The Phillies Phillies didn't play October baseball all that well last night, but well enough to win as it turned out. They beat the Dodgers 7-5 on some late thunder that overcame their earlier shortcomings.
Raymond Chandler, the great L.A. pulp writer, used to say that when a plot dragged, have a guy come through the door with a gun. The baseball parallel is the home run and the pair of two-run homers hit by
Shane Victorino and
Matt Stairs in the eighth inning rang like shots through the suddenly quiet stadium.
Until the meltdown by the Los Angeles bullpen in that eighth, the Phils were down two runs and looking like a team that had sacrificed all the momentum it gained in the first two games of the series. Game 5 is here tomorrow, and the Phils could clinch their first trip to the World Series since 1993 with a win.
The World Series is within reach for the Phillies. All it took was a quick change in plot and the ability to make fewer little mistakes than the other guy. All it took was
Brad Lidge coming though with a four-out save, something he hasn't been asked to do this season.
"Like the old saying goes, you've got to try it to see if it'll work," manager Charlie Manuel said.
Big hits overcome little mistakes sometimes, if you're lucky. It is a formula that doesn't often play in pitcher-friendly Dodger Stadium, where the smell of a scorched season was nearly palpable in the air by the end.
Source:
Philly.com