September 30, 2006
The Other Three-Way Tie Dies
The Padres and Dodgers both win, Los Angeles 4-2 over San Francisco and the Padres 3-1 over the Diamondbacks. Congratulations to both southern California teams on reaching the playoffs! David Wells finally wins one for San Diego, and it's the clincher. He allowed four hits and a walk through six innings, all singles.
And it was a good day for 40-year-olds in San Francisco as well. Greg Maddux pitches seven innings, allowing just three hits and two runs. He runs his record with the Dodgers to 6-3 with a 3.30 ERA. He proved to be a very valuable addition for the stretch run.
The Padres just need a win tomorrow or a Dodger loss to take the division crown. The winner gets to host the NL Central champ, while the loser travels to New York to face the Mets.
The Phillies are eliminated from the playoff picture. We'll see shortly if the Astros survive another day.
re: missing the wild card by a game two years in a row
well this must be the way the giants felt all those years in the sixties they were finishing second to the dodgers by a couple of games and missing out on the world series.
after a great second half run, the phillies phall short again.
teams succeeded in the last three weeks by pitching around Ryan Howard, and for some strange reason Charlie Manuel kept taking the bat out of his best hitters' hands by insisting on having Rollins, Victorino or Utley steal when Howard was about to come up with none or one out. He did it again today with Utley up, Victorino on first and none out. Victorino was thrown out, Utley made and out, and they walked Howard to get to the next guy.
Howard is not merely leading the NL in homers, he's in the top five in OBA as well.
He's the MVP. He helped the phils win more games than the Cardinals or Astros, one of whom will limp into the playoffs with fewer wins than the Phils.
Again the Central is the weak sister in the league.
The Dodgers and Padres may have put it together for this year but they are veteran teams and will not have much left for next year.
The Phillies need to get serious for next year, get Curt Schilling and Andruw Jones or two players like them, and get out of the gate to a 100 win season like the mets did this year.
A change in managers? Yes, maybe.
--art kyriazis, philly
PS I can't root for the dodgers since they eliminated Tommy Lasorda of Norristown, PA and traded Mike Piazza his godson also of Norristown, PA. they're just characterless. The Padres, all I think of are those awful brown uniforms they wore in 84 when they known Ryne Sandberg out of the world series. Does anyone really think of San Diego as a city? Seriously?
I hate to say it, but Let's Go Mets.
--ak
re: playoffs & world series
that would be yankees-mets for another subway series to commemorate the fifth anniversary of 9/11 the RIGHT WAY by showing everyone that NEW YORK is the capital of the WORLD terrorists be damned.
--art kyriazis, philly
Gee, Art, I think of San Diego as a city. Seriously. Because, um, it is. Sorry the guys from your city didn't make it to the playoffs. Hey, there's always next year.
As for a subway series, I didn't watch an inning of the last one. If that ends up happening again this year, the off-season will start early for me. I just really wouldn't care which of those two teams won.
San Diego is one of the ten largest cities in the US, BTW...
"PS I can't root for the dodgers since they eliminated Tommy Lasorda of Norristown, PA and traded Mike Piazza his godson also of Norristown, PA. they're just characterless. The Padres, all I think of are those awful brown uniforms . . .
I hate to say it, but Let's Go Mets."
Just to point out -- Tommy Lasorda is a prominent adviser for the Dodgers who sits with the owner every game. As for Piazza, I believe the Mets let him go too -- and he's with the Padres now.
My suggestion is to find another reason for supporting the east coasters.