I know this is going to blow Bill Plaschke's mind, but I dont think the Dodgers lost this series because they didn't have an "ace". In the 5 games, the Dodger starting pitcher was clearly outpitched only 1 time (Cliff Lee vs. Hiroki Kuroda). Hamels struggled in both of his starts, Pedro and Blanton were pitched to a draw by Padilla and Wolf. But someone has to take the fall for this debacle, and I'm blaming these things:

1) Where were the big hits with men on base? The Dodgers offense averaged only 3 runs per game, and a big part of that is their inability to hit with men on base. The Phillies outhomered the Dodgers 10-6 in the series (expected coming into the series) but seven of those were with men on base, and four of them were 3-run homeruns. The Dodgers had four solo home runs, and two 2-run homeruns.

2) The Bullpen (not just Broxton). If there was one clear cut advantage I thought we had in this series, it was the bullpen. Turns out, they were even worse than the Phillies bullpen. They end the series giving up 14 earned runs in 21.2 innings pitched. Ugh.....

3) Joe Torre. He left Kershaw in way too long in Game 1, and the Phillies took advantage of it. And why would you not pinch-hit Thome for Martin with the bases loaded in the 8th in Game 5?! Screw all that "you need to have an emergency catcher" shit, the season is on the line and you are down by 5 runs. It's now or never, and instead Thome sits on the bench, while Martin and his .693 playoff OPS strikes out.

4) Frank McCourt. I warned you about pissing off the baseball gods by drawing attention to yourself the day before the NLCS, and now look what happened.

I'm done venting. It was a good year that ended because of the Phillies again. This is probably going to be the same team next year (barring any major trades or McCourt slashing payroll due to his divorce), so our only hope of making it to the World Series, is if the Nationals win the NL East. Don't let me down, Stephen Strasburg!

Ferio's Corner

Here's the audio I grabbed of the bottom of the 9th called by Mr. Vin Scully.

He sums up the playoffs beautifully at the end saying,

"For the Dodgers another sad story with runners in scoring position. So when you think about it, you might very well have to say that for the Dodgers, their luck ran out. And if you say to a professional player you've been lucky, you might get a dirty look. But they were lucky, let's face it. When Matt Holliday lost that ball in the lights and the Dodgers pulled that one out. They were lucky when they were able to win game 2 at Dodger Stadium on a bunt that got between Chan Ho Park, and Ryan Howard. But there was no luck tonight on either side -- it was brute force, and it was the Phillies who came on strong to win it".