Game Recap:
The Yankees jumped on Pedro Martinez for four runs in the first three innings, and cruised to a 7-3 victory last night to claim the World Series over the Phillies.
What went right?
Not much I can say here, really. The Phillies lost the World Series. I mean, Ryan Howard hit a home run, but that's about it.
What went wrong?
Chase Utley went 0-3 with a walk.
Pedro Feliz was 0-4.
Pedro Martinez didn't make it through five innings, allowing four runs on three hits in four innings. He walked two and struck out five.
Chad Durbin was horrible, allowing three more runs to score in just one third of an inning. He allowed two hits and walked a batter.
Oh, and the Phillies lost the World Series. Did I mention that yet?
Game Analysis:
Just like that, it's over. The 2009 baseball season has come to a close, and this year, the Philadelphia Phillies had to watch as the New York Yankees claimed another championship to add to their collection. I'm not going to take anything away from the way the Yankees played during this series. They were the better team through these six games, and their starting pitching and bullpen held up much better than the Phillies' did. So, congrats to them. Us Philadelphia fans wanted the Yankees, and we got the Yankees. Sometimes, you need to be careful what you wish for.
The game never really started out well yesterday. Pedro Martinez struggled from the first inning, as he never really seemed to be able to get his velocity above 86 miles an hour. He just didn't have his best stuff last night, and he was leaving pitches over the plate during all four innings he was in the game. To be honest, the score could have been much, much worse last night if the Yankees had come out swinging better in the first inning. That's how badly I thought he pitched last night. He couldn't get Hideki Matsui out...hell, no one could last night. Matsui killed the Phillies during the games that he played, and his .615 batting average, three home runs and eight RBI were more than deserving of the MVP award for the series.
The offense didn't help Pedro out last night with run support, either. Andy Pettitte didn't have his best stuff yesterday, but when the Phils did get runners on base, the batters at the plate became impatient and swung at bad pitches, which set Pettitte up to be able to get them out. Pettitte walked five batters in 5.2 innings last night and allowed four hits, but only gave up three runs. The Phillies left eight men on base, and just couldn't get anything going when they needed to. Once the Yankees went up 7-1 in the fifth inning, you just had the feeling that this game was not going to end the way that Phillies fans wanted it to.
This team does have some questions going into next year, but I'm not going to dive into those quite yet. For now, I just want to reflect on this team. Yes, they didn't win the World Series this year, but to even get back to back National League Championships is a rare feat. The Phillies were the first team to do it since the Atlanta Braves did it twice back in the 1990s, and before that, it was the Los Angeles Dodgers back in 1977 and 78, so it doesn't happen that often. If you look at the number of setbacks this team had to go through to even get back to the World Series, it's amazing. Three of the five starters in their opening day rotation didn't finish the year there. J.C. Romero, the key left-handed setup man last season, missed 90% of the year. Brad Lidge fell apart, blowing 11 saves. Cole Hamels never got on track. Jimmy Rollins was horrible for almost two-thirds of the season. Raul Ibanez couldn't hit anything after his injury...and yet they still won 93 games and a second straight National League pennant. For that, I can't be any prouder of this group of players.
The silver lining in all of this is that the Phillies are going to compete again next year. The core group of players on this team is locked up for the next two to three seasons, and most of them should be here longer than that. This is not a Florida Marlins type team that has to sell off all of its talent now that they've made it this far. This team isn't that old yet, and they should be back into the playoffs for years to come. For all the crap that I've said about this team this year on this blog when they lost, I'm still more proud of them than I even was last year. The 2008 Phillies let us know what it's like to be a winner, and that is a damn good feeling. This year, save for four games in late October and early November, we got to feel that way again. It's not very often that a team comes around that has the chance to be this good for this long. They've already won three straight National League East pennants, and they're going to add more to that, let me tell you.
So...that's it for baseball this year, which means this blog is more than likely going to slow down a little bit more, since I don't have something to write about every night. I'm not going anywhere, though. I'll be here from now until the end of sports in Philadelphia, as far as I'm concerned.
Oh, and one more thing: this team did Harry Kalas proud. I'm sure he loved watching these guys play and honor his memory like they did this year. They may have come up a bit short, but Harry wouldn't have cared. This year was for him.
See all you baseball fans in 2010. We've only got 97 days until spring training.
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