BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY Phils Lose! Sort of. It would have been nice for the Phillies if the Angels could have found a way to beat the Yankees in Game 6 last night. This would have set up a Game 7 tonight in which each team would have turned to their ace pitcher. Then C.C.Sabathia (or John Lackey, had the Angels won) would get one less turn against the Phillies in the World Series. As it is, Sabathia may start against the Phils in Games 1, 4 and 7 (if necessary). Tough task against one of the most dominant pitchers in the game. The Angels blew any chance to win last night’s Game 6 when their defense botched consecutive sacrifice bunt attempts in the 8th inning. The Halos also lost a Game 2 marathon on an error in the 13th inning. This Yankees team is too good to give them extra outs, and the Phillies will need to be on top of their defensive game in the World Series. This is an area of strength for the Phils, who finished 8th in baseball in PADE (Park Adjusted Defensive Efficiency). Impress your friends at work by trotting out the PADE stats! FYI, the Yankees ranked 13th in that category.
In October 2007, Cliff Lee and C.C. Sabathia looked like they were going to the World Series, as their Indians held a 3-games-to-1 edge on Boston in the 
ALCS. Fast forward two years and each will be starting Game 1 of the Series, having left Cleveland far behind. For the record, Sabathia got battered in that series, losing Games 1 and 5. As for Le, he didn’t pitch — having been left off the roster in favor of such luminaries as Aaron Fultz, Paul Byrd and Aaron Laffey, among others. Both pitchers have been stellar this postseason; it shapes up as a great Game 1 on Wednesday. Home field advantage in the World Series goes to the team from the league that won the All-Star game. Who can the Phillies blame for the NL losing this year’s Midsummer Classic? How about themselves. Five Phillies position players finished 1-8 in the game, and Ryan Howard struck out with 2 aboard in the 8 th inning and the NL down a run. And who finished out the win for the AL? Mariano Rivera.
On to football, where the Eagles haven’t played in two weeks (they were scheduled last week in Oakland, but you would be hard-pressed to argue that they actually “played”). In that time, is it possible that the Cowboys have emerged as the top team in the NFC East? The Giants have lost two straight and four of their wins have come against dogs (Raiders,Bucs , Chiefs and Skins). The Cowboys almost won at undefeated Denver, and yesterday they cruised past a pretty powerful Atlanta team. With the Eagles facing the Giants and Cowboys the next two weeks, they better take care of business tonight against a woeful Redskins outfit. Normally this would be a spot where the Birds would throw out a clunker — after all, they’ve lost five of their last eight against Washington. But the Eagles just had a stinker. This game is too important, there is too little margin for error for the Eagles to fail to show up tonight. I expect a big game from McNab, my prediction is: 30-10, Eagles.