Phillies rally in 8th, hold on for NLCS Game 4 win

Wow. If When the Phillies move on to the World Series for the first time since 1993, the top of the 8th in NLCS Game 4 will be replayed for years to come.

After giving up a single to Ryan Howard to start the 8th, Dodgers manager Joe Torre chose to replace reliever Hong-Chih Kuo with Cory Wade. This is significant because Kuo had stymied the Phillies for all but Howard's lead off single. Kuo pitched masterfully in the 7th, striking out Jayson Werth and Chase Utley. Torre decided to remove Kuo after Howard's single in the 8th to play the percentages. Kuo is a lefty and Pat Burrell was coming to the plate, a righty. Lefty to a righty is a no-no in baseball protocol. So Torre took the ball from Kuo and handed it to rookie Cory Wade, a righty. Smart move, at first. Wade got Burrell to pop out to 2nd and the Dodgers were now 5 outs from evening the 2008 NLCS at 2 games. The Flyin' Hawaiian had other plans.

Shane Victorino has undoubtedly been the Phillies postseason MVP. He has been masterful and energetic, exciting and clutch. When he stepped to bat last night versus Wade something was in the air. Victorino is a switch hitter so whoever Torre through out there he was able to counter. Torre stuck with Wade. Mistake. Victorino drilled a pitch down the first-base line. It was long enough. It was high enough. Home run, game tied 5-5. Wade would get Pedro Feliz to line out before facing Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz, who has been hitting better of late. Ruiz singled on the first pitch from Wade. Torre had seen enough; time for the closer. Enter Jonathan Broxton, an imposing man standing 6 feet 4 inches and weighing in at 290 pounds. And his stuff can be electric. And also a bit unpredictable.

Associated Press

Phillies center fielder Shane Victorino celebrates his game-tying 2-run home run in the 8th inning of game 4 of the 2008 NLCS.

Phillies manager Charlie Manuel sent up a pinch hitter for pitcher Ryan Madson. His choice? 17-year veteran Matt Stairs, acquired from the Blue Jays by Pat Gillick in August. The Phillies are Stairs' 11th team. This was an obvious decision by Manuel; Broxton was a righty, Stair batted left. Good match up. This was only Stairs' 7th postseason game and 13th postseason at-bat ever. He had 0 runs and 0 RBIs in the postseason. Until last night.

Stairs worked Broxton. After throwing a 1st pitch strike Broxton got in a hole, throwing 3 straight balls. With the count 3-1, Stairs waited for the fastball. And he got it on the 5th pitch of the at-bat. Without hesitation Stairs unloaded on the ball. Suddenly the Phillies had the lead, 7-5.

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

Phillies pinch hitter Matt Stairs belts this pitch deep to right field, giving the Phillies a 7-5 lead in the top of the 8th inning of Monday's game 4 of the 2008 NLCS.

Matt Stairs is congratulated by his teammates as he enters the dugout after his 8th inning home run.

J.C. Romero would get the 2 batters he face in the bottom of the 8th out but it wasn't without a little drama. He walked Rafael Furcal, bringing the tying run to the plate in the form of Andre Ethier. Fortunately for Romero and the Phillies, Ethier grounded into a double play. Next up, Manny Ramirez.

The Phillies have been a perfect 79-0 this season with a lead during the 8th inning (74-0 regular season, 5-0 postseason) thanks in large part to Madson, Romero, and closer Brad Lidge. Manuel turned to Lidge for his first 4-out save of the year. And it would start with Ramirez. Things would get a bit shaky. Ramirez drilled a 3-2 pitch to center field for a double. With 2 outs and a man in scoring position, the Dodgers could tie the game with one swing of the bat. Lidge would strik out the next batter, catcher Russell Martin, on 3 pitches. Despite the strike out, technically the 3rd out of the inning, the 8th wouldn't end. Lidge's slider got away from Ruiz and Martin easily made it to 1st while Ramirez trotted to 3rd. Crap. The next batter was first baseman James Loney, who was having a great day at the plate, going 2 for 3 with a single, double, and a walk. He has the power to put the Dodgers back in front and shift the pressure back to Philadelphia. Loney tried. Boy did he try. After a first-pitch ball, Loney fouled off 4 straight pitches. On the 6th pitch of the at-bat Loney flied out to Eric Bruntlett, who was a defensive replacement for Burrell. Inning over. One more to go.

