Dodgers Can Get Revenge On Phillies

The Phillies knocked the Dodgers out of the playoffs last year. This year Los Angeles would like to return the favor.

By KURT HELIN

Updated 1:55 PM PST, Tue, Oct 13, 2009

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Last year, the Dodgers were on the high of Mannymania as they entered the National League Championship Series and LA fans felt invincible. The Phillies had good pitching, but the Dodgers were hot — the World Series seemed easily within reach.

The Phillies won in five games and went on to win the World Series. The Dodgers went home.

This year, the two teams meet again in the Championship Series and for the Dodgers, revenge is a dish best served… really, it doesn’t matter how it’s served as long as it’s served to Philadelphia. And these Dodgers are better equipped to do that and get back to the World Series for the first time in decades.

Both teams can hit. While the Phillies have the bigger names, both teams have gotten good starting pitching. The key may be the bullpen — the Dodgers have the best in baseball and that was a key to an impressive sweep of the Cardinals.

The Phillies bullpen survived the series against the Rockies only because Colorado’s bullpen was worse. In game four, the Phillies got the expected great starting pitching from Cliff Lee and they took a 2-1 lead into the eighth inning. Then the Phillies struggling bullpen gave up three runs, and the Rockies led 4-2 going into the ninth. The Phillies got to their date with the Dodgers (in much, much warmer Los Angeles, no matter how much it rains) by scoring three runs in the top of the ninth.

Against Los Angeles, the Phillies will find it next to impossible to make that kind of comeback. The Dodgers bullpen is deep, and in the playoffs Joe Torre has shown he knows how and when to use it. In the first game against St. Louis the Dodger bullpen was in by the fourth inning — at the first sign of trouble — but they were nearly perfect the rest of the way and the Dodgers got the win.

The Dodgers will get into the Philadelphia bullpen, too — Los Angeles is a patient team at the plate. All eight of their position playing starters drew 50 walks this season, they take pitches and work the count on pitchers. No matter how good Cole Hamels or Lee are as starters, they can’t last forever.

In the end, the Phillies will go to Brad Lidge as their closer, a guy who picked up two saves against Colorado that had Phillies fans feeling relief as much as joy. He has fallen from being one of the most dominant closers in the game to a guy who lost his job for parts of this season. He got one out in the last game against Colorado to get that save. In game three of that series he got a save pitching the ninth, but walked two batters to make things interesting.

Lidge is no sure thing. He is no Jonathan Broxton. And while Torre may be a postseason master of bullpen use, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is old school in ways — sticking with ineffective pitchers too long — that could get his team in trouble.

The Dodgers may not have been impressive the last couple weeks of the season, but they were maybe the most impressive team in the first round of the playoffs. And now they are back to the Championship Series, with the opportunity to serve up a heaping plate of revenge. And Dodger fans think that would taste pretty good.