Phillies Climb 'Stairs' to Victory

I know, I know, horrible pun, but I couldn't resist. The Fightins are now one win away from the world series after tonight's gut-check come from behind victory. They trailed by two and were down to their last five outs, but one thing about this lineup is that, even when they are struggling, they are never out of a game. It's always only a matter of time before they have one of those offensive explosions in an inning. Sure, you'd like to see them score in more innings, but they're getting it done when it counts--three more runs tonight with two outs.

Tonight's heroes: Victorino (arguably the Phillies' playoff MVP to this point) and Stairs, whose massive two-run blast put the Phillies ahead to stay (now there's a little late season acquisition by Gillick that has paid huge dividends). Also providing heroics was Utley who, besides getting three hits, made an outstanding defensive play in the 6th that saved two runs and kept the Phillies in the game. At the time I thought that could prove to be a turning point, and indeed it was. Things got a little dicey with Lidge when yet another inning was kept alive by a strike-out-wild-pitch (the same thing happened to Myers in Game 2—I've never seen that happen twice in such a short span of time—isn't Ruiz in the lineup because of his ability to block those kinds of pitches?), but in the end Lidge closed the door as he has all season.

Now the Phils enter Game 5 with a chance to clinch their first World Series berth in 15 years. It's a shame it won't be at home (I'm not a fan of the 2-3-2 format; it should be 2-2-1-1-1 like the other sports) but this team is more than up to the task of taking another one in LA, especially with their ace on the mound. Go Phils!