I’m not ready yet to really break down the World Series (especially since we don’t know who’s going to be in it), but I do want to say it’s nice to see the national media - even the stat-geek media to which I pledge allegiance - start to acknowledge what the Phils have already done.
In the wild-card era, when winning a championship means winning three short series, one of them a best-of-five, it’s easy to write off any single World Series title as not particularly indicative of anything (see the 2006 Cardinals). But the Phils have now won three straight division titles, five straight postseason series, and 18 of their last 23 postseason games. The Dodgers outscored their opponents by 169 runs this regular season. In the NLCS, the Phils outscored them 35-16.
The last time this sustained level of postseason performance was even approached was a decade ago, by the Yankees of the late 1990s. The last time it was approached by a National League team was by the Big Red Machine in the mid-1970s, but that was long before the Wild-Card, three-round playoff era.
This just in: We’re watching a great baseball team.
Of course, the Phils will have to win the next series to get any lasting credit for all this. Don’t bet against them.
