Oct. 3 -- MIRROR IMAGES

Greetings from Citizens Bank Park, where Game 1 is now only about three hours away. The Phillies are on the field. Pitchers are taking batting practice, and position players will follow in a few minutes.

Had an interesting conversation yesterday with several Phillies players about the similarities between the teams. When the Phillies look at the Rockies, they see a lot of themselves: A big hitting team with young pitchers that were rushed to the majors this season to fill in for injured veterans.

You can read the position-by-position matchup in today's 50-center, but here are a few other things that didn't make the paper. The Phillies led the NL with 892 runs and went 13-4 in their last 17 games to overtake the Mets. The Rockies were second in the NL with 860 runs and went 14-1 down the stretch to outlast the Padres. The Phillies lost starters Freddy Garcia and Jon Lieber to season-ending injuries and replaced them with Kyle Kendrick and J.D. Durbin. The Rockies survived losing starters Aaron Cook, Jason Hirsh and Rodrigo Lopez by plugging in youngsters Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez.

The Phillies and Rockies are as different as night and later that night.

“There’s a lot of common fabric between the clubs when you start breaking it down," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "You have a cluster of offensive players that are the most identifiable characteristic with the club. You’ve got pitchers that have had to battle and scratch and claw to get outs. You have had a bullpen that has turned over a couple different times, but it’s turned over at the right time. The similarities are numerous.”

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The cover story in today's Phillies preview section in the 50-center was about Jimmy Rollins, who learned his first lessons about baseball from his mother, Gigi. Rollins also credits Gigi for the confidence to have declared the Phillies "the team to beat."

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Cole Hamels takes the mound today. On Monday night, Hamels went to see "Good Luck Chuck," the new film with Dane Cook and Jessica Alba. Charlie Manuel thought Hamels' movie selection was appropriate.

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Adam Eaton was excluded from the Phillies' playoff roster. Speaking of which, here's what that 25-man roster looks like: Cole Hamels, Kyle Kendrick, Kyle Lohse, Jamie Moyer, Brett Myers, J.C. Romero, Tom Gordon, Clay Condrey, Jose Mesa, Antonio Alfonseca, Carlos Ruiz, Chris Coste, Rod Barajas, Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins, Abraham Nunez, Wes Helms, Greg Dobbs, Tadahito Iguchi, Pat Burrell, Aaron Rowand, Shane Victorino, Jayson Werth, Michael Bourn. Also, within the notebook, we have updates on the health of Ruiz and Geoff Geary.

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Everyone's getting geared up for Game 1, as Martin Frank writes.

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Re-live the top 10 moments from the Phillies' season here.