Give it to me! The Phillies have won again. They just beat the Houston Astros 10-3 to clinch their third straight NL East crown.

Do not misunderstand. Personally, I have nothing against the Phillies. In fact, I enjoy the team. But they’re in the same division as my Atlanta Braves, so it’s hard to see another team win the division the Braves dominated for so many years.

Now the Phillies have nothing to worry about except resting their starters and preparing their starting rotation for the playoffs. Oh yeah. They have to figure out what they’re going to do with Brad Lidge. I don’t think they have any choice but to go to the postseason with him as their closer, but he sure has been a mess lately. They trust Lidge so little right now that they brought in Scott Eyre and got the first 2 outs in the 9th before letting Lidge close out the game. Hmmm… we’ll see how that works out in the playoffs.

Here are some random thoughts on the Phillies going to the playoffs in 2009.

1. They will try to become the first team to win back-to-back World Series since the Yankees did it from 1998-2000.

2. Winning the National League This 3 consecutive years is nothing to sneeze at. In fact, it’s quite an impressive achievement. But it’s still very small compared to the Braves who won the East 14 years in a row. Amazing!

3. The Phillies know how to celebrate their playoff berth far better than the Red Sox. The Red Sox lost, and 3 hours after their game ended, Texas lost on the West Coast, meaning the Red Sox had clinched the Wild Card. Guess what? The Red Sox returned to the ballpark the same night with all the fans gone and very few media around and celebrated winning the wild card. Talk about awkward!