Shallow | Center

April Losses = September Losses

The Phillies Made the Playoffs Because They Won More Than the Mets Did -- Period

A FINAL thought before turning to what the Phillies must do to improve themselves for next season: There was a lot of chatter about the Mets' implosion and how simply by winning one or two games in the last couple weeks of the season, it would have been the Phils watching glumly at home. Well, turn it around: A win or two during that awful April and the Phillies would have taken the division with more ease. Losses count the same in April as they do in September (and in May, June, July, and August, for that matter). The Phils won the division because they were a game better than New York, and that's all. So enough talk about how the Mets somehow allowed what was rightfully theirs to slip away.

A corollary: Somebody please point out to Charlie Manual that if he can get his team to realize the season starts a month earlier than May 1, it might be in much better position physically and emotionally come October.

Rocky Mountain Sigh

Punchless Phillies See Their Season End With a Whimper in Denver

YOU CAN'T win if you don't hit, and with only three hits in Coors Field tonight, the Phillies became just another speed bump in Colorado's late-season drag race into and through the playoffs. Jamie Moyer and Tom Gordon were terrific, but J.C. Romero finally ran out of whatever house money he was playing with, yielding the go-ahead run on three hits in the eighth, and that was that. In three games the Phils' offense was largely missing in action, and despite a 14-year playoff gap, the club didn't seem especially eager to stick around this postseason any longer than necessary.

The analysis from all corners will come later. For now, it's late, and I'm tired and not a little bit sad. I know we weren't even supposed to be here, but once we got in, I wanted to stay a hell of a lot longer than three games. Damn, but this game can break your heart.

Philly.com 2.0

New Online Home of Inky, DN Is an Improvement, But There's More Work to Be Done

LAST SUMMER, while walking the concourse at Citizens Bank Park, I bumped into Brian Tierney. The head of Philadelphia Media Holdings, which had just bought the Inquirer and Daily News, was at the ballpark to throw out the first pitch, part of a promotional blitz to get Philadelphia jacked about its daily print media returning to local ownership. After I introduced myself to him and chatted up my subscription, I did what any good Philadelphian would do: offer an unsolicited (and probably unwanted) opinion about the product he oversees.

"You have to fix the website," I said.

The First Day of the Rest of Their Season?

Phillies Need to Rediscover the Joy of Baseball in Denver ... or Else

MAYBE IT'S better that the Phils will try to win the next two games more than half a continent away. Citizens Bank Park was a cauldron of frenzied emotions and lost hopes on Wednesday and Thursday, and it might do the club well to focus simply on playing baseball and having fun instead of pleasing the hometown faithful. During Game 2's ass-kicking, when no fan could reasonably have expected the kind of epic comeback we were all hoping for, the house rocked whenever a rally could be so much as sniffed. Even in the eighth, when the Phillies were down by 5, they put a few runners on and you'd have sworn by the crowd's reaction that the World Series was within short reach. No, we didn't fail the Phils this week, nor did they fail us. But maybe the two sides let each other down, we in our unbridled enthusiasm and they in their desperate yearning to justify it.

Or maybe it's just that our bullpen sucks and there are times when our hitters can't get their heads out of their asses.

The Price of Gas

Two Home Losses Raise Questions About How Much Is Left in the Phils' Tank

THE LAST time I attended a playoff baseball game, the Phillies were trudging off Veterans Stadium's damp, cold turf 15-14 losers in Game 4 of the 1993 World Series. Citizens Bank Park yesterday was sunny, warm, and humid, and the Phils' 10-5 loss to the Rockies, while disappointing, didn't have the crushing sadness of that '93 stomach punch. Once I recovered from the fact that Kaz Matsui's grand slam -- seriously, Kaz Matsui? -- likely put yesterday's game out of reach, I could begin the work of resigning myself to the inevitable reminiscing over a fun and successful, if incomplete -- season.

Baseball-wise, I wonder how much those manic last couple of weeks in the division race sapped the Phillies emotionally. While the Rockies had to stage their own wildly improbable charge to the wild card, they have parlayed their momentum into a 2-0 series lead; the Phils, on the other hand, just don't have it together. I'm not sure how to explain it except to say they look a bit off. The old bugaboos were there yesterday -- a so-so effort from their starter, the bullpen's inability to keep things close, wasted opportunities on offense. I'd have hoped that at this level, motivation and concentration would be sufficiently high, but ... I don't know. Something's missing.

Winning two in Colorado to force Game 5 in Philadelphia Tuesday isn't out of the question. But unless the Phillies relax and let the game come to them, winter awaits.

A special thank-you to Mira L. for generously sharing her tickets on the first-base line. Despite the final result, I had a hell of a time.

No Offense Intended

Phillies' Silent Bats Turn Today's Game Into a Must-Win

COLE HAMELS'S bad inning was just a bit worse than Jeff Francis's. The top of the Phillies' lineup was startlingly bad. And the Rockies got just enough key hits. Colorado 4, Philadelphia 2, costing the Phils home-field advantage and making Game 2, which I'll be at this afternoon, of monumental importance.

The Phillies had some chances, but watching Jimmy Rollins, Shane Victorino, Chase Utley, and Ryan Howard flail helplessly at pitch after pitch was enough to douse any hope a Phan might have. It's not time to panic; quite the opposite, actually. A lighter grip of the bats and Kyle Kendrick's typically quietly effective start would do wonders today. And, as the players themselves have noted time and time again, nothing came easy this year -- why start now?

Afternoon Delight

3 P.M., Citizens Bank Park. 'Nuff Said.

I KNOW the timing sucks for an awful lot of fans, but there's something very cool about weekday afternoon playoff baseball. The sunshine, the long shadows, the blue skies -- they conjure up evocative memories of bygone times. Throw the Phillies into the mix, and I'm practically giddy. Like I said, the timing sucks, but it beats the hell out of listening to other teams' fans complain about the timing.

Analysts far smarter than I have spent the last couple of days poring over matchups and trying to determine, position by position, where the Phils have the advantage and where the Rockies do. I'll leave that to them. Me, I'm content to revel in meaningful October baseball in Philadelphia.

Well, for now. Talk to me at 7 o'clock tonight and see if I'm so pleasantly detached.

That's the Spirit

Something Much More Than Offense and Defense Drove the Phillies to the Playoffs

CHRIS COSTE was ready. After Brett Myers dropped the division-clinching curveball past Willy Mo Pena and into Coste's mitt, the Phillies' catcher stood up and made his way to the mound, ready to embrace his batterymate and launch the celebration. Except here came Pat Burrell careening out of the dugout, reaching Myers first and joyously leaping into the closer's arms. If you want one good reason why October baseball will happen in Philadelphia this season, look no further than No. 5. And I'm not talking about his absolutely critical second-half resurgence. Burrell this year seemed to rediscover how to have fun on a baseball field. During the stirring stretch drive that culminated in the division championship, the Phils' leftfielder allowed cracks of humanity to show through his usually sullen demeanor, and suddenly he appeared juiced to be playing for something that mattered. That kind of spirit was evident throughout the roster all season long; it can't be quantified, and the sabermetric guys would simply sneer at it, but I don't think we'd have awakened with exultant hangovers this morning without it.