Everybody ready for that Tigers-Phillies World Series?

That's why they play the games.

This is probably my least favorite baseball talk cliché. It's supposed to mean that teams are performing differently from expectations, a variation of the execrable "you don't win championships on paper, you win them on the field." You're kidding. Really? How do you do that? Presumably by giving 110%.

And by the way, why only 110%? Reasonable people can stipulate that one cannot give more than 100% effort. Once we've left reality, why not 200%? That way, you're not only giving 10% more than you are humanly capable of giving, you're giving a twice as much. That's way better! Why not 800%? The sky's the limit.

But back to the initial point, you don't play the games to show that predictions are correct or incorrect. You play the games to try to win as many of them as possible and if you win enough of them you get a trophy. And the Phillies and Tigers have not been doing a very good job of winning games.

Losing is part of baseball and both teams have reasons and excuses for why they're doing so poorly, and neither is so far out of contention that it's time to give up (The Tigers are only 6 games out of a playoff spot, the Phillies, miraculously, are only 5 1/2 out in the wild card). What makes it hard for me to believe too strongly in these teams is that neither of them is doing a good job of winning the 50-50 games.

My own personal cliché is "you've got to win the games that you can win." It's not a cliché as much a a blatantly obvious statement. But what I mean is that there are games that you simply will not be able to win. Your pitcher is horrible and the opponent's pitcher is fantastic and you lose 9-2. Nothing anyone can do will win those games for you. And the reverse is true as well. Most games, however, are close enough that a single play or maybe two can affect whether you win or lose the game. And just like you can predict who's going to win a basketball or soccer game by who's coming up with the contested balls, you can get a good idea of who will win a baseball game by who is taking advantage of the opportunities to sieze the moment. And by extension, you get a good idea of which teams will be successful based on how many of those winnable games they actually win.

The Cardinals win over the Phillies in game 5 of the NLDS last year is a perfect example. The one weakness Roy Halladay had shown last year was in the first inning, so the first 2 hitters each jumped on the first hittable pitch, combined for a run, and that was it. That was their one opportunity and they grabbed it. On a similar note, what made Game 6 of the World Series last year so remarkable was that both teams were seizing them moment, repeatedly. It made for an all-time classic game.

For the Phillies, getting Howard and Utley and Halladay back is just part of what they need to get back into contention. They need to take advantage of the opportunities they have now and win the games that can be won now with the players they have now. If neither they nor the Tigers don't do that, they're both sunk.