During the regular season, New York Yankees won 97 games, and Philadelphia Phillies won 102 games. Yet even with the home-field advantage, neither team was able to advance out of the first round of playoffs, falling to the Detroit Tigers and St. Louis Cardinals, respectively. The Cardinals, if one may recall, miraculously capped their run and got into the playoffs on the last day of the regular season. They faced the Phillies, who sent former Cy Young winner Roy Halladay to the decisive Game 5 on Friday. Yet the Cardinals pulled it through. Cardinals starter Chris Carpenter simply out-pitched his old former teammate on a 3-hitter.
Surprise throughout the sports nation and disappointment along the East Coast? Certainly. Coming in with high expectations, teams like Yankees and Phillies wanted nothing short of a championship. Yankees president Randy Levine recently said that without winning the World Series, the season "is a bitter disappointment and not a successful year." Similar sentiment is inevitable in Philadelphia, which immediately became everyone's favorite to win the World Series this year when Cliff Lee resigned with the team, boasting inevitably the best rotation in the League. The prediction continued throughout the season, as Phillies boasted the best record in the League from April to September.
But this is the realm of sports, where anything can happen. The Cardinals can climb from their historical September rally into the playoffs, and knock out the all-mighty Phillies in the first round. What happened in the 162 games of regular season is only an indication. Indications can predict, but not ascertain any results.
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