It would be nice to get another insurance run plated. Utley got things going in the top of the 9th with a single. Howard stepped to the plate and grounded into a fielder's choice to second base, rendering Utley out. The same thing happened to Bruntlett during the next at-bat. With Shane Victorino up, and down in the count 0-2, Bruntlett attempted to steal second on the next pitch. The Dodgers nailed him on an out pitch, inning over. No insurance runs. Lidge back to the mound to close out game 4 and secure a 3-1 Phillies lead in the series.

Things went surprisingly easy for Lidge in the bottom of the 9th. Pinch hitter Nomar Garciaparra flied out to center on his 2nd pitch, Casey Blake struck out on 3 pitches, and pinch hitter Jeff Kent lined out hard to third baseman Pedro Feliz. Game over. 7-5 Phillies. 3-1 series lead.

Brad Lidge went 1-2-3 in the 9th inning to save the win for Philadelphia.

Cole Hamels will face off against Chad Billingsley in Wednesday's game 5 in Los Angeles. A Phillies win sends them to the World Series for the first time in 15 years.

Poor Grady Little

He must really hate the Yankees/Joe Torre by now. First it was Aaron Boone. Now Joe Torre is taking his job.

Bye, bye Joe

I'll have something more elaborate on this later but I just wanted to say that I'm not surprised, especially after this being the 2nd year the Yankees have jerked his chain in the offseason. For all he's done, he doesn't deserve to be treated like that. He's the best manager this team has ever had, period. I know people are saying Mattingly is the heir apparent but I really hope the job goes to Joe Girardi. The guy has managed for one season, and won a coach of the year award. Currently he works up in the booth for the YES Network and would probably love the job. Plus, I feel like he's more manager material than Mattingly. Either way, I'm certain the job will go to one or the other. Either that or the Yankees pull a rabbit out of their hats and nab Bobby Valentine. Now that would be something...

Good luck with whatever you decide to do, Joe. Just make sure it doesn't involve Pittsburgh in any way :)

The Latest: Torre Turns Down Yankees, Out As Manager

Joe Torre turned down a one year deal from the Yankees and will not be returning as manager of the Evil Empire. The deal was reportedly worth a minimum of $5 million and could have escalated as high as $8 million. With Torre out, who will manage in NY? Mattingly? LaRussa? Bowa? Someone else? Crazy. I think this is ridiculous. Torre has done a lot for that organization. Was he the brightest coach that made the best baseball decisions? No, not always. But he got what he needed from his players.

Where will Torre go next, if anywhere? Will Steely McDonati's dream come true...could Joe be in Pittsburgh!?!?

I won't say much else about this. I'm sure E will have a large post on this later.

Ohlendorf??

I must admit, I haven't been following the Yankees too closely through the past month but when they brought in some guy named Ross Ohlendorf to relieve the utterly ineffective Chien-Ming Wang, I thought I was watching a soccer substitution in a game with Bayern Munich and Hanover 96. While he came in and didn't totally implode in relief, he did give up an ER while letting a few more of Wang's batters LOB cross the plate. I don't know where Torre is getting off pitching a guy who has 6 career MLB appearances in a tough spot, on the road, in the playoffs. You have no idea how he'll react and unfortunately in this case, it wasn't too well. If anything, at least the Yanks worked the heck out of Sabathia so the Indians have to dip into their pen early too. A 6 run comeback for this lineup is certainly doable.

