A Painful Fall After a Night of Climbing

The back-end of yesterday's day/night, football/baseball, New York/Philly grudge match found our hometown heroes in an uphill struggle almost all evening. The Phillies quickly fell behind and found themselves in what seemed to be a perpetual battle to catch up, only to take a painful plunge in the end. They now find themselves on the ground looking up at a steep 3-1 series deficit.

With Mariano Rivera looming in the bullpen prepared to pitch the 9th, Pedro Feliz smoked a Joba Chamberlain fastball into the left field stands with two outs in the bottom of the 8th inning to tie the score at 4-4 and send the Citizen's Bank Park crowd into a brief frenzy. The momentum had shifted dugouts and confidence was teeming through the stadium as come back wins are now familiar territory to this team and city. Unfortunately, the prospects of a huge World Series win shortly evaporated as Phillies closer Brad Lidge yielded a 3-run rally after

being 1 pitch away from a 1-2-3 9th inning.

The last inning Yankees beat down was one last blow that wounded team spirits as they now faced their biggest climb against the most prolific closer in MLB post season history. "Mo" quickly dispensed the Phils and the Yankees celebrated a commanding 3-1 series lead.

The Yankees wasted no time jumping in front, and quickly responded every time the Phillies pulled themselves even. On this evening, the Bronx Bombers did very little bombing, doing most of their damage with an abundance of luck until their 9th inning rally.

In the first inning, Derek Jeter started the game with an infield single when Chase Utley slipped on the wet turf. Johnny Damon ripped a double that bounced off the right field wall and both runners scored on a ground out and a short sacrifice fly, respectively.

Shane Victorino and Utley hit back-to-back doubles in the bottom half of the inning to cut the lead to 2-1. Utley's drive hit high off the wall in right-center, just missing being a two-run homer by a couple feet. If not for being on the opposite ends of fortune, the lead could have been reversed after one inning.

The Phillies scratched out the tying run in the 4th when Ryan Howard singled, stole second and scored on Feliz's two-out hit to left. Within minutes, though, they found themselves behind again, mostly through bad fortune. Nick Swisher walked to lead off the 5th and Melky Cabrero chopped an infield single that looked like a possible double play. One out later, Jeter hit a pop up to left that fortuitously landed between three converging fielders, sending home Swisher. Adding further insult to injury, Damon hit a pop up to right that somehow again dropped in and Cabrero ran through a stop sign to restore the Yankees 2-run lead. The walk was on Blanton, but the rest was on "Lady Luck."

After two hard outs in the 7th, Utley continued his assault on Sabathia by launching a ball into the right field stands to cut the deficit to 4-3. Yankees skipper Joe Girardi opted for Chamberlain to pitch the 8th to set-up the save for Rivera. After blowing fastballs past Jayson Werth and Raul Ibanez to record two strikeouts, the Hip Hop hurler quickly found himself in the position to do the same with Feliz. But the Phillies 3rd baseman jumped on a 3-2 fastball and sent it deep into the left field bleachers.

Besides igniting the crowd and his team, the shot briefly sat Rivera down as Girardi wanted to keep him for a save situation. Charlie Manuel called on Brad Lidge to hold the Yankees in the 9th and give his team the chance to win in the bottom half of the inning.

Lidge looked confident and seemed to have his best slider of the season. He got pinch hitter Hideki Matsui to weakly pop out and then struck out Jeter on a couple of nasty sliders. He got ahead of Damon, who barely ticked a foul tip and then after 9 pitches, dumped a single into left. Damon quickly stole second and continued to third when no one covered. Lidge nailed Mark Teixeira with an inside fastball and then surrendered a double to A-Rod to make it 5-4. The Human Rain Delay, Jorge Posada, followed with a crushing two-run single.

Inexplicably, Lidge was burned for all the hits on fastballs, despite having possibly his best slider of the year. It is his signature pitch, yet was not called upon with the game and possibly the whole season on the line. Last night's failure was not about lack of confidence, command or stuff, but rather very questionable pitch selection. Many pundits suggested afterward that Lidge had to throw fastballs out of fear of throwing a wild pitch with a sharp breaking slider, but it seems unlikely that after two years the pitcher and catcher would suddenly be deterred by a runner on third.

After a night of getting knocked down and climbing back up, the Phillies finally fell too far to recover. Sensing being on the brink of another big come back to pull even in the series, it was a sudden, painful twist of fate. The team sends Cliff Lee to the mound for the last game of the year in Citizen's Bank Park. They hope for it not to be the last game, period, and that they can return to Yankee Stadium in an attempt to climb back up to repeat as champions.

