On Thursday night in Philadelphia, the Dodgers and Phillies will get it on in order to find out who punches their ticket to the World Series this year.There's no question that the Phillies have the overall upper hand in this seven game series when it comes to the batting order. Their ball club has the always dangerous Jimmy Rollins leading off and features the power bats of Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Pat Burrell as their 3-4-5 hitters. Advantage Philadelphia, right? Wrong!
The Boys in Blue have one of the best, and most controversial, players in all of major league baseball: Manny Ramirez. The Phillies' mediocre-at-best pitching rotation will be eaten alive by the man they say is just "Manny being Manny" throughout the entire series. Think back a few months when the Dodgers were Manny-less. They were sitting a couple of games within striking distance of overtaking the pitching-dominant Arizona Diamondbacks for the division lead. It wasn't until after Ramirez arrived on the scene in the City of Angels that Joe Torre's club was able to grab first place in the National League West division. Sure Manny can bring fans to ballparks across North America with his audacious playing style and mannerisms. But it's what he does on the field and produces in the box score that makes him a key asset for any team. He completely changes the face of the game. Advantage Dodgers.
Take into consideration that L.A. also has Mr. Joe Torre as their manager. Don't mistake his cool, calm and collective nature in the dugout for a weakness. No matter the superstars he coached in New York, Torre won four World Series titles with the Yankees and is looking to do it again on the west coast with the Dodgers who haven't won it all since Tommy Lasorda's team in 1988. Philly will put up a valiant effort but Manny Ramirez will have the last laugh as MVP of this series, and the Dodger Blue faithful will once again be National League champions.
SPORTS INVASION 2008 NLCS Pick: Dodgers in 6 games