Phillies Advance to NLCS

In the season where football is supposed to be the dominant feature in Philadelphia Sports, at least the way it has been since 1993, the Phillies have been the only team making noise this fall. The confused Eagles are a meager 2-3 and sit at the bottom of the NFC East, while the Phillies--making their second run at the World Series--are nothing worse than the second-best team in the Senior circuit. They begin their series with the Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday to determine which coast proves to field the better squad. This is the fourth time in history the Philles and Dodgers have met in the NLCS--the Dodgers have the series lead 2 to 1.

Whether or not the team succeeds will undoubtedly fall into the hands of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard, the two biggest bats on the team who have both generally struggled in post-season play. The starting pitching proved its worth against a floudering Milwaukee Brew-Crew, but now it too has to step up against a Dodger team that lit-up the Cubs strong rotation and averaged a mdoest 6.7 runs a game. So long as Myers and Moyer come to play, I believe the pitching will hold tight, but the bats definitely need to get louder. The Phillies streaky offense, which has often been their achilles heel, will need to get hot come Thursday and start pounding in the runs. The Dodgers are playing at their best since the season began in April, and it is time for the Phillies to do the same.

This is a new venue for the Phillies team, full of players unfamiliar with post-season play. Some of that starry-eyed wonder may affect them in their first game, but hopefully the eye-wash is brought out in a hurry and the team can start to focus on the task at hand. After the game on Sunday, it already sounded like the team was ready to get down to business. They will need to maintain that business-like attitude throughout if they expect to play for a World Championship.

If the Phillies can successfully navigate the Dodgers, they will most likely have to face off against a strong AL squad in either Boston or the Angels. Unfortunately for them, the Phillies have not done well in interleague play, but in the playoffs the machine is a whole different animal. Hopefully they can get over their awkwardness against Junior Circuit opponents and come ready to battle, but they still have to get by Manny Fresh and the Princes near Bel-Air in order to even have that chance.

So on a day when the Eagles lose, the truth is, it doesn't really matter. The Phillies are moving on, and a toast to their recent and hopefully upcoming successes.

Philles in 7 games.