There was joy in Phillies-ville, mighty J-Roll did not strike out.

A funny thing happened after the Los Angeles Dodgers sent their excellent closer, Jonathan Broxton, out to the mound in the ninth inning with a 4-3 lead to nail down the win and the 2-2 tie in the series with the Phillies.
When you have a 100-mile per hour fastball you are supposed to challenge hitters. Broxton, however, did not want to challenge pinch hitter Matt Stairs with one out. Stairs nailed down the crucial game four win in the NLCS last year with a homer against Broxton.
With that memory haunting his psyche, Broxton walked a .194 hitter who had failed to hit a homer in his last 30 at bats. After Stairs was replaced by Eric Bruntlett at first, Broxton faced Carlos “Senor Octobre” Ruiz. Broxton, the fear factor affecting his control, hit Ruiz with a pitch. Now the winning run was on base.
After pinch hitter Greg Dobbs hit a weak pop to third, Jimmy Rollins came to the plate. A double might not be enough to score your catcher from first base. Rollins, however, swung at a fastball down the heart of the plate and nailed it to the right centerfield gap. Ruiz’s little legs were churning like the Roadrunner as he slid across the plate for the winning run and a commanding 3-1 lead in the series.
As a delightful little side note, Brad Lidge pitched well in his half of the ninth to preserve the one-run deficit and wound up with the win. Lidge has saved all three of his opportunities. Hard to believe, Harry, but Lidge has been the most consistent closer in the playoffs to date.
It looks like the Boys of Red October weren’t kidding at the parade last year when they said they wanted to do this again … and again.
Wednesday, Cole Hamels gets to show he can return to 2008 form and nail down the win that takes the Fightins’ into the World Series. Call me crazy, but I don’t see Vincente Padilla matching his game two effort. Wrapping it up in Philly would be nice, but we have an ace in the hole, with Cliff Lee on tap if the series returns to L.A.

Best Sign of the Night: I’m J-Roll’s brother, Tootsie.

Tags: Dodgers, Jimmy Rollins, Phillies

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 20th, 2009 at 11:32 am and is filed under Phillies, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.