Were the Phillies beaten by a better team?
by David Rocksteady 11/7/09
Comcast Sportsnet recently posted a great poll question asking fans why the Phillies lost the World Series. They were only offered two choices:
A. Because the Yankees were the better team.
B. Because the Phillies did not play their best.
It is an interesting question. My answer is B for the most part. It must be stated that pretty much all numbers favor the Yankees slightly. They have slightly better pitching and hitting..but only slightly. The only real advantage the Yankees have over the Phils is that they won over 100 games in a superior league in an extremely tough division. It is hard to deny that the Yankees are statistically the better team.
But looking at both teams player by player it is a pretty even match. So if you want me to tip my cap and say that we were simply beaten by a better team, it is not going to happen.
The fact is the Phillies simply did not play well. They had a three run lead in game 3 that they let slip away and ruined a terrific comeback in game 4. Beyond that, they did not seem to have that real fire and swagger we saw in the past.
I really feel that if we played near our capabilities, we should have and would have won the World Series. But they didn't. This Phillies team that had breezed, and I mean really breezed, through the 2008 and 2009 postseason ran into their first roadblock and weren't able to come on top.
It's a shame because if a couple things had gone differently, we could have been up 3 games to 1 instead of the other way around.
All we can do now is look forward to a team next year that should look much the same as the group we saw here this year. I think Charlie is right: we will be back.
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