spare bullpen arm come October. Amazing to have so much starting studs that a rookie who is 11-1 can sit on the shelf. These are the days for the Phils, their fans and their manager, who is rapidly approach Gene Mauch for the most wins for any Phillies manager, ever.

With the Phils 91st win of the season Wednesday, Manuel now has amassed 635 wins as their skipper, just 11 shy of Mauch's all-time top Phillies total. Mauch also presided over 684 losses, Manuel has led the team through only 476. Mauch never led the Phillies to the playoffs-- not once. Manuel has captured 25 playoff wins, 15 more than Dallas Green (2nd), the Phils' manager from 1979-81. Each man won 1 World Series. Green's win % was greater in the regular and postseason than Manuel's, although he managed several less years (3 years for Green, 7 and counting for Manuel).

The Phillies extended their lead over the Braves to 10½ games in the NL East. It was the 1st losing (3-game or more) series sweep of the season for the Braves, who looked dejected and downtrodden by the end of it.