With Game 5 Win, Phillies Just Wasted Everybody's Time

Filed under: Giants, Phillies, MLB Playoffs, National League Championship Series

SAN FRANCISCO -- The only thing the Philadelphia Phillies did Thursday night at AT&T Park by extending the National League Championship Series with a 4-2 victory was postpone the inevitable.

To paraphrase Russ Hodges: The Giants will win the pennant. The Giants will win the pennant. The Giants will win the pennant.

They'll just have to do it in Philadelphia.

That's all.

The suddenly cocky Phillies disagree, of course, but you wouldn't expect anything less from a team whose core has contributed to a splendid run during the last few years. They've won four consecutive National League East titles, the last two NL pennants and a world championship.

Now this for the Phillies: Hope. It's false hope. Even so, they expect to spend the weekend pulling an epic comeback after trailing 3-1 in this best-of-seven series, but such a thing won't happen. Magic teams never see the clock strike midnight or have the wicked witch keep from melting, and the Giants are a magic team. They have the feel of the '69 Mets, or maybe the Miracle Braves of 1914, or perhaps that Chicago White Sox team eight years before called the Hitless Wonders.

Rachel Blanchard Rachel Hunter Rachel McAdams