Looking In the Mirror

Now that the celebration has subsided, at least somewhat, we can finally focus on the task at hand for the Phils – namely, the Milwaukee Brewers in the Divisional Series. This definitely won’t be an easy series for the Phils, but I’m confident this team will put forth a better showing than they did against Colorado in last year’s Divisional Series. My reasoning won’t be the most in-depth, statistical-driven, or scientific analysis you’ll hear over the next few days, but here it is anyway.

This 2008 Brewers team mirrors the 2007 Phillies pretty closely. Much like the last year’s Phillies, the Brewers were pretty much left for dead with two weeks left in the regular season. Granted, they were not 7 out with 17 left to play, but their momentum had clearly plummeted after dropping 4 straight to our Phightins. The Brew Crew fell into panic mode, even firing manager Ned Yost with roughly two weeks left in the season –all of this while still in the midst of a wild card chase. Then, suddenly the Brewers surged when it counted and squeaked their way into the playoffs in dramatic fashion on the final day of the season. During that last day of the season, the young and inexperienced Brewers felt the highest of highs. Sound familiar? But, maybe the Brewers peaked that day. It sure is possible, isn’t it? We saw it with the Phils last year. It sure looked like the Phillies thought they won their World Series on that Sunday afternoon against the Nationals. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Brew Crew head down the same path.

Meanwhile, our Phillies have been there before and you can’t discount experience in postseason play. (I can’t believe I just wrote the Phillies have been there before. Still hard to believe this team has won two straight division titles.) I imagine they have churned last year’s embarrassing showing in the NLDS over and over in their minds throughout the past twelve months. Now, they have the chance to do something about it and I think they ultimately will. The Phillies had the past three days to come off their division-winning high. They had the opportunity to relax on Sunday, which enabled them to set the rotation as they saw fit. All of this should breed far better results than last year.

Of course, in order for the Phillies to take this series, I still think they need to jump on the Brew Crew in Game 1 and then finish it off within 4 games. If the series comes down to a Game 5 and the Brewers throw big C. C. out there for the second time, the Phils chances decrease dramatically. Presented with that situation, not even I, the quintessential optimist, would not like the Phillies’ chances. However, if they jump on this kid tomorrow and take advantage of every non-C. C. day, the Phils may just punch their ticket to the NLCS.