Consensus: Phillies will beat Dodgers again

BILL CONLIN

THE LAST TIME most Phillies played six-inning games, they were age 12 and the fences were 180 feet away. Now they have to do it as defending World Series champions. Or so we are told by the "smart-money" guys, who told us a year ago that the Cubs and Angels would meet in the Series. This year, they told us the Cardinals would make quick work of a Dodgers team that barely hung on to win the NL West from the hard-charging Rockies.

I respect the Dodgers' deep bullpen. I also respect the way the Phillies save their best swings for hard throwers like Joe Torre's closer, Jonathan Broxton. Then there's that left-on-left thing. Check Chase Utley and Raul Ibanez against lefthanders this season. Utley: .288 (vs. .279 against righthanders), .417 on-base percentage, and .545 slugging percentage; Ibanez: .285 (vs. .267 against righthanders), .359 on-base percentage, .639 slugging percentage. Good luck with that, Joe.

Phillies in 6
 
 

SAM DONNELLON

I picked Colorado to beat the Phillies, because it was the best team in the National League coming into the postseason. It reminded me a lot of the Phillies the year before: good, young starters, a potent lineup, a bullpen that suffocated you at the end.

But the Phillies of 2008 did not have to face a team like the Phillies of 2009. For all their regular-season faults, the Phillies had championship experience and they drew from it heavily in beating the Rockies. From a character standpoint, that ninth-inning rally Monday night was not unlike their Game 4 victory in the NLCS a year ago, or their extra-inning victory in Game 3 of the World Series, after they had coughed up a 4-2 lead.

I have no doubt the Dodgers are better than they were a year ago. But they played mediocre baseball for a large part of the second half, almost lost first place to the Rockies in that last week. Did they right themselves against St. Louis? Or did they beat a team that was not unlike the Cubs of a year ago? A team that, like the Cardinals, was much more dangerous in August than in October.

So, it says here the Phillies prevail. But only by winning a seventh game, in LA.

Phillies in 7
 
 

PAUL HAGEN

The Dodgers are a much better team than the one that lost to the Phillies in five games in the 2008 NLCS. The staff had an earned run average of 3.41 and held opponents to a .233 batting average. Both were the lowest in the majors. And pitching generally rules in the playoffs.