Phillies Foil Dodgers’ Strategy in Opener

Phillies Foil Dodgers’ Strategy in Opener


LOS ANGELES — The how-to guide to beat the Philadelphia Phillies is shrinking by the day. It says to attack them with left-handed pitchers, so that was what the Los Angeles Dodgers did. It recommends knocking out their starter early, turning the game over to the bullpen, the underbelly of their pitching staff. The Dodgers did that, too.
All they have to show for their strategy is an 8-6 loss Thursday night, a game that burnished the Phillies’ reputation as one dangerous, if delightfully unpredictable, team. In Game 1 of this National League Championship Series, Philadelphia scored all its runs, including two three-run homers, off left-handed pitching; relied on Chan Ho Park, pitching for the first time in a month, to flummox the heart of the Dodgers’ lineup in a pivotal seventh inning; and sweated through a shaky eighth and ninth that Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge nevertheless completed without ceding the lead. Replaced as closer only two weeks ago, Lidge has saved the Phillies’ last three victories, all on the road.
“I think we had a rough season, I had a rough season, but once the postseason rolls around it’s all different,” said Lidge, who induced a double-play grounder from Casey Blake. “I just know how good we could be when everyone’s right and we’re doing what we’re doing. I think last year we were the best bullpen in baseball, and I think this year’s the same thing.”
For all of the Phillies’ perceived flaws, they have now won three straight road games — all against stingy N.L. West teams — and have captured the opener of a postseason series five consecutive times.
With reports surfacing that the Dodgers’ owner and chief operating officer, Frank and Jamie McCourt, have separated, the organization is already in flux. Things could get much worse Friday for the Dodgers, who never recovered after falling behind by 2-0 during last year’s N.L.C.S., if Pedro Martinez can outshine Vicente Padilla.
“It gives us a chance to really go home looking good,” Phillies Manager Charlie Manuel said.
Even better than Thursday, when they blasted the Dodgers’ precocious left-hander, Clayton Kershaw, in a five-run fifth. They were silenced by three relievers until the left-hander George Sherrill’s aura of invincibility wore off in the eighth. Two straight walks, and a three-run homer by Raul Ibanez diluted Sherrill’s success this season against left-handers (.128 average, no home runs) and since joining the Dodgers in a July trade (two runs in 27 2/3 innings). It prompted Dodgers Manager Joe Torre to say, “I think that was a shock for everybody.”
Slightly less so was how Kershaw, the youngest pitcher (21 years 211 days old) to start an L.C.S. opener, fell apart in a 35-pitch fifth inning, uncorking three wild pitches. As much confidence as Kershaw inspired within the Dodgers, and as much as a left-handed starter seemed the prudent move against the Phillies’ dangerous lineup, he still has erratic tendencies that, once they appear, do not disappear. Even as Kershaw mowed through the Phillies, displaying little evidence of the pitcher who averaged an inefficient 17.7 pitches per inning, there was still a sense that one pitch or one hit could topple him.
And then it happened: a leadoff single in the fifth by Ibanez preceded a walk to Pedro Feliz, which gave way to a mammoth three-run homer by the No. 8 hitter, catcher Carlos Ruiz. After Ruiz’s blow, Kershaw issued a four-pitch walk to Cole Hamels, the Phillies’ starter. Torre showed enough faith to let Kershaw start, and he seemed determined to let him continue. With two outs, two on and another left-hander, Scott Elbert, warming up, Torre left Kershaw in for a batter too long. Ryan Howard clubbed a fastball down the right-field line for a two-run double, and the Phillies led, 5-1.
“I can’t put my finger on it,” Kershaw said. “When you get out of the strike zone, you should be able to make an adjustment in a pitch or two, but I wasn’t able to do it.”
If anyone could identify with Kershaw’s burden, it would be Hamels. He was thrust into the same role in Game 1 last year — a young left-hander counted on to anchor a decent, if unstable, rotation — and handled it with aplomb, guiding the Phillies to victory that night, and again in the clinching Game 5, exactly a year ago Thursday.
Hamels has always fared well at Dodger Stadium — “I love pitching in California,” said Hamels, a San Diego native — but he is a different pitcher now from the one he was then, encumbered by an uneven season, heightened expectations and, especially recently, diminished control. Turmoil engulfed his life over the last week — a poor division series outing against the Rockies, the birth of his son, working out alone in Philadelphia while his teammates gutted out comeback wins in Colorado. On Thursday, starting in the fifth inning, he once again faced a mountain of difficulties.
The deadly changeup and fastball command that ushered him through four splendid innings vanished without warning. He surrendered a double, then a one-out single, then a run-scoring groundout that, if not for Rafael Furcal’s hard slide into second, could have been an inning-ending double play. Instead, Hamels had to deal once more with Ramirez, who stared at two changeups — the pitch he flailed at his first time up — before golfing a third one beyond the fence in left-center field, and the Dodgers trailed by 5-4.
“That type of pitch, I would say, 9 out of 10 times gets a rollover, especially where that was,” Hamels said. “Who’s looking for a 2-0 changeup? Not too many guys. I think he was, though.”
Hamels escaped the fifth, but not the sixth. Consecutive one-out singles knocked him out, and the Dodgers ultimately loaded the bases and exhausted one reliever before J. A. Happ quelled the threat by inducing an inning-ending groundout from Furcal. As the game evolved into a bullpen duel, Manuel tried exploiting matchups.
So he turned to Park after the rookie left-hander Antonio Bastardo opened the seventh by allowing a double to Andre Ethier. A hamstring strain slowed Park over the final three weeks of the season and prevented him from pitching in the division series. He felt terrible, he said, while warming up in the bullpen, then pounded sinker after sinker to Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Blake. Three batters, two groundouts and one strikeout equaled one very happy Park. Asked when was the last time he pitched that well, Park quipped, “An hour and 20 minutes ago.”
But as a capacity crowd roared — the loudest Howard has ever heard it here, he said — the Dodgers, who defeated Cardinals aces Chris Carpenter and Adam Wainwright last round, had one final rally in them. They lashed three consecutive singles off Madson for one run, and a sacrifice fly by Furcal drew them within 8-6. Another single put the tying runs on base for Ramirez, who grounded out feebly to third. For three straight games, a Phillies reliever has faced the opponents’ best hitter in a crucial spot and won. Lidge prevailed twice against Colorado’s Troy Tulowitzki, and now Madson.
“It definitely breeds confidence,” Manuel said. “Anytime they can get somebody like that out, I think that’s really good.”
The Phillies’ karma has changed. They batter left-handed pitching. Their bullpen protects leads. And now, the Dodgers must figure out a different way to win.