Phillies Steal Home Field Advantage in Game 1

In the top of the 5th inning last night, the Phillies did their damage. After pitching an incredibly competitive first four innings, Clayton Kershaw had a complete meltdown. Kershaw threw only 11 wild pitches all season, but lost the strike zone and threw three in one inning. Rarely do I ever blame coaches and managers for losses because it’s always the players that have to execute, but Torre might need to be credited with this loss.

Even after the first two wild pitches in the fifth, Torre was still going to stick with his 21 year-old starter. Even after Carlos Ruiz smacked a three-run homer with no outs on the board, Torre was still going to stick with his starter. A reliever wasn’t even warming up until AFTER Kershaw (pictured above) walked Philly Pitcher Cole Hamels on four pitches after Ruiz’s three-run shot. Kershaw pitched four great innings, but he lost his stuff. If it was the 2nd inning, maybe give him some time, but not halfway through the game. Torre should have pulled him after the Ruiz’s home run.

The fifth inning is where the game was lost, even though bullpen ace George Sherrill blew it in the 8th. Sherrill has been dynamite since the Dodgers acquired him from Baltimore earlier this year, (2 runs in 27 ⅔ innings), and had LA not been in such a hole from the 5th, 3 runs in the top of the 8th really wouldn’t have mattered. The Dodgers are great when leading. The pitching staff can historically get a little shaky when having to make up ground, and LA’s consistent strength throughout the year has been their unstoppable bullpen. The most they’ve ever come back from is a 5 run deficit, but that was way back in the beginning of June. The Dodgers are like the horse racing legend War Admiral, once they get ahead, they never look back.

The Dodgers are very much still in the race. Even though home field advantage is no longer relevant, it’s not over yet. A disturbing statistic is that 14 out of the last 16 Game 1 NLCS winners went on to the Series. A reverse of that stat then is only 2 teams since 1992 have come back to win after losing the first game. But the last time it did happen was only in 2006, when the St. Louis Cardinals beat the NY Mets in 7. Oh yeah, they went on the win the World Series by the way.