Inside the Phillies: In playoffs, Phillies could face a better Brewers team than the one three years ago

MILWAUKEE - The last time the Milwaukee Brewers presented a potential roadblock to the Phillies' World Series title hopes, they offered little resistance.

That, of course, was the magical 2008 season, which ended when Brad Lidge struck out Tampa Bay's Eric Hinske before going to his knees and looking to the sky as a championship-starved city exploded in celebration.

Here we are, three years later, and the Brewers again could serve as an obstacle in the Phillies' World Series pursuit.

Know this: These Brewers are better than those Brewers.

"I think we're a better team," said 41-year-old Brewers reserve infielder Craig Counsell, who owns two World Series rings. "I think we have a deeper pitching staff, for sure. I think that's the biggest thing - that we have more and deeper pitching. A lot of our position players are the same guys. Our core is the same."

The core consists of first baseman Prince Fielder, second baseman Rickie Weeks, leftfielder Ryan Braun, and rightfielder Corey Hart. Counsell has been on a lot of good teams - he won the World Series with Florida in 1997 and with Arizona in 2001 - but he cannot remember being on a team with two more prolific offensive players than Fielder and Braun.

One or the other is likely to win the National League MVP award. Fielder and Braun, of course, were good in 2008, but they were also 24-year-old kids.

"I think that's the other big difference between us now and then," Counsell said. "Before, the position players were all on the young end of their careers, and now they're kind of at the sweet spot of their careers."

As good as Braun and Fielder have become, the Brewers know that if they're going to have any chance of advancing deep into the postseason and/or beating the Phillies, they will need to pitch better than they did three years ago.

They're also going to need to pitch better than they have in the first two games of this series. Friday night's starter, Shawn Marcum, had a 2-0 record and 2.37 ERA in four previous starts against the Phillies, but the Phils got to him for five runs and nine hits, putting an end to his dominance.

Regardless of what happens in the final two games of the series, the Brewers will be in better shape going into this postseason than they were three years ago.

The Brewers' 2008 path to the postseason was as bizarre as it gets. After losing 11 of their first 14 games in September that year, they fired manager Ned Yost and replaced him with Dale Sveum with only a dozen games remaining. After winning six of their last seven, they clinched the wild-card berth, but their pitching was neither lined up nor fresh.

After starting four games all season, Yovani Gallardo pitched Game 1 of the division series in Philadelphia and lost. The next day, CC Sabathia started his fourth consecutive game on three days' rest and also lost.

"I think in '08, we had worn CC out," said Fielder, who still marvels at what his former teammate did that September. "I've never seen and never will see somebody who threw every three days like he did in their free-agent year with a team that probably wasn't going to sign him back. He threw 120 pitches every time."

But it wasn't nearly enough to keep the Phillies from winning the division series in four games. Milwaukee's only victory was credited to Conestoga High's Dave Bush, who already has a playoff victory this year with the Phillies' triple-A Lehigh Valley team.

If the teams meet in the division series again this year, Brewers first-year manager Ron Roenicke should be able to line up a rested pitching staff in whatever order he chooses, since Milwaukee held an eight-game lead over St. Louis in the NL Central going into Friday night's game against the Phillies at Miller Park.

With Zach Greinke, Shawn Marcum, Gallardo, and former Phillie Randy Wolf, Roenicke feels good about his rotation. None of those guys is as good as Sabathia, but all of them are good. Closer John Axford and trade-deadline acquisition Francisco Rodriguez also make the Brewers difficult to beat in the late innings.

"You have to be able to beat good pitching in the postseason, and I think we can," Roenicke said. "I think people look at our pitching staff, too, as being tough to beat."

Perhaps, but the Brewers are not delusional about which team would be favored should there be a rematch.

Counsell called the Phillies' starting rotation "suffocating."

"They're obviously a really tough team," said Wolf, who will face his former team Saturday night. "Everybody tries to throw around the word ace, and I hate that. But their guys have all been in the heat of the moment and excelled in big games, so that makes them a very tough team. To say that anybody matches up well against them is a really unfair statement."

Fielder agreed.

"On paper, they have a better resumé than we do right now," the first baseman said. "Once it comes to the game, though, you have to go play, and you never know what happens. As far as on paper, they have a couple of Cy Youngs over there, but I think when you have a series, our team is capable of being able to win a series."

That's true, and these Brewers are better than the Brewers of three seasons ago. But these Phillies are better than those Phillies, too.