In the end, the National League Championship wasn’t much of a contest:
PHILADELPHIA — The paradigm has shifted. A city haunted by failure revels in glory. Its fans, nurtured on negativity, expect only good things. A World Series title can have that effect. Another one may turn this historic town into rubble, but no one would complain.
The team famous for losing just keeps on winning. The Phillies toppled the Los Angeles Dodgers, 10-4, in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series on Wednesday night to win the seventh pennant in franchise history. They became the first defending champion to reach the World Series since the 2001 Yankees, relying on elements predictable (four home runs) and not (stellar relief work) to ensure that baseball will be played here in November.
“Well, here we are again,” right fielder Jayson Werth said.
For the first time in these playoffs, Ryan Howard did not drive in a run, but that blemish did not prevent him from earning the series’s Most Valuable Player award. In the five games, he batted .333 with two homers and eight runs batted in. His teammates compensated for his lack of production Wednesday, slugging four homers and battering Dodgers starter Vicente Padilla for six runs in three-plus innings. Werth hit two homers, and every starting position player but Carlos Ruiz scored a run.
“Right now, I think we have as much confidence in ourselves as you can have,” said closer Brad Lidge, who pitched a perfect ninth inning. He has yet to allow a run in five playoff outings. “Everybody from top to bottom, we don’t feel like there’s a situation we can’t come back from.”
Over the last two postseasons, the Phillies are 18-5. Since 1995, the dawn of the wild-card era, their .783 winning percentage is third best among teams that reached the playoffs in consecutive years, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, trailing the 1998-99 Yankees (22-3, .880) and 1999-2000 Yankees (22-6, .786). Those three teams won the World Series, and their manager, Joe Torre, was in the visiting dugout Wednesday. After the game, he congratulated Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel for ousting his Dodgers in a second straight N.L.C.S.
“You know, my first five years with the Yankees, you win four World Series,” said Torre, before mentioning the Tigers’ manager, Jim Leyland. “I remember seeing Jimmy Leyland, he says, ‘What you’re doing now is never going to be done again.’ It seemed like it was easy, but we all know it’s not.”
The current Yankees hold a 3-1 advantage over the Angels in the American League Championship Series, with Game 5 on Thursday, and one more victory would set up a battle for Turnpike supremacy and the worst possible scenario for Mets fans. Regardless of the Phillies’ opponent, they will open the World Series on the road next Wednesday night, and their ace, Cliff Lee, would presumably start — perhaps against his former Cleveland teammate, C. C. Sabathia.
“If that does happen, it’s going to be a lot of fun,” Lee said.
Bring it on.
