Phillies Spank Dodgers, 10-4, Win NLCS 4 Games to 1

Players of the Day for Wednesday, October 21, 2009 Philadelphia Phillies 10 LA Dodgers 4 It wasn't even close. When it came down to it, LA's pitching staff was no match for the bludgeoning of the Phillies' hitters, who outscored their West coast counterparts, 35-16, over the course of five games. The only game the Dodgers won was a 2-1 decision in game 2, in which the Philadelphia bullpen gave away a superb 7 innings of shutout work by Pedro Martinez. Other than that gaffe, the average winning margin for the Phillies was 5 runs. It really was as one-sided as the 4 games to 1 margin indicates. The Phillies got on the board early against LA starter Vicente Padilla. After Cole Hamels gave up a 1st inning home run to Andre Ethier, the Phils responded with 3 runs of their own, all of them on a massive blast by Jayson Werth (left), who also singled and scored in the 4th and launched a solo shot in the 7th to go 3-for-4 with two homers, 4 RBI and 3 runs. Philadelphia scored all of their runs on just 8 hits, thanks to 3 hit batsmen (Jimmy Rollins twice) and 4 walks issued by LA hurlers. 6 of Philly's hits went for extra bases, including home runs by Raul Ibanez and Shane Victorino. Ryan Howard's streak of consecutive RBI post-season games was snapped at 8, tying him with Lou Gehrig and Alex Rodriguez, but Howard was named the series MVP. Howard batted .333 over the five-game span, with 2 homers, a double, a triple and 8 RBI. The Phillies advance to their second straight World Series, hoping to repeat against either the LA Angels or the Yankees. New York leads the series 3 games to 1, with a chance to wrap it up tonight in LA. The last National League to repeat as world champions was the 1975 and 1976 Cincinnati Reds, who beat Boston in 1975 and the Yankees in 1976.