ONE down THREE to go

Last night was full of tension and excitement. The game went pretty to form though I am still concerned with the slumping of Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins. From the glass is half full side of the world, the Phils still won and two of their best players are not playing well; from the glass is half empty perspective, you can't expect to win a lot of games going 0-11 with runners in scoring position.

Anyway, I do have a real bone to pick with the 'national mainstream media' and their portayal of the Phillies in this World Series (yikes...I just re-read that and I sound like Sarah Palin - LOL). I am not really sure why the Rays have been installed as the favorites; I guess it is some combination of them beating the Red Sox, winning there division and being baseball's 'best' story, but for whatever reason this Phillies Club is getting ZERO credit. What exactly have they done? They are back to back NL EAST CHAMPS, beating out the favored New York Mets this year. In 10 postseason games they are now 8-2 and have roundly dispatched of both the Brewers and Dodgers and in both cases roughed up the best pitchers on either staff. Last night, as the overly LONG pre-game show went on I tried to figure out why this Phillie line up is not getting credit, especially compared to the Rays line up. If this were ANY other American League team there would be a lot of talk about the DH and the advantage that gives the AL team, but there is no such talk here. In fact, outside of Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria and BJ Upton this Rays line up is not very scary and they showed that last night. From a pitching perspective I think it is pretty close but I'll give the Rays starters a slight edge in depth but does that really that matter in a 7 game series? I remember when the media would say, "give me 2 quality pitchers and you can win in the post season". Well, Cole Hamels is one and Brett Myers has shown in the second half of the year he might be the other. Go to the bullpen and all of the sudden you hear about the Rays amazing bullpen by 'committee'. Bullpen by committee means your best guy is hurt (Troy Percival in this case) and you really have no idea what to do. Thus far it hasn't hurt them except they SHOULD have wrapped up the AL in 5 games when they had a 7-0 LEAD WITH TWO OUTS! They are getting a pass because Boston is the toughest team to put away - MY ASS!

Look, FOX needs viewers and they need to try and get a way for you, Joe the Plumber, to watch this series...fine, I get that, but let's give this Philly team credit. I am tired of hearing about ONE World Series in 125 years and 10,000 losses in franchise history...THIS TEAM IS 81 OUTS FROM BEING WORLD CHAMPS!!!!!!!