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Alas, Philadelphia couldn’t duplicate its NLCS magic in the World Series. The team just seemed snakebit, losing four straight to the Cinderella story of the season, the Oakland A’s. The Athletics won the opener 9-7, then took the next three games by one run each (4-3, 6-5 and 3-2).
Andrew Zarzour was the goat in Game 3. He gave up all six runs -- all earned -- over 3.2 innings. Now you can see why I’m worried about the Big Fella. His post-season stats for 2009 -- 0-3 with a 17.66 ERA. Egads… Of course, starters Odell Jones, Josh Johnson and Jim Pittsley couldn't get it done either...
The Phils are getting closer to their dream of a World Championship. Maybe these stinging defeats will drive them to get all the way over the hump in 2010...
Amazingly, the Athletics had to win their last eight games in the regular season just to overtake the Angels in the division and make the playoffs. They beat Seattle and the Angels lost to the Rangers on the final day. That gave Oakland a one-game edge for the AL West title. They only won 87 games in the regular season, the lowest number of wins among any of the playoff teams… Go figure…
OK, now on to 2010!! I have some ideas for how I want to treat this season … stay tuned…
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