Oswalt sees designs of dynasty in Philadelphia

PHILADELPHIA - It's bad enough that the Mets have to share a city with the Yankees, the sport's dominant franchise. During the past four years, they also have lived in the shadow of the dominant Phillies, who are building a pinstriped-like dynasty only 90 miles down the New Jersey Turnpike.

That process continued Saturday as the Phillies prepared for their third consecutive National League Championship Series, this time against the Giants. Like the Yankees, they seem to expect every October to be accompanied by the leaves changing color, trick-or-treating and playing for a title.

Before last night's Game 1, it was business as usual for the two-time defending NL champions, but this time they have added Roy Halladay and Roy Oswalt to a playoff rotation that already had Cole Hamels, the World Series MVP in 2008.

It's not as though the Phillies just bought the two of them, either. Halladay and Oswalt both had to approve the trades that sent them to Philadelphia, and they didn't come for the cheesesteaks.

"In this day and age, especially when you talk about veteran players and acquiring them," Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said, "they're much more apt to - late in their careers - to want to come to teams that have had some level of success and teams that they feel might give them the opportunity to be in postseason play. We've kind of benefited from that and the atmosphere that our fans have created here."

The Mets never figured to be major players for Halladay, who was awarded a three-year, $60-million extension as part of the three-team deal that also sent Cliff Lee to the Mariners.

But they had been linked with Oswalt every time his name popped up in trade discussions, dating to 2007, when the Mets tried to pull off a three-team deal that also included Miguel Tejada, then with the Orioles.

When the Astros finally did move Oswalt on July 30, he waved his no-trade clause for the Phillies, who acquired him for J.A. Happ and two prospects. At the time, Oswalt said he was eager to get back to the World Series; his only trip was with Houston in 2005. And with Oswalt on board, the Phillies probably were a better lock for the Fall Classic than the Yankees, the team they are most often compared to these days.

"The other clubs have that sense, the type of team they have here and the way ownership here wants to win," Oswalt said Saturday. "They do whatever it takes to go out and get a player to push them over the edge - the same way the Yankees do. If they need a player, they're going to get him to win.

"The organization here has been great. I mean, everything's first-class all the way through. The clubhouse, the front-office people. They expect to win and it's a winning atmosphere."

Winning is made considerably easier with Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels in the rotation for a best-of-seven series. Not only for the quality of talent, but for the competition it creates between such an elite group.

Oswalt, who will start today's Game 2, allowed four runs in five innings in his only Division Series start against the Reds. It was a surprising letdown after Halladay's no-hitter, but Oswalt is not likely to repeat that flop against the Giants.

"Getting to pitch with the rotation they have here, it's going to make you pick up your game," Oswalt said. "In Houston, I went through a couple of years where I felt like kind of out there by myself. These guys push you to the max. And if these guys keep going the way they're going, they're going to be in the same boat as Roger [Clemens] and Andy [Pettitte]."

Both were Oswalt's teammates in Houston for that World Series run, but obviously the two are better known as - what else? - Yankees.