The Diamond Fan

The Dodgers are in the midst of a nine game road trip against three of the worst teams in the National league, a stretch in which they should have been able to easily salt away the division and start gearing up for the playoffs. Instead they have gone 3-3 against the Nationals and the Pirates, and looking bad in the process. Today they threw away a three run lead in the 9th inning and now have to come back tomorrow to try to clinch the division.

This is easily the best, most talented team the Dodgers have fielded since at least the 1988 World Series champions, probably the best since the 1981 team. But since the All Star break they have not played like a championship team. The fielding is lackadaisical, the hitting inconsistent, and the starting pitching even more up-and-down. They will win the division, but the way this team is playing, unless Joe Torre is able to issue a wake-up call or they can somehow turn on the competitive juices come October it is hard to like their chances in what shapes up as a very competitive N.L. postseason tournament.

The Phils have looked for all the world like the best team in the N.L. in the postseason and they are definitely a deserving champion.  The Dodgers came into the NLCS playing well and I expected a close series, but Philadelphia certainly looked like the better team in dispatching the Dodgers in five games.

The Dodgers didn’t play all that poorly, except for Furcal’s inexplicable defensive lapses in the fifth inning of tonight’s game, plus a complete lack of clutch hitting.  But the Phillies ere just better all around: more reliable starting pitching, solid defense, home runs galore just when they were needed, and a bullpen that was lights out.

In recent years, most of the time going into the World Series it has looked like it is the A.L. team’s series to lose, but this year the National League Phillies just may be the best team going.  Either the Red Sox or the Rays are going to have their hands full.

We will have to wait for the AL Central race to sort itself out before the playoff field is completely set, but now we at least know the parings for the National League.  A few random thoughts:

• Whoever wins the LCS and goes on to the World Series, it will be something of a novelty.  The most recent of the four franchises to make it to the World Series was the Philadelphia Phillies of 1993, who lost the series to the Toronto Blue Jays in six games.  A listing of the four, with year of last appearance in the World Series (and last WS win):
  • Philadelphia Phillies 1993 (1980)
  • Los Angeles Dodgers 1988 (1988)
  • Milwaukee Brewers 1982 (the Brewers have never won a series; Milwaukee last had a WS champion in 1957)
  • Chicago Cubs 1945 (1908)
• The Cubs and Phillies both made the playoff field last year (both lost in the first round), but during the nine years of the Aughts so far (2000-2009) there have been only five appearances by these franchises in the playoffs: the Cubs twice (2003 and 2007), the Dodgers twice (2004 and 2006), and the Phillies once (2007).  Only one (the 2003 Cubs) advanced beyond the first round.
• This is the fifth time (of 14) since the Wild Card was instituted that the NL Wild Card has come from the Central Division.  Not counting the strike-shortened 1995 season, only one time has a team won the NL Wild Card with fewer victories than the 2008 Brewers’ 90 (the 2006 Dodgers, who won 88).  Several other Wild Cards have gotten in with just 90 wins, most recently last year’s Rockies.

So while the Cubs (”cursed” and without a championship in a century) will rightfully be the sentimental favorites, whoever wins out to the World Series it will represent a breakthrough for a franchise that has had very little success in recent years.

Should be fun!

At the beginning of the season there was talk that the National League was at long last closing the gap that had opened up in recent years between them and the American League.  With the young talent that had come into the league in places like Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Miami, such a scenario seemed plausible.
Unfortunately, it hasn’t panned out that way.  As of the end of play today, the National League is 36-47 in interleague play, for a .446 winning percentage.  That winning percentage is worst than any American League team except for Kansas City and Seattle.

This is really frustrating for a lifelong National League fan, but I have to admit: right now the American League is still the superior league, in just about every aspect of the game.