Philly Offense Too Much For Dodgers

NFL News - October 16th, 2009 - Written by Scott

You could argue that it was in the fifth inning when Carlos Ruiz looked at two fastballs and then hammered the third to make it 4-1. You could argue it came in the eighth when Raul Ibanez sat on a George Sherrill curve and whipped it into the right field stands. You could even make the case that it was the Los Angeles Dodgers' own dumb fault, stranding four runners in scoring position between the sixth and eighth innings.

It's tough to say what the crushing blow really was for Los Angeles, but frankly it doesnt really matter. The Philadelphia Phillies brought their NL-leading offense and delivered an 8-6 win on the road to take a 1-0 lead in the NLCS. It was enough to spare Cole Hamels' second poor outing in a row and actually made him the winning pitcher.

Hamels surrendered an early solo home run to James Loney that put the Dodgers up 1-0 after two. But he was able to settle down an minimize the impact, never letting Los Angeles capitalize on the momentum.

Clayton Kershaw? Well, that's a different story.

After cruising through four innings relatively untouched, the wheels began to fall off. He threw three pitches right into Ruiz's wheelhouse with two men on base. Ruiz fouled the first two off, but didn't miss the third. He seemed to know it was coming, hammering a high fastball down the left field line to make it 3-1. Ryan Howard followed with a two-run double and just like that the ballgame seemed out of reach.

“The first four innings I felt great," Kershaw said on Yahoo! Sports. "And then I couldn’t make adjustments fast enough. In the playoffs, you’re not going to have a lot of leverage. If you don’t make your pitches, before long you’re out of there.”

Every time the Dodgers creeped closer to tying the game, the NL East champs kept drawing the lead even further and Los Angeles just couldn't keep up.

“We do have the talent and just that sort of fight, that we’re going to do everything we can to get those big hits in those big moments,” Hamels said on Yahoo! Sports. “Our offense is really what’s setting the tone.”

Hamels got the win, throwing 5 1/3 innings and striking out four. He pitched well in the first five innings, and is now 5-0 all-time against the Dodgers.

He was pulled in the sixth inning after offering a fastball low-and-outside to Manny Ramirez, and watching it sail as Ramirez deposited it into the left center bleachers. That made it 5-4 and sent the Los Angeles crowd into a frenzy. The shot increased his all-time postseason homer record to 29 and puts him one short of Bernie Williams' RBI record of 80.

If only the rally lasted.

Relievers Chad Durbin and J.A. Happ got out of the inning without any more damage done and Raul Ibanez countered in the eighth. Following a walk to both Jayson Werth and Howard, Ibanez turned on the first pitch he saw from Sherrill, a bending curveball that dropped right into the middle of the zone and hitting it out of the yard to make it 8-6. It was the backbreaker and allowed Brad Lidge to comfortably pick up his third save of the postseason.

Lidge only allowed two baserunners, and one of them was eliminated via double play.

“The Dodgers are a great team. They come from behind a lot so you take everyone seriously,” he said. “Honestly, for some reason I’ve really been locked in this postseason. I felt really good mechanically. I feel like myself. I feel pretty comfortable right now.”

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