If you watched the Phillies demolish the Milwaukee Brewers in a 4-game sweep at Citizens Bank Park earlier this month, you were probably fervently wishing for what seemed like a long-shot back them, a first round playoff series rematching our Phillies with the Brew Crew.
If there's anything I've learned in more than four decades as a baseball fan, it's to be extremely careful what you wish for.
One reason the Phillies swept that series was some remarkably boneheaded managerial moves by the Brewers' Ned Yost, so boneheaded that he actually got fired, even though there were two weeks left in the season and his team was still tied for the wild card. So that lightning won't be striking here twice. Since new manager Dale Sveum took over, Milwaukee has been on a tear, and why not...they've essentially been playing with "house money" after the tumultuous events of this month.
Playing with house money...does that sound familiar? It's exactly what people said last year about the out-of-nowhere, no-name Colorado Rockies, and you remember how that turned out. Prince Fielder and especially Ryan Braun have turned their game back on at the best possible time for them, worst for us. The other potential first round foe for the Phillies, the Los Angeles Dodgers, are solid, predictable, beatable. The Chicago Cubs should do exactly that.
At the same time, I don't expect the Phillies to crap out so easily like they did last year. You could sense the difference in their attitude, beginning with the victory party Saturday night. They've canceled their "postseason rally" -- the main reason is the potential conflict with the viewing and funeral for Officer Patrick McDonald but I suspect it also reflects their resolve to hold off any civic celebration unless it's the long-awaited parade down Broad Street. They'll need that resolve since they'll probably also need to win every game that C.C. Sabathia doesn't pitch, which is why I think they need to engineer a Brett Myers-Sabathia matchup in Game 3 at Miller Park, because if Myers implodes (as most fans are now expecting), well, they would have lost that game anyway.
Snap prediction: Phillies in 5, with the unexpected hero being Joe Blanton, or JoBla as we call him here at Attytood. Now, if there were only a suspended animation chamber for the next two-and-a-half days...
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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