Oct 09 2008
Utley and Burrell power Phillies to Game 1 Win
“King” Cole Hamels got off to a rocky start in his NLCS debut. After giving up a one-out double to Andre Eithier, Manny Ramirez demolished a Hamels fastball that would have been way out if he hit it to any other part of the ball park. Instead, Ramirez hit a fence at the top of the wall in deep left center and wound up with a double instead of a triple because he thought it was gone. The important part was that the Dodgers led 1-0 in the top of the first and Hamels looked a bit tight. Cole settled down after that, but L.A. was able to manufacture a run in the fourth that pushed their lead to 2-0. It didn’t look like it was going to be the Phillies’ night.
Through the first four innings of Game 1 of the NLCS, Derek Lowe was locked in. He systematically mowed down the Phillies by inducing eight ground outs and two strikeouts in that span. Lowe remained in control until there were two outs in the bottom of the fifth. He began to get a little wild, his sinker stopped sinking as much, and he gave up back-to-back singles to Carlos Ruiz and Hamels. Even though Jimmy Rollins wasted the scoring opportunity, you could tell that Lowe was tiring and that the Phils were close to breaking through.
In the bottom of the sixth inning with the score still 2-0 Dodgers, “The Flyin’ Hawaiian” Shane Victorino hit a chopper to Rafael Furcal to lead-off the inning. With Victorino bolting down the line, Furcal hurried his throw and completely airmailed it, allowing Victorino to reach second. Chase Utley followed and hammered the first pitch he saw from Lowe into the right field seats to tie the game at 2-2. It was Utley’s first career post-season homer. Citizens Bank Park was finally showing signs of life. The fans were energized. The players were energized. Most importantly, the Phillies had the momentum. Ryan Howard tried his best to kill the momentum by grounding out to first, but Pat “The Bat” Burrell would have none of that. Burrell worked a 3-1 count and then crushed Lowe’s 90 mile per hour fastball into the left field seats. It was Lowe’s last pitch of the evening and his best pitch in the eyes of Phillies fans. For the second consecutive playoff game, Burrell provided the game-winning home run. After going 0-for-8 in the first three post-season games, Burrell is 5-for-7 with 3 HR and 5 RBI in the past two. It really is a shame that these are Burrell’s last few games in a Phillies uniform barring some sort of miracle. Burrell’s fourth career playoff home run put him in a tie for third all-time in franchise history with Mike Schmidt. Only Lenny “The Dude” Dykstra (6), Gary “Sarge” Matthews (5), and Greg “The Bull” Luzinski (5) have more.
Now pitching with a 3-2 lead, Hamels was filthy in the top of the seventh, easily retiring Blake DeWitt, Jeff Kent, and Furcal in order. Cole’s line for the game was 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 8 K, 2 BB. That’s the type of performance you expect from a front-line starter in the playoffs. In the 8th, Charlie Manuel turned the ball over to Ryan “How did I end up as the set-up man” Madson to face Eithier, Ramirez, and Russell Martin. On paper, it didn’t look like the Phils would be able to hold onto their lead. Luckily, Madson pitched like an All-Star reliever. He struck out Eithier, forced Manny to line out to Pedro “Peter Happy” Feliz on one pitch, gave up a single to Martin, and got James Loney to ground out to end the inning. Then it was time for Brad “Lights Out” Lidge to face the bottom of the order. It wasn’t the cleanest save, but it was nonetheless effective. Matt Kemp and Casey Blake hit fly balls to deep center that put a scare into many Phillies’ fans until Victorino tracked them down. Then Mr. Lidge turned the lights out by striking out DeWitt to give the Phils a 1-0 series lead. I’m still amazed that Lidge has yet to blow a save this season. He has had an incredible season.
In three of the Phillies’ four post season wins (i.e. Games 1 and 2 of the NLDS and Game 1 of the NLCS), their offense has only produced runs in three out of twenty-four innings. It’s unreal that the Phightins can win games by only scoring in one inning. A ton of credit needs to go to the pitchers for performing extremely well despite a struggling offense. The Phillies will look to take a 2-0 lead tomorrow afternoon when they send Brett Myers to the mound to take on Chad Billingsley. Hopefully Myers will be able to come through again. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
Go Phillies.
