Phils Win Pennant – Advance to World Series With 5-1 Win Over Dodgers
Thursday, October 16th, 2008 | MLB, Sports
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers 5-1 in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series to advance to the World Series with a 4-1 series win. Phillies starter Cole Hamels pitched 7 strong innings to win his 2nd game of the NLCS. He gave up only 5 hits and 1 run on a solo home run by Dodgers star Manny Ramirez. Hamels struck out 5 and walked 3 and was named the NLCS Most Valuable Player. Jimmy Rollins set the tone in the 1st inning with a feisty at-bat to lead off the game against Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley. After working the count and fouling off several pitches, he struck a solo home run to give the Phillies a 1-0 lead it would never relinquish. The Phils added 2 more runs in the 3rd inning on RBI singles by Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell. In the 5th inning, the Phils took advantage of 3 Rafael Furcal errors to tack on 2 more runs to extend the lead to 5-0. Ryan Madsen pitched a scoreless 8th inning and Brad Lidge pitched a scoreless 9th inning to seal the victory for the Phillies. For the Dodgers, Billingsley lasted only 2 2/3 innings giving up 3 earned runs. Billingsley never got into a groove allowing 4 hits and walking 4 while throwing 66 pitches. Manny Ramirez, James Loney and Matt Kemp each had 2 hits for the Dodgers, but they never managed any significant threats that Hamels couldn’t work out of. For the series, Manny Ramirez lived up to his post-season hype – he got 8 hits in 15 at-bats for a gaudy .533 batting average. He hit 2 more home runs, scored 4 runs, and had 7 RBI’s – in each game of the series he drove in a run. His on-base percentage was over .660 and his slugging percentage was over 1.050. Ramirez managed a 8-game hitting streak during the Dodgers’ 2008 post-season run.
The Philadelphia Phillies will represent the National League in the 2008 World Series. The Series will open up on Wednesday, October 22nd in either Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg or at Fenway Park in Boston. Currently, the Rays lead the Red Sox 3 games to 1 in the ALCS.
