PHILLIES NEWS

After drubbing the Dodgers 11-0 last night you expected the Phils to go for the kill and come out firing tonight with Joe Blanton on the mound. For 3 innings they were able to do just that, as Blanton retired the first 10 batters he faced and Ryan Howard slammed a 2 run homer off ex-Phil Randy Wolf in the first inning, for his 8th straight playoff game with an RBI, tying him with the "Iron Horse", Lou Gehrig for the most in major league history. So it was 2-0 heading into the 4th and it was there that Blanton ran into trouble for the 1st time, as singles by James Loney and Russell Martin knotted it up at 2. In the 5th inning Matt Kemp crushed a solo homer to dead center field to put L.A up 3-2. In the 6th inning Casey Blake slapped a 2 out single to make it 4-2 and it looked for all intensive purposes that the series was destined to be tied at 2 after this game, with Randy Wolf getting one final win in Philly. As usual though, the Phils would not make it easy. Chase Utley lined a single right on numbers into right field to score Shane Victorino and cut the lead to 4-3 in the bottom of the 6th. Still, from there all the way up to the start of the 9th the Dodger bullpen kept the Phils without a hit, including a strikeout by Howard in the 8th inning with 2 on and only 1 out. That left the Phils with Raul Ibanez plus the bottom of the order to face ultra tough Dodger closer Jonathan Broxton in the 9th. Ibanez started it off with a groundout and the 4-3 loss seemed inevitable at that point. Then Matt Stairs, who left Broxton beaten in this same game just a year ago with a 2 run 8th inning homer, worked a walk as Broxton wanted no part of him. Next Broxton hit Carlos Ruiz with a pitched ball and suddenly there were 2 on and 1 out for pinch hitter Greg Dobbs. Dobbs came close to flaring a game tying single to left field, but Casey Blake was able to snare it for out number 2. So it was up to Jimmy Rollins to keep the game alive and at most tie it up at 4. He had never gotten a hit off Broxton before so it was crazy to think he would get one now and apparently Broxton felt the same way as he layed a slider over the plate for strike 1 and then went for the fastball inside. He didn't throw it inside enough and JRoll timed his shortened swing just quickly enough to rip Broxton's 0-1 offering into the gap in right field for a game winning double, as Eric Bruntlett, pinch running for Stairs, scored from 2nd, and Ruiz dashed all the way around from 1st to score the winning run, with his teammates literally already surrounding the plate before he even slid in safely. They then mobbed JRoll who had kept running all the way to 3rd, even though the game was already over. Perhaps just as remarkable as JRoll's was the game's winning pitcher, Brad Lidge, who pitched brilliantly to get the final 2 outs in the top of the 9th and keep it at 4-3. Lidge was winless in the regular season at 0-8 so this was actually his first win of the year, in game 4 of the NLCS no less, Believe It!