The Dodger Blue Flu and the Red Hot Phillies

By Chris Pollay

It’s early Monday morning and I haven’t slept eight hours overall since Friday night. I should still be in bed, but my weak body aches too much, the room keeps spinning and my stomach feels like Ryan Howard used it for batting practice last night.

I don't know which strand of flu I am inflicted with, but I do know that no matter how lousy I feel right now I probably feel better than anyone wearing Dodger Blue.

Last night was simply awful for Los Angeles and its baseball fans. In fact, awful is too weak of a superlative. How about beaten and left for dead?

I can’t imagine any Dodger fan feels good about their teams chances against the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies at this moment.

After all, they should feel lucky to only be down two-games-to-one because they needed an error in the field from Chase Utley and an error in judgement from Manager Charlie Manuel (who took a smoking hot Pedro Martinez out after only 87 pitches) just to squeak by with a win in Game Two.

That setback has only made the Phillies more focussed in their drive to repeat. For evidence, I submit Game Three of the 2009 National League Championship Series.

First off, I am not even sure the 11 to 0 score conveys just how lopsided the game was.

It was so bad that the Phillies outscored the normally high-powered Eagles’ offense by two points!

It was so bad that every single Philly starter, including pitching ace Cliff Lee, scored at least one run. The Phillies garnered eleven hits altogether, more than half of which were of the extra base variety including long balls by Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino.

It was so bad that the same Dodgers’ pitcher (Hiroki Kurada) who secured the team's only win in the 2008 NLCS against the Phillies left the game after only recording four outs. His ERA was over 40!

Meanwhile, it was all good for the Phillies. Starter Cliff Lee went eight full innings without an earned run, striking out ten and only giving up three hits. He turned the series around faster than you can say “the best mid-season acquistion in baseball.”

So far, he has only given up two earned runs in 24.1 postseason innings, which translates to a postseason ERA of 0.74. That is not a typo. Cole Hamels was utterly fantastic last year in the playoffs, but Lee seems poised to be even more brilliant this October.

Looking ahead to this afternoon, I expect an angry and embarrassed Dodger team to give the Phillies a tough game. Regardless, I don’t see how they can actually win this series unless the Phillies completely crumble, which I just don’t see that happening, (especially since their biggest bat continues to be on a tear through the playoffs).

Last year, Ryan Howard was only 8 for 31 (.258) with five runs and three RBIs during the entire first two rounds of the playoffs (a total of nine games), yet the Phillies still managed to go 7 and 2 in those outings because they certainly don’t need to rely on one bat, even the mighty bat of Howard.

However, when he’s hot, he can carry the team for quite some time, and he’s definitely running a fever right now (along with the rest of the team).

In 2009, after only seven playoff games, he is batting 10 for 26 (.385) with six runs and 12 RBIs. That is downright lethal. He's had at least one hit in every postseason game, and at least one RBI to boot.

As long as the Big Guy continues his hot streak, the Dodgers will suffer from the terminal Blue Flu that currently plagues them. That’s OK, though. They can have all the bed rest they need after two more losses.