As the sting wears off from the hellish eighth inning of Game 2, the Phillies find themselves in an enviable position. Certainly they are better off than when they last walked off the field after a game at Citizens Bank Park.
At that point, they were tied, one game apiece, in the National League division series with the Rockies. They had just lost Game 2 and were headed to Denver with a chance to be eliminated without ever getting home again.
They didn't know at the time, but they were embarking on an epic, weeklong odyssey that took them from Philadelphia to Denver, back to Philadelphia for just long enough to pack some fresh undies, then on to Los Angeles and finally back to Philly. Along the way, they saw all four seasons, and played baseball after midnight in subfreezing temperatures and midday under a scorching California sun.
They endured a meltdown inning in Denver, then came back to win the division series clincher with a ninth-inning rally.
They went through another meltdown inning in L.A. and couldn't undo the damage.
So where do the Phillies find themselves today? With Game 1 of a new best-of-five NL Championship Series set for tonight, and with a home-field advantage more commanding than the one they had in the NLDS. After being on the road for more than a week and crisscrossing the country, the Phillies get five nights in their own beds.
This time, with Games 3, 4 and 5 at the Bank, it is the Dodgers who could be eliminated without getting home again. That is the price they paid for losing Game 1 at Dodger Stadium. For blowing Game 2, the Phillies lost only the chance to make this a sweep - an unlikely scenario at the start of the series, anyway.
The Dodgers would swap places with the Phillies faster than you could say Cliff Lee. In fact, they would swap any of their starting pitchers for the lefthander they will face tonight in Game 3.
Lee, acquired in a lopsided trade in July, is playing the role of postseason money pitcher for the Phillies this year in place of the enigmatic Cole Hamels. There are no sure things in baseball - witness the Dodgers' crazy two-run "rally" to win Game 2 - but Lee will do nicely until a sure thing comes along.
