The Good Phight's David S. Cohen offers ten things you might not know about the Phillies. My favorites:
3. The Phillies had the best road record in the NL this year. The Phillies were 7 games over .500 for a 44-37 record on the road. The Cubs, the best team in the NL during the regular season, were second with a 42-38 record. The Phillies' road record was second in the majors only to the Angels, who were an incredible 50-31 on the road. The Dodgers were 9 games under .500 on the road, or 36-45.5. Since the Manny trade, the Phillies, at 34-21, have had a much better record than the Dodgers, at 30-25. Much is being made in the press about how Manny Ramirez turned the Dodgers' season around. That may be true, but since he played his first game as a Dodger on July 31, the Dodgers went 30-25 for a .545 winning percentage. He apparently had a much bigger effect on the Phillies, who went 34-21 for a .618 winning percentage since the trade.
6. The Phillies finished much stronger than the Dodgers. The same story has been told about the Dodgers' strong finish. But the Phillies were 17-8 in September, the same exact record as the Dodgers for the month. And the Phillies were much stronger in the last 16 games. The Phillies finished 13-3, whereas the Dodgers went only 9-7 to finish the season.
10. By every measure, the Phillies outhit the Dodgers … and it's not even close. The Phillies scored 799 runs, while the Dodgers scored only 700. The Phillies outhomered the Dodgers by 77 home runs -- 214 to 137. The Phillies had a much better team OPS -- .770 compared to .732 …
I'm going to conflate Nos. 3 and 10, and 5 and 6.
Nos. 3 and 6 allow me to make a larger point: The Phillies are not a creation of their home ballpark (which does have a deserved reputation for favoring hitters). As we see, the Phillies did just fine on the road this season. And while their hitting stats were certainly enhanced when playing at home, they hit well everywhere. In road games, the Phillies outscored the Dodgers 387 to 349. Their road OPS was better, .753 to .732. And they destroyed the Dodgers homer-wise (on the road): 105 to 66.
And speaking of home vs. road, in road games the Phillies actually finished with a better ERA than the Dodgers.
The Phillies' hitting was better than the Dodgers', and their pitching was just as good (if not better). So why are so many pundits picking the Dodgers? I guess because they're hot. And because they've got Manny being Manny and Joe Torre being Yoda.
But as Cohen notes in Nos. 5 and 6 above, the Phillies have actually been hotter than the Dodgers. As Cohen also notes (not pictured above), Ryan Howard was even better than Manny Ramirez in September. And about Torre -- maybe he does carry around some sort of October fairy dust. But if so, why hasn't he used it since 2000?
Look, I know the Dodgers are better than their record. They've got Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake and Rafael Furcal now, which makes a difference. But I also know the Phillies are a little bit better, and they've got the home field for this series. Which is why I'm picking them to win.
Rob Neyer
