October 07, 2007
Phillies Ninth
Ryan Howard leads off for the Phillies, down one run.
Update: Howard strikes out looking on a Corpas slider. That's the 26th K for the Rockies pitchers in the series.
Update: Rowand grounds out to first, unassisted. It's up to Victorino.
Update: Victorino grounds out to second, and the Rockies win! They were the last NL team without a post season series win, and for the first time in the three tier format, two teams from the west meet in the NLCS. Congratulations to the Rockies on a great win and a great series. I expected more of a slugfest in this game, but it turned into a great pitching duel. The NL plays on Thursday. More Sunday morning.
Now they'll have to explain to the executives at Fox that there are teams in Colorado and Arizona.
Actually, since the NLCS is on TBS, Fox executives are somewhat happy. And TBS, also, since they'll probably get their highest ratings ever. Remember, a badly rated playoff game is still much better than most regular programming nights.
notice how people become amateur TV executives when smaller market teams win? FWIW Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the country (larger than Philly or Boston). As baseball fans, shouldn't it matter that the better teams won the series as opposed to how many tires Fox can sell?
I believe the Rox are not the last NL franchise to have won a postseason series -- the Expos/Nationals have yet to win one.
(Over in the AL, we've still got the Devil Rays and the Rangers without a postseason series win...)
The Expos won the divisional series in 1981. They had a split season that year.
thereisnorule6 - Well, of course it does. The national media just seems dumbfounded when something in baseball happens away from the traditional powerhouses and big markets. Personally, I love that the West is stickin' it to the East this year in the NL. I'm just sad it's not my Dodgers.
(Incidentally, this move to TBS has thrown me for a loop. That's twice now I've been caught in the comments not knowing what station things are on.)
Also, Phoenix may have the 5th-largest city population, but as of the 2000 Census it was only the 14th-largest metropolitan area. Denver is 19th. The teams they beat were from metro areas ranked 3rd and 6th, respectively.
In the AL, Cleveland (16th-largest metro area) is beating New York (#1), and Boston (7th) is beating so-called Los Angeles (#2), though that's a bit misleading, since Anaheim is something of a secondary team in L.A. and Boston has a very wide national fan base.
Thanks for the correction, Syd. I knew the Dodgers and Expos played in the NLCS in 1981 -- I'd forgotten they both needed to win a series to get there.