One Win Away

A National League Pennant is just one win away for the Phightin' Phils. Just one win away. That's it.

The Phillies will have a chance to clinch tomorrow with their 24 year old ace, Cole Hamels.

Hamels dazzled the Dodgers in game one of the series. He allowed just 2 earned runs in 7 innings of work. He struck out 8 and walked 2.

Hamels will face off against Chad Billingsley. The Phillies rocked Chad in game 2 of the NLCS. Billingsley gave up 8 runs, 7 earned, in 2.1 innings. Billingsley will try to redeem himself, and he will sure be happy that he won't have to pitch against Brett Myers.

So far, the Phillies are 2-0 at home, and 1-1 at Dodger Stadium in the NLCS. Their loss at Dodger Stadium included some drama, and their win included some fireworks.

In game 3, the Phillies lost 7-2, but it was the incident involving Shane Victorino and Hiroki Kuroda that took the spot light.

Flash backing to game 2, Brett Myers threw a pitch that "slipped" behind Manny Ramirez. Ramirez was clearly upset. He was upset that Billingsley didn't retaliate.

Russell Martin was plunked twice in game 2. Martin, Ramirez or the Dodger's bench, must have told Kuroda to throw at somebody, and he did.

A fastball sailed over the ducking Victorino's head. Victorino was mad, saying "You can throw at my chest, but not at my head." After a few words with Martin, the game went on, Victorino grounded to first, but it still wasn't over. Victorino repeated what he said to Kuroda, and the benches cleared.

Manny Ramirez wanted some action, but he was restrained by his teammates. Romero, a close friend of Manny, was also restrained as well as other players. 7 players and coaches in uniform were fined for their actions. Warnings were issued, and no other problems to this point occurred.

The Phillies ended game 4 in dramatic fashion which let everybody know why they are called the Phightin Phils.

The Phillies and Dodgers' lead went back and forth. With a Dodger's 5-3 lead in the 8th inning, the Joe Torre decided to go with Corey Wade instead of a 2 inning save for Jonathan Broxton. And boy did the Dodgers ever pay.

Shae Victorino hit a 2 run homerun to tie the game. Matt Stairs followed with a 2 run homerun of his own that gave the Phillies a 2 run lead. Stair's homerun was a moonshot, measured at 360 feet into the Pavillion bleachers.

"I swing for the fences," he said. "That's how I've been my whole career. I
think of home runs. It carries over from batting practice. I try to hit every
ball out of the ballpark. I'm not going to lie, it's fun when you're there and
you're hitting balls out of the ballpark. The biggest thing is to see how far
you're going to hit the ball."

Lidge recorded his first 4 out save of the season as the Phillies are taking a stairway to the World Series.

Picture Courtesy of Philly.com

Quote Courtesy of Phillies.com