Manny Being Manny Before Game Five

NFL News - October 21st, 2009 - Written by John

One game away from elimination, Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder Manny Ramirez is sleeping like an infant.

The Philadelphia Phillies are on the brink of clinching their second-consecutive NL pennant after Jimmy Rollins clocked a game-winning two-run triple in the bottom of the ninth inning on Monday.

“This is big,” Rollins said. “The pressure’s all on them.”

Well, sort of.

Ramirez, who was pulled from the game for defensive purposes in the ninth, figured the game was over with closer Jonathan Broxton on the mound and took a shower during frenzy. He wasn't around to see Rollins rip the high fastball into the right center gap that sent Phillies' fans in to hysterics.

“Actually, I was in the shower,” told reporters after the game. “I only saw the highlight."

He was toweling himself off when he saw the aftermath, teammates visibly shaken by the loss and turning off the clubhouse televisions. That image apparently left his memory as quickly as it entered, telling reporters that he "slept like a baby" that night.

Shocked? Perplexed?

Hardly, said manager Joe Torre.

“He’s a cool customer,” Torre told the New York Times. “But he certainly didn’t have any lack of respect because of that. I think the way it turned out, it probably doesn’t look good. But it’s nothing different than he had done before.”

After all, if there's one thing Ramirez knows, it's that a mere 3-1 deficit is not insurmountable. He was on the 2004 Boston Red Sox when they became the first team in baseball history to win a series after being down 3-0. He was in the middle of another big comeback in 2007, when the Red Sox beat the Cleveland Indians after trailing three-games-to-two.

In that series, Ramirez commented about the possibility of losing the series, famously saying: “If it doesn’t happen, who cares? There’s always next year. It’s not the end of the world.”

That relaxed mentality may be key to allowing the Dodgers to make the NLCS competitive. They are already on their heels and sportsbooks are taking notice. Los Angeles is the underdog in Game Five, receiving the standard 1 1/2 run head start. If you are doing a bit of MLB Betting, the over/under for the game is 8 1/2.

Betting on the Phillies to win the overall series is all but profitable, according to the latest MLB odds we have. According to BetUS, wagering on Philadelphia to reach the World Series will see a -1000 payout, while a bet on the Dodgers will net a +600 reward.

Los Angeles will turn to their suddenly-hot pitcher Vicente Padilla to get back in the series. He has only allowed one earned run in 14 1/3 playoff innings this year and hasn't lost a start since August 5th when he was with the Rangers. He will go up against Cole Hamels, who hasn't had quite the success he found last year. In his two starts this postseason, Hamels has allowed eight earned runs over 10 innings, including three homeruns.

Ryan Howard has been the series' best hitter, setting an MLB-record eight straight playoff games with an RBI, although New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez tied that record on Tuesday. Howard is 5-for-13 in the NLCS, with two homeruns and eight RBI. He has only faced Padilla twice but homered in one of those at-bats.

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