NLCS Game 1 Preview

8:22 PM ET from Citizens Bank Park

215 Sportsguy-

Outcome: Manny Ramirez is on fire.  Rafael Furcal is back.  Joe Torre is in the playoffs again.  And Cole Hamels is LIGHTS OUT BAY BAY!  Cole will continue his dominant pitching in Game 1 and take a shutout into the seventh where I think he might get a little tired and let up a few hits, possibly a run before Charlie Manuel gives him the pull.  This will be perfectly fine, because we will have a solid lead at this point behind the timely hitting of our fearless leader Jimmy Rollins and the rest of the order.  A raucous Philly crowd who haven’t been this close to a championship since the Eagles choked in the NFC Championship will be the spark for the Phils as their bats finally get back on track in this one.

Final: LA 2   PHI 5
Player of the Game: Cole Hamels – 7.1 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 8 Ks, 1 BB

T0bias Funke-

Outcome: Both of these teams come in feeling good about themselves.  Game 1 is going to come down to who works out their nerves first.  Reigning MVP Jimmy Rollins does not get phased by the big stage; expect him to lead the Phillies to a 1-0 lead with back to back games with a lead off HR putting the Citizen’s Bank crowd into a frenzy.  Expect the Phillies left handed power bats of Ryan Howard when he gets his chances, but more-so Chase Utley to do a lot of damage in this series as the Dodgers have no left handed arms to combat the sluggers.  Cole put on an ace-like performance we’ve started to become accustomed too, going deep into tonight’s game keeping the Dodgers hitters looking silly with his deadly fastball and curveball combo as Citizen’s Bank Park will be never be louder tonight from start to finish. 

Final: LA 1   PHI 6
Player of the Game: Jimmy Rollins – 3 for 4, HR, 3 RS, 2 RBI, Double, Single, 2 SBs

Phils Lose, Mets Win

The NL-East leading Phillies missed a chance to reduce their magic number for clinching their second straight division title against the New York Mets, who beat the Cubs 6-2 last night.  Philadelphia leads New York by 1 1/2 games in the NL East. The magic number for clinching the division remains at four.

Casey Kotchman homered, Mike Hampton won for the first time in a month and the Atlanta Braves halted the streaking Phil’s playoff push with a 3-2 win over the Phillies on Tuesday night.

Phils Beat Fish: 1 1/2 Back

Jayson Werth hit a three-run homer, Jimmy Rollins had three hits and three steals and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Florida Marlins 8-6 on Monday night.

The Phillies closed within 1½ games of the NL East-leading New York Mets. They remain two behind in the loss column.

“Every game is a must-win,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “We have to win more games than they do.”

Joe Blanton (2-0) pitched five shaky innings to earn his first win since Aug. 2. Blanton allowed four runs and five hits in his 10th start since Philadelphia acquired him from Oakland.  Blanton really scares me as we near the home stretch of the season.  Every time I checked back to the Phils game (watching MNF, some fantasy ramifications on the line) he had given up more hits and more runs.  He needs to get his ass in gear if he expects to pitch in the playoffs.  After averaging 1 walk per 9 IP in the AL for his career, he is now averaging 4 walks per 9 IP in the NL, an easier pitchers league, explain that.

Mets News: Billy Wagner is out for the rest of this season and will likely miss all of 2009 too.

The New York Mets closer will have surgery after an MRI on Monday showed a torn MCL in his pitching elbow has gotten worse during more than a month of rehab. His injury could send the Mets into the free-agent market for a top reliever this winter.

‘So’ Sweet

Their it was, all laid out right in front of them, waiting to be grabbed.  A win against their fierce rival, and first place to boot, if only they had someone to notch the final three outs.

There’s nothing better then beating the Mets in New York to take the lead in the NL East.  Oh wait there is.  It’s when you do it by scoring 6 runs in the top of the 9th after being down 5-2 for the latter part of the game.  And in New York.  In front of their fans.  At the hands of Jimmy Rollins to take the lead (after So Taguchi of course).

Let me set the stage in case you missed one of the best endings to a Phillies game I have ever seen in my life.  Its the top of 9th, 5-2 Mets, and apparently Billy Wagner is unavailable for the game, so the Mets bring in Joe Smith to try and close out the victory for the Mets to take sole position of the NL East.  Then: Werth single, Dobbs single, Victorino single.

