Image credit: Screenshot of Major League Baseball highlights video by Cujo359
After capturing their division by one of the widest margins they've ever managed, the Philadelphia Phillies baseball team set another new mark:
The Phillies ended the best regular season in franchise history Wednesday with a 4-3 victory over the Braves in 13 innings at Turner Field. It ended one the craziest nights in baseball with four teams fighting for their postseason lives, including the Braves. The Phillies not only eliminated Atlanta from the postseason, but they also set franchise records with their 102nd regular-season victory and Charlie Manuel's 646th regular-season victory as manager.That's also the best record in Major League Baseball this season, by a rather wide margin. The runners up, the New York Yankees, were five games behind.
The victory set up the Phillies to play the Cardinals in the National League Division Series, which begins Saturday with Game 1 at Citizens Bank Park.
Phillies set club mark, turn focus to playoffs
Which, one would think, would make them the favorite in the playoffs. That just might be true, particularly since, with the addition of some right-handed power in the person of Hunter Pence, they don't really seem to have any weaknesses as a ball club. Still, as we learned last year, having a better record is no guarantee of winning. As we remember from two years ago, the Phillies always seem to find a way to lose to the Yankees, who are one of the more likely possible opponents in the World Series.
As a particularly wise sportscaster once said, they don't play the game on paper, they play it in funny hats. We'll just have to see what happens when the funny hats come out.
Meanwhile, it's nice to see them have the chance to finally beat the Yankees when it matters.
2 comments:
And how did the Mariners do? Ah, here we go:
http://goo.gl/6rvKe
Yikes, shut out in there last 20 innings.
And the bay teams?
Giants? Ouch! http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_18997747
A's? Only Slightly better than Seattle
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/teams/page/SEA/seattle-mariners
See you next year, maybe SD can up from the cellar again.
The Ms were on the last Fox game of the week. The Rangers, their opponents, had just won the division, so they played their subs for most of the game. The Mariners still lost, badly.
The Giants certainly took a turn for the worse, which was surprising given how well they seemed to be run.
The Padres, unfortunately, are the southern equivalent of the Mariners.
Add in the Dodgers, and West Coast baseball was nothing to write home about this year.
But then, I grew up a Phillies fan. Back in the 1960s and early 1970s, that was the perfect way to learn to expect nothing from your home team but disappointment.
I guess you could say I feel right at home out here.
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