…and it took him long enough, too. It would be tough to find a team entering the post-season with more momentum than the Phillies, but that’s nothing compared to the Rockies’ current 18-1 stretch. And while being swept by the G-d fearing Rox is undoubtedly a crushing blow for the people of Philadelphia, they should try very hard to look at the bright side. At least Stephen A. Smith is no longer employed to write about it.

(Kaz Matsui, blinded by Coors Light)

You likely couldn’t have gotten odds that the highest-scoring team in the league would manage just eight runs in three games, or hit a collective .170. Or that J.C. Romero, virtually unhittable for three months through a mix of skill and good fortune, would suddenly surrender three incredibly well placed hits in succession. It all added up to the Rockies winning for the 18th time in 19 games, and advancing to an NLCS that I couldn’t possibly be less interested in. (If there’s any karmic justice to this, it’s that TBS has a matchup for the NL pennant that’s fully worthy of its production quality.) – dajafi, The Good Phight

Getting swept against the Rockies is a huge disappointment. There’s no other way to look at it. This team which was known for its incredible ability to light up the scoreboard at will with that potent lineup, the one that included 3 legit MVP caliber players, found themselves barely able to get their guys on base let alone across home plate against Colorado.

They showed such an ability to battle through every curveball thrown at them this season yet when it mattered the most, they came up empty. – Enrico, The 700 Level


Let’s all give a tip of the cap to Jamie Moyer. Man, that guy has nothing and he still got the job done for the Phillies tonight. The guys sitting behind me argued for innings that the 81-MPH pitch Moyer kept throwing couldn’t possibly be a fastball, but that’s all it is. Moyer moved around in the strike zone, stayed ahead in counts, and got an unbelievable number of hitters to just barely miss the sweet spot. Not only that, he employed every trick there is in the book to keep the Colorado hitters off balance. He stepped off the rubber. He threw to first. He’d ask for new baseballs. He’d call “mound conferences” where nobody actually said anything. If I didn’t know any better, I would suggest that the 14-minute light failure delay in the top of the second was caused by Jamie’s electrician second cousin from Pueblo, Roscoe Moyer. Maybe Roscoe was messing around with the power flow to the humidor, making the balls even yet still more Cirillic than usual.

Moyer’s Trachseling was completely within the rules and I give the veteran all available credit. His teammates, save Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino, didn’t give him a whole lot of help. However, enough is enough. This is one of those situations where some people will claim baseball needs entirely new rules to fix something that it’s already well within the umpires’ power to control, if only they would actually do it. You can warn a guy for delay of game. If he delays more, it’s at the crew chief’s discretion to start calling balls. I’ve seen this happen maybe twice in 25 years of watching baseball, and I don’t understand why the league chief of officiating doesn’t just call a meeting and tell guys to emphasize it. Five throws to first in one at-bat when the runner isn’t even leading off is silly. Of course, a playoff elimination game would be a really, really bad time to start calling something umpires haven’t called for ages; I’m just saying this is something I’d like the league to think about for next year.

Years from now, even if Chase Utley enters the Hall of Fame on the first possible ballot as the all-time home run leader among second basemen, I’m still going to remember the complete bum who barely even showed up for this series. – Mark T.R. Donohue, Bad Altitude

Jeff Baker™s heroics were undoubtedly aided by Charlie Manual™s inexplicable decision to leave his lefty, J.C. Romero, in to pitch to him. There are few things I can tell you for sure about Jeff Baker as a hitter, one of those few things is that he hits 50 points higher against lefties for his career. I™m a firm believer that playing the percentages is overrated. However, that didn™t seem like a good time to challenge them.

I™m not here to tell Mr. Manual how to do his job, or how his Phillies should have approached this game, but I am shocked they didn™t play with more desperation. They didn™t play a poor game mind you, but they didn™t exactly do anything to take the game either. At no point did they resemble a team on the brink of elimination. – Mark Townsend, Bugs & Cranks