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.