October 21, 2009 [LINK / comment]
For the rest of his life, Jimmy Rollins will be able to walk into any bar in Philadelphia, and somebody's going to buy him a beer. With two outs [and runners on first and second] in the bottom of the ninth inning on Monday night, the Dodgers had a 4-3 lead and thought they had the series evened up, 2-2. Instead, Rollins doubled to deep right center field, and [Carlos Ruiz] scored the winning run. Final score: 5-4. Fans in Philadelphia were euphoric beyond measure, and even I cheered the improbably heroic deed, but meanwhile the spirits of the Dodger faithful were crushed. Hey, that's baseball for you.
Tonight, the Dodgers' Andre Ethier homered in the top of the first inning, rattling the nerves of Phillies ace pitcher Cole Hamel, but Jason Werth answered that with a three-run homer in the bottom of the inning. After that, the Phillies kept piling on more runs inning after inning. Walks and batters hit by pitches were what did the Dodgers in: Even though they got as many hits as the Phillies, the final score wasn't even close: 10-4, "over and out." Former Washington National Ronnie Belliard played very respectably in both the NLDS and NLCS, but he had the misfortune to be the last Dodger to bat, striking out.
And so, the Philadelphia Phillies [take the National League Championship Series four games to one. They] are going to the World Series for the second year in a row, something they have never done before. Congratulations to the City of Brotherly Love!