Shane Victorino was right before the playoffs started. He said even if the Phillies ended the season with the best record in baseball (for the first time in franchise history), no one would remember that if they don't win it all.
The Phillies underachieved in the postseason. They came up short. But it is so, so difficult to reach three straight World Series. Of course, the last team to do it was the Cardinals in the 40s.
Baseball is all about parity now. The Phillies are the Braves of the 90s right now. They are winning the division every year, making it deep into the playoffs, and have one World Series so far.
Maybe the Giants were a little hungrier or grittier. They got a bunch of big hits, a lot of them with two outs. They won three games in the NLCS by just one run.
The Phillies didn’t get the big hits when they needed them. In Game 6, they left 11 on base. They were 0-for their last 9 with runners in scoring position. The Carlos Ruiz lineout double play was like the Rhonde Barber intercepting Donovan McNabb moment in the NFC Championship game.
The crowd went silent -- eerily quite.
There was a power outage in the heart of the Phils’ order. Ryan Howard didn’t have an RBI in the playoffs and Chase Utley had only one RBI in the NLCS.
They aren’t the Yankees. They are the Braves. But this team has the big three pitchers (Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels) back again next season. They have a chance to do it again next year. And they may be hungrier as they get further away from that World Series championship of two years ago.
