George Sherrill News Archives

How quickly the perception of a team's season can change. After another successful regular season the Dodgers ran smack dab into their nemesis - " the Phillies - " and promptly folded faster than their owners' marriage.

The $8 million club option on third baseman Melvin Mora's contract likely won't be picked up, and first base is currently wide open, so the Orioles will probably be in the market for some corner infield help this offseason.

Joe Torre can't watch as the Dodgers run out of outs in the NLCS against the Phillies for the second straight season.

Meanwhile, the Phillies have momentum, home-field advantage for the clincher, Cole Hamels and Cliff Lee.

Ned Colletti agreed yesterday to a long-term extension to remain general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Some of the highs and lows of watching Dodgers-Phillies Game 5. Say hey "It's do or die for the Dodgers in Game 5." That was the opening of the final TBS NLCS telecast by lead announcer Chip Caray.

The Dodgers must feel like there's nothing they can do right. One night they get blown out, the next they lose close.

David Waldstein and Ben Shpigel covered Game 4 of the National League championship series from Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia.

The Los Angeles Dodgers today announced that they have agreed to a long-term contract extension for General Manager Ned Colletti.

I've seen the talk that but for Chase Utley's error in Game 2, the Phillies would be poised for a dominating sweep of the Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.

Jimmy Rollins and Shane Victorino said they were OK after being hit by pitches Wednesday in Game 5 of the National League Championship Series.

George Sherrill never wanted to leave Baltimore. That was his stance back in July when the Orioles dealt their 32-year-old closer to the Los Angeles Dodgers for two prospects.

At the announcement of his long-term contract extension Tuesday, Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti was asked what was the toughest time of his tenure.

Two walks, a two-run double, a fly ball to the warning track in left after working the count in his favor.

Charlie Manuel has witnessed this before, this innate ability Ryan Howard has for lifting the Phillies' offense and carrying it on his broad shoulders.

Raul Ibanez's first career postseason home run gave the Phillies the breathing room they needed, as the defending World Series champions held on to knock off Los Angeles, 8-6, in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium.

Raul Ibanez has been an animal for the Phillies this postseason. I had actually forgotten that he had postseason experience with the Mariners, playing on the 2000 team that lost in the ALCS to the Yankees.

Someone forgot to tell the Phillies they're supposed to struggle against lefthanders.

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 14 -- Jim Thome, on Wednesday, described the essence of his new job by extending his left index finger, a knobby visual aid. One finger stood for everything. For his singular role as a pinch-hitter, and for the last goal of his career. One at-bat at a time, perhaps, Thome can help the Los Angeles Dodgers win a World Series.

'Yes,' Thome said, thinking of a ring. 'This is as big as it gets.'

For most players competing in the National League Championship Series, which begins Thursday at Dodger Stadium, this is a rematch. Last season, the Dodgers played the Phillies. The Phillies won in five. They won the World Series, too. The Dodgers watched. But that's only where the differences began, because the best two teams in the National League mapped their returns to the same point with near-opposite routes. The outcome of this series, as a result, may depend on those who weren't a part of the previous one. The Dodgers, tweaking their roster as 2009 rolled along, added a left-handed reliever, a role-playing middle infielder, a castaway starting pitcher, and a future Hall of Famer who was told mostly to sit on the bench and wait for his one at-bat. The Phillies, meantime, reformed their team not with a series of little moves, but with perhaps the biggest trade deadline acquisition of the year. On July 29, they traded for AL Cy Young winner Cliff Lee. Their move, too, can be summarized by an index finger: They acquired a No. 1 starter.

Sherrill pitched independent-league Baseball - for 41/2 years. Independent Baseball is often the last stop until a player has to pursue a career outside the game.

THE DIFFERENCE between winning and losing at the upper echelon of sport is so small as to be almost immeasurable.

The stops in Evansville, Ind., Sioux Falls, S.D., and Winnipeg, Canada, have made the ones in St.

Ronald Belisario hurled a spotless inning for LA and Hong-Chih Kuo struck out pinch-hitter Troy Glaus to strand a pair of runners in the seventh.

I've touched on this point a couple of times, but I'm actually going to be even more blunt about it.

For Washington Nationals fans, for years - many, many years - to come, the closest they may see their team get to playoff Baseball is by proxy, when their former Nationals players wind up in the postseason with other teams.

Two truths and a lie: At least half of the Dodgers starting lineup came up through their minor league system.

One of the worst seasons in franchise history, which recently included one of the longest losing streaks in team history, will not cost manager Dave Trembley his job.

The Dodgers clinched a postseason berth for the third time in four years Saturday night with an 8-4 comeback win over the Pirates.

The question facing the Phillies no longer is whether Brad Lidge should be the closer, but whether last year's hero should even be on the postseason roster.