11-0 NLCS Win...Fabulous, J Roll Walk-off....Priceless

Jimmy Rollins has had his up and down performances this year, but he saved his best act for the biggest stage and created one of the biggest moments in Philadelphia sports history. Trailing by a run with two mates aboard and down to their last out, squaring off against the National League's top relief pitcher throwing 100 mph seeds at him, J Roll rocketed a liner that landed in the right-center field gap to vault the Phillies to a dramatic come from behind victory. As Carlos Ruiz bounced across home plate with the winning run, Rollins raced around third to jubilantly jump into the middle of his teammates welcoming party.

In the space of seconds, J Roll had lifted his team from a 2-2 dead lock to a commanding 3-1 lead over the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLCS. From the moment the barrel of Rollins' bat cracked against Jonathan Broxton's triple digit fastball, it was apparent that the ball was returning faster at a speed and location that was not going to be caught. The 45,000 Phillies faithful knew they were witnessing one of those truly spectacular moments for the ages unfold in front of them. The crowd exploded into boisterous celebration, overtaken by indescribable joy. It was pure bedlam throughout the stadium, on and off the field, with the notable exception of the Dodgers dugout.

Although the previous night's game was laced with excitement throughout the game as the Phillies continued their onslaught from start to finish, last night's game made up for any lull with a heroic finish of epic proportions. Considering the dramatic agony of defeat to thrill of victory ending, the import of the game, and the setting in Citizen's Bank Park, last night's game was arguably the most thrilling victory in Philadelphia sports history. Game ending, World Championship clinching strikeouts by Brad Lidge and Tug McGraw are surely special, but suddenly going from loser to winner in a handful of frantic seconds in the NLCS is stunningly momentous.

The night started out with the two teams following the same script from the previous night. Joe Blanton set the first 10 Dodgers down in order. Meanwhile, Ryan Howard smoked a line shot into the right field bleachers to give the Phils a 2-0 lead. Howard and Blanton had the crowd feeling the song still persistently playing in their head, "I gotta feeling that tonight's gonna be a good night." Of course, little did they know what was in store for them a couple hours later.

The Dodgers weren't ready to roll over, though, and strung 3 hits together with a pair of walks to tie the game in the fourth. Blanton finally got Casey Blake to ground out to end the threat after a 38 pitch inning. Matt Kemp hit a solo home run to dead center in the 5th inning to stake them to a 3-2 lead.

After surrendering Howard's homer, former Phil Randy Wolf made things tough on his former team, retiring 12 batters in a row. The Dodgers tacked on a run in the 6th, capitalizing on a Pedro Feliz error, a Texas League single by Ronnie Belliard and Blake's soft single to right.

The Phillies countered in the bottom half of the inning, though, when Shane Victorino tripled into the left field corner and Chase Utley knocked him in with a line single to right. Howard drew a walk, and was forced at second by Jayson Werth. Raul Ibanez then smashed a sinking liner to left, but Manny Ramirez immediately broke in and made a somewhat improbable shoe string catch to end the inning.

With George Sherrill on the hill, the Phillies mounted a threat in the home 8th. Victorino was a hit by a pitch and Utley walked to put a couple runners on with one out and Howard coming to the plate. Sherrill used an assortment of off speed pitches and fanned Howard on a pitch out of the strike zone. Joe Torre made the slow journey to the mound and summoned Broxton into face Werth, who battled valiantly to fight off 99-102 mph fastballs, but eventually flied out to right.

After Scott Eyre recorded an out and then yielded a single, Charlie Manuel opted for Brad Lidge to pitch to Kemp and Andre Ethier. Lidge made another strong case that he has re-found his 2008 form by striking both hitters out, sending the game to the fateful bottom of the ninth.

Broxton got Ibanez to ground out to start the frame. Manuel then sent Matt Stairs up to pinch hit for Feliz, and seemingly fearing a repeat of last year's events, Broxton walked him on four pitches. Ruiz was hit by a pitch, but pinch hitter Greg Dobbs lined out softly to Blake for out number two. The stage was set and up stepped Rollins to the roar of the crowd still trying to coax a last ditch rally out of the team. J Roll proved up to the challenge, smacking a blistering line shot on a 1-1 fastball between Kemp and Ethier that hopped against the right-center field fence. Pinch runner Eric Bruntlett and Ruiz raced around the bases and scored easily, with deafening noise echoing throughout the Bank.

It was truly a spectacular moment to cherish, one that will be remembered for many, many years to come. An 11-0 demolition the previous night, featuring a pitching gem by Cliff Lee and various pyrotechnics from Phillies hitters, was fabulous. A two out, bottom of the ninth inning, come from behind win via a walk-off double by J Roll was....priceless.