Phillies=Underdogs

The Phillies are likely to be underdogs here. That's fine.

But it could have been worse.

This is the way I figure it: had the Red Sox come back from a 3-1 deficit to beat the Rays, the Phillies would have been facing a runaway steamroller with winning experience and a winning pedigree. To me, that would have been the worst case.

Now, think about the Rays. Through the first couple of games of the series against Boston, they looked frightening. Ican remember sitting in the dugout in Dodger Stadium and Charlie Manuel looking over and saying, "How about those Rays?" And me replying, "I think they scored four more runs while I was eating breakfast this morning." At which point, Manuel caught himself and said, "I'm not talking about them. I've been talking about us, and one game at a time, and I'm sticking with that."

Since then, the Rays have stopped murdering opposing pitching. They also had the one epic collapse in their bullpen and another game where they probably wanted more. Their are vulnerabilities. And there is no winning history.

So, yes, they're likely favored and should be. But there are areas the Phillies can probe. That's all.