One And Done

One more win. The Phillies are one win away from a city’s citizens celebrating an end to 100 seasons of title-less Philadelphia teams, dating to the 1983 76ers.

That means the city is less than 24 hours away from a possible celebration that would be a Philly fan’s version of the first moon landing, V-E Day, and the ’80 Phillies and ’83 Sixers parades combined. The wait has been too long, the build-up too intense.

Until then, here are a few nuggets to consider heading into Game 5.

* The Phillies’ bullpen has been unhittable in the postseason—and getting better with each series. Here are the bullpen’s numbers for each of the three series:

World Series against Tampa Bay: 8.2 IP 2 H, 1 ER, 12 K, 1.09 ERA

NLCS against L.A.: 18.2 IP, 13 H, 2 ER, 17 K, 0.97 ERA

NLDS against Milwaukee: 10 IP, 13 H, 4 ER, 9 K, 3.60 ERA


* This is the fourth time the Phillies have won three games in a best-of-seven postseason series: the 1980 World Series against Kansas City; the 1993 NLCS against Atlanta; and the 2008 NLCS against Los Angeles. Each of the previous three times, the Phillies won the next game to take the series.

* The team has 9 World Series home runs in just 4 games—only the 1993 Phillies had more homers in an entire postseason (13 in 12 games). The 2008 team’s 19 this postseason in 13 games is a Phillies record.

* The Phillies are perfect at home in the 2008 playoffs (6-0) and are 23-6 in their last 29 games overall.