Philadelphia Daily News

FIVE APPEARANCES. Four innings pitched. One hit. No runs. That had been the postseason enjoyed by Brad Lidge before last night.

Then, it happened. This is what we have all expected to happen since about June. This was the concern. The emotions have risen and fallen since that time, and the opinions and prognostications have varied along with those rhythms. But the thing has always been there, in the back of everybody's mind.The thing: that Brad Lidge really wasn't Brad Lidge anymore.

Perfection is the standard. Lidge set it. Lidge knows it. That he never had a chance to match it, after his impeccable, impossible 2008 season, was a known fact. But he has not approached it. He has not been in the area code. We have all pretended sometimes, or kind of pretended. But we...