Life sucks at 3-1, now what?

Written by Mike Mariano | 02 November 2009

Well that sucked.  That's been about my only concrete thought for the past twelve hours since the game ended.  The series isn't over and in baseball anything can happen, but I'm undeniably in a deep state of melancholy and depression today.  It's not so much the fact that we're down 3-1, it's more of how we got here.  The Phillies had the lead in all 3 of the first 3 games and were tied 4-4 with 2 strikes and 2 outs in the top of the ninth last night.  Things could be so different right now and it hurts to think of where we'd be if not for a few breaks.

I did the douple-dip yesterday which started off fantastically when the Eagles waxed the Giants at 1.  This surprising mollywhopping really set the tone for the Phillies game.  People were excited and loose and ready to take Game 4 and even out the series.  The fans went into last night's game as champs, you could feel it.  The Phillies trailed all game, but the whole time you could sense that we were going to pull it out. When Pedro Feliz homered I thought it had come circle.  No problem, Lidge shuts it down and we walk it off with a home run.  Stairs, Rollins, Vic, Utley, somebody would've blasted one and it would've been pandemonium.  A 2-2 Series and Lee going in game 5, things would be fantastic.

Instead, the wheels fell off.  It's incredible how dominant Lidge was until Damon stole second and third.  He looked like he'd never give up a run, he was dominant.  Then he flipped the switch and became tenative and got bashed around.  In retrospect I'm not mad that Charlie took out Madson, I think that was the right move.  Lidge had Damon K'd on that pitch in the dirt that he somehow fouled off and in the end, Damon outlasted Lidge and broke all our hearts.  How sweet it would've been.

That's all the coherent thoughts I can put together right now.  Much more to come.