Next a high bouncing grounder by Carlos Ruiz up the middle that Jose Reyes misplays and misses the base as he trys to field the ball and go to second on his own.  Shane Vic chugged his ass to second and just beat him out, which was later ruled an error on Reyes due to his indecisiveness.  Pinch-hitter So Taguchi doubles down the line to right field knocking in Jayson Werth and Greg Dobbs to tie the game at 5.  Next up the reigning NL MVP James Rollins.  Rollins doubled down the line right past David Wright to knock in Carlos Ruiz and So Taguchi to take the lead, much to the shagrin of a STUNNED METS CROWD. One that was actually quite thin due the hundreds of fans who had already left thinking the game was in the bag.  5 runs, 0 outs. 7-5 Phillies. Amazing.

J Roll to Attend ESPN the Mag’s “ESPY Style Studio” in LA

Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies will join Evgeni Malkin and Sidney Crosby from the Pittsburgh Penguins at ESPN THE MAGAZINE’S “ESPY STYLE STUDIO” at the Standard Hotel in downtown Los Angeles July 14 – July 16th – where they will enjoy a three-day gifting experience with everything from luxury watches by IWC to private race instruction by Club Spring Mountain.

Take Your Base

Found this while cruisin’ the ‘net and figured I would share a silly sports moment with the fellow (215)ers. Enjoy.

More perfectly timed sports moments here.

Phantasy Beisbol – Meet the Fazools

So my buddies and I started our first fantasy baseball league ever and had the draft last Thursday. All of us are rooks except for one, Pubby, whom I’m not matched up against for a while, so no biggie. I lucked out with the number one overall pick with whom I had to take Alex Rodriguez. Being a Phillies fan, Chutley and J Roll were both highly considered, and I did happen to freak out a bit and get nervous as my clock continued to tick away. Once the beeping started and I only had 5 seconds to draft I just took A-Rod. I’m pretty confident it was a smart move and am riding him all year to the promised land. He’s untouchable kids.

First pick was great and all, mainly to brag to my pals that I had the #1 pick again (also had the #1 in our Fantasy Football last year and took LT) but it sucks in the snake order of drafts. Having to wait for 20 picks to go by is brutal and makes it tough when you have to try and take two guys who you think wont make it back around by the time it is your pick again. I think I would much rather draft towards the middle in future drafts, mainly because I have never had the option and would like to try it out.

	Batters
	C Joe Mauer
	1B Adrian Gonzalez
	2B Tadahito Iguchi
	3B A Rod
	SS Edgar Renteria
	LF Alfonso Soriano
	CF BJ Upton
	RF Jeff Francouer
	OF Jacoby Ellsbury
	UTIL Big Papi
	Bench
	LF Matt Diaz
	LF Geoff Jenkins
	RF Xavier Nady
	CF Curtis Granderson (DL15)
	RF Jeremy Hermida (DL15)
	Pitchers
	RP Chad Cordero
	RP Jeremy Accardo
	SP Tim Lincecum
	SP Javier Vazquez
	SP Tim Hudson
	SP Zack Greinke
	SP Tom Glavine
	SP Kevin Millwood
	RP Manny Corpas
	Bench
	SP Jeremy Bonderman
	SP Dave Bush
	RP BJ Ryan (DL15)

Let’s meet the team. My team, the Phillie Fazools, is led by, well the #1 pick Alex Rodriguez. After that I managed to grab Alfonso Soriano, David Ortiz, BJ Upton, Curtis Granderson (who is on the 15 DL – did not know when I drafted him – sonuvabitch) and Joe Mauer just to name a few. The rest is listed to the right.

The setup of our league is head – to – head with five categories in each batting and pitching. For batting the categories consist of homeruns, runs, runs batted in, batting average and stolen bases. For pitching our categories are wins, strikeouts, saves, WHIP (walks + hits per innings pitched) and ERA.

I’m pretty happy with how the Fazools turned out, but I definitely need to make a play for a backup infielder. I will most likely package Jenkins and Diaz for some value. Once Granderson comes back and I can insert him into the center field spot and BJ back to 2B I will have a much more dynamic squad.

Being that I am a rookie, any and all input is appreciated and will be taken into consideration barring no retarded moves or asshole comments about the Fazools. Like here, by Jel.

 The Fazool Logo