Phillies hanging on by their teeth

Game 6, coming up.

The Philadelphia Phillies, facing elimination last night, hung on to win and force a Game 6 back at Yankee Stadium. I don't have a rooting interest in the Series other than the fact that back in July I predicted a Phillies dynasty. It would be fun to see this series go to seven games, especially since for the first time in a long time I believe the two best teams in baseball are actually facing each other in the World Series.

If it does go to Game Seven, the Yankees will have their ace, CC Sabathia, back on the mound. You gotta wonder if Charlie Manuel is regretting not pitching Cliff Lee on three days' rest so he could pitch three Series games. Instead, it looks like he'll send Pedro Martinez to the mound tomorrow night, and probably J.A. Happ if there's a Game Seven.

Can Pedro conjure up the same magic he did for five innings in Game 2? Against postseason hero Andy Pettitte, no less?

I can't wait to find out.

--Matt Kelsey

'I got it! I got it!' See, how hard was that?

It's freezing cold outside, but at least we have playoff baseball to keep us warm.

The playoffs have been pretty good so far, including that one-game tiebreaker between the Twins and the Tigers which may have been one of the best baseball games I've ever seen. One thing that's disappointed me, though, is a lack of fundamentals by these teams, which are supposed to be the best teams in the league.

Take this, for example: how many times, just during these playoffs, have we seen near-collisions on popups because players refuse to simply CALL FOR THE BALL? I don't understand it. This is little league stuff. Call for the damn ball! We've also seen some horrendous baserunning, resulting in lost runs and lost games. Rockies star Troy Tulowitski just pulled his own baserunning bonehead play a few moments ago.

Fans of some of the losing teams may blame poor umpiring, and yes, there have been some questionable calls. The Twins were the victims of bad calls during their series with the Yankees. But it's not why they lost.

As a Royals fan who takes great pride in the team's 1985 World Series trophy, I always bristle when fans blame bad calls for lost ballgames. Cardinals fans still blame Don Denkinger for "The Call" in Game 6 of the 1985 series. These idiots forget, though, that the Cardinals also dropped a routine fly ball in that inning, and also runners advanced on a passed ball. (And, Jorge Orta was thrown out on the basepaths, rendering the negative effects of "The Call" virtually irrelevant.) And, of course, they also forget the 11-0 drubbing they took at the hands of the Royals in Game 7.

The Twins lost to the Yankees because of mistakes, plain and simple.

If Philadelphia can pull out a win tonight or in Game 5, we'll have the Phillies vs. the Dodgers and the Yankees vs. the Angels.

I'm rooting for Angels-Phillies. I think this would be the most entertaining series. Yankees-Dodgers would be interesting for the Joe Torre angle (and the first season in new Yankee Stadium). Angels-Dodgers would be good for the crosstown rivalry, and it would be cool to see the Angels win for Nick Adenhart. The best baseball would be played between the Yankees and the Phillies, though.

So any way it goes down we'll have a great storyline to follow, and a fun World Series.

Just call for the damn ball!

--Matt Kelsey

Let the playoffs begin

Wow, what a great ballgame last night to determine the A.L. Central champs. The Twins won the tiebreaker game in the bottom of the 12th, but it was back-and-forth all night long.

In my humble opinion, I think the Tigers actually played better baseball. (How 'bout that defense from Brandon Inge and Ryan Rayburn?) The Twins got the breaks, though. You gotta love that about this wonderful, crazy game of baseball... sometimes, the best team loses.

One criticism I have of last night's broadcast - What's the deal with these announcers? God, they were awful. The on-field reporter was worthless and couldn't hardly speak in a complete sentence, Ron Darling didn't add anything of value, and the play-by-play guy was certainly nothing special. Is this what we're gonna be subjected to throughout the division series? And then, in the ALDS, we'll get the added commentary of David Wells! Wells was on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon a couple days ago, and he was just downright creepy.

At least the World Series will be on Fox.