The 89-win Padres and 87-win Phillies are the last two National League teams standing, because of course they are.
To get to the NLCS, which begins Tuesday in San Diego, the Padres had to beat the best team in Dodgers franchise history after finishing 22 games behind them in the NL West standings, while the Phillies had to beat the 101-win Braves, who had a better team than they did when they won the World Series last year.
This is quite humbling for those of us who make predictions. Indeed, none of our seven writers picked Philadelphia to advance through the Division Series, while only one tabbed San Diego to beat L.A. (Martell, though this doesn’t get him off the hook for his putrid preseason World Series pick.) That means, together, we went a collective 1-for-14 in the NLDS.