I <3 Funny/Good/Awesome Quotes

Please note that these are rough quotes (ie, how I remember them). I might not get them exactly but they're pretty close. The sports community was blessed with great quotes this past week and I feel that it's fitting to share them unless you missed them.

We'll start with the PSU alum, Larry Johnson: "Football isn't a game of chess. It's more like checkers....People keep trying to make it like..trigonometry."

-Sure Larry. At PSU it was like checkers because you had a stellar O-line. At KC it used to be checkers because you used to have a stellar O-line. Now you don't. Now you have to be a little more crafty in your play calling and try to make up for that gap in talent. Good luck this year Larry.

Hope Solo's (USA Womens Goalie) rant on not playing and how poorly her replacement did play, including lines such as "There's no doubt in my mind I would have made those saves."

-Don't get me wrong, I do agree with Hope here. The coach was an absolutely moron for benching her and she probably would have stopped some of those goals that went in. However, you don't say those sorts of things when you're on a team. You just don't. Yes, Hope, you're right, but shut up.

Joe Torre upon hearing his players were hailing him as the reason the team stayed together and made the playoffs: "Now you guys are gonna make me cry."

-Awwwwwwwwwww. Now that that's out of the way, Joe can be very emotional at times. I've seen it plenty of times being a Yankee fan. In that case, he has every right to cry. These guys were buried by absolutely everyone (except me) and they came back with force to grab a playoff bid. Not many managers could keep a team on the same page after what they went through and he deserves all the praise he gets.

Mike Gundy had a lot of quotes in his tirade but the main point was this: He was furious about a reporter who wrote a crappy story (it was, I read it) about how one of his players is basically a chicken. The funniest quote in all this was probably right at the beginning: "This (article) was brought to me by a mother...(pause)...of children."

-Gundy had every right to be pissed off. The article basically called the Oklahoma State QB a sissy by using 'rumors' and 'rumblings'. That's just stupid. Have solid facts before you charge a kid with being weak mentally, don't just go by what you 'hear'. That writer deserved the slamming she got.

Stupid Suspensions

Upon hearing that Clemens was suspended 5 games for hitting Alex Rios in the back the other day, I wasn't terribly surprised but nonetheless irritated. Josh Towers (who hit A-Rod) and Jesse Litsch (who threw behind him) did not get ejected from their games, but you would have to be a complete fool to think that they were not throwing at Rodriguez. After Towers hit A-Rod on Tuesday, warnings were issued, and then Clemens preceded to drill Alex Rios in the back, as he should have. In baseball, its almost standard procedure to hit the opposing team's star player if they hit/throw at yours. As a result, Clemens got suspended 5 games. Rightful punishment? I think not. Apparently the umpires did not have enough foresight after the Litsch incident on Monday to issue warnings or at least say 'hey, if it looks like you're throwing at A-Rod, you're outta here' prior to Tuesday's game. Clemens was virtually forced to police the situation himself by throwing at Rios, sending a clear message to his former team to cut the crap. Since the umpires weren't working to protect and defend A-Rod, Clemens made sure to do so himself.

The Jays were downright petty by throwing at A-Rod for something that happened at the end of May. The incident I'm referring to of course is when he ran behind the Toronto 3B and yelled "mine," causing him to drop it. The Jays came into the Bronx a couple of weeks ago but they were too scared to do anything about it then, probably because they know they would have a difficult time getting out of the Stadium alive. Instead, the Jays waited to get back in their yard to act like immature little leaguers. The thing that really gets me too is how Joe Torre gets suspended for a game. I know it is common to do that in these situations but I feel its really stupid to suspend the manager when his pitcher is defending a teammate.

Basically my point is, common sense and logic should be used when dishing out suspensions. The reason Clemens got the suspension was because he threw at somebody after warnings were issued but Towers and Litsch are just as, if not more guilty. Either suspend them all, or don't suspend any of them. Kudos to Roger for sticking up for a teammate as he did.