UPDATED: The Stairs way to heaven! -- discuss the Phillies

12:27: I've said this so many times in the last month, but...wow!
Now I know the secret for Phillies' success -- it's for me to get in my car. Both of Victorino's post-season home runs, as well as Matt Stairs; unlikely and remarkable game-winning bomb, have taken place with me behind the wheel. So now the price of gas is closing in on $3, I plan to drive aimlessly around the region for the remaining games.

What a crowning moment for Pat Gillick's Hall of Fame career to get a guy like Stairs on the last possible day, and see him deliver like this...amazing. Let's see Hamels clamp this thing down, so the next game at Citizens Bank Park is Game 3 of the 2008 World Series.

10:30: Oh, nevermind, jeez.

10:23: Hah! As my co-workers can attest, my prayer with 1st and 3rd and two outs and Ruiz at the plate was, "They realy need a wild pitch here," and that is what happened! 3-3 in a game that is easily on the well-after-midnight track, with benches already depleting in the after 5 1/2 innings.

10:02: Ugh -- the only reversal of fortune here seems to be for the Phillies, who looked like they were going to blow this game open in the 1st inning, didn't and are now seeing it all slip away in the 5th, with the Dodgers taking a 3-2 lead and threatening to score more. Other than the playoff atmosphere, all the games feel like the regular season games between these two teams, with the home club holding a tremendous edge. The Phillies are finding different ways to lose, getting hits but not stringing them together, and unable to connect for the long ball in spacious Chavez Ravine.

There's still a lot of baseball, but the season may come down to Cole Hamels in Game 5 and the home crowd in Game 6 and, heaven forbid, maybe Game 7.

7:08: If the Dow can do it, why not JoBla and the Phightin' Phils? I'm a little jammed up with Daily News work tonight, the conclusion to a very blog unfriendly day, so I'll weigh in when I can.

I do think this should be the closing motto for the increasingly socialist Bush administration: "When Banks Don't Compete, You Win."