Inside The Box Score: NLCS Game One

The Phillies won the opener of the NLCS last night, as Chase Utley and Pat Burrell connected for home runs off of Dodgers starter Derek Lowe in a three-run sixth inning.

While Citizen’s Bank Park is a hitter-friendly environment, Lowe hardly ever surrenders any long balls. And with a 2-0 lead headed into the sixth, it appeared as if the veteran right-hander and his club were going to cruise to a solid Game One win.

And, boy, that would have been huge for L.A. If they had beaten the Phils’ most effective starter, Cole Hamels, on the road, they would be in great shape right now.

But then Rafael Furcal made an uncharacteristic error, Utley and Burrell went yard and Hamels and the Phillies never looked back.

Inside The Box Score:

Phillies’ Side—

• The Phillies, as they have done consistently in the past, scored all of their runs in one inning. All runs came via the long ball as well.

• Burrell, catcher Carlos Ruiz and Utley combined for six of the Phillies’ seven hits. Hamels, who ripped a solid line shot into center field, had the other.

• Ruiz, who posted a line of .219/.320/.300 during the regular season, finished 2-for-3.

• Brad Lidge tossed a perfect ninth inning to pick up the save. Lidge, perhaps a sleeper Cy Young candidate, has now converted 44 saves in as many chances. It took him a while to overcome a hangover from the 2005 NLCS—when he gave up that monstrous shot to Albert Pujols while with the Astros—but he has reestablished himself as one of the most dominant closers in the game with Philadelphia.

During the regular season, in fact, he was practically untouchable, limiting opposing hitters to an anemic line of .198/.295/.269 and .563 OPS while posting a 1.95 ERA in 72 appearances. If the Phils’ have the lead late in the game, Charlie Manuel can feel confident that his club is going to leave with a W.

• Hamels, by the way, was not too shabby on the mound on Thursday, either. The 24-year-old southpaw scattered two earned runs on six hits in seven solid innings, striking out eight. He threw 70 out of 105 pitches for strikes, though he did walk two batters.

Dodgers’ side—

• In case you had not heard, Manny Ramirez is a freakishly amazing, out-of-this-universe stud of a hitter. Ramirez picked up where he left of from the Division Series, driving a deep double to center field to score Andre Ethier in the first inning and stake the Dodgers an early lead. He finished 2-for-4, raising his postseason line to .500/.611/.1000.

If you are scoring at home, that is a 1.611 OPS. Granted, the sample size is too small to get all worked up about, but this guy has been unbelievable since making the trip to the West Coast. As much pub as he gets, he kind of deserves it.

Tim McCarver can insult his behavior however he wants, but Ramirez has shown why he is arguably the best hitter in baseball when he is locked in. As a Dodger, he just does not make any outs, it seems.

He blasted 17 bombs in 53 games after the trade, slugging .743 with a 1.232 OPS. In Citizen’s Bank Park, it might not be the in the Phillies’ best interest to throw him anything near the strike zone, unless they go up-and-in.

• While the Dodgers are certainly not happy about losing, there were some positives. This starts with the bullpen work, as three Dodger relievers combined to shut down the Phillies’ offense after Lowe was removed from the game with one out in the sixth inning.

• Chan Ho Park—yes, that Chan Ho Park is still pitching—retired two batters to get out of the frame with any more damage. Park, by the way, has provided a nice comeback story for baseball.

While it is certainly not on the Ankiel/Hamilton level of overcoming the odds, it is quite amazing that he is back, and effective, in the majors at this point. He posted a 3.40 ERA in 54 games, including five starts, allowing 36 earned runs in 95.1 innings pitched. Sure, he pitched in ’07 with the Mets, but did anyone outside of Queens pick up on that?

• Well, now that the Chan Ho tangent is out of the way, another unsuspecting reliever who pitched well was Greg Maddux. Maddux, one of the greatest starting pitchers of all time, tossed a scoreless seventh. His stuff is below-average now, but he still has excellent command and knows how to pitch.

Still, though the inning of work may not seem significant in the loss, it does have other implications. This means that he will not make a start in the series, as Clayton Kershaw, who has tremendous stuff, will get the nod.

• Hong-Chih Kuo, who posted a 2.14 ERA, 96-to-21 K/W ratio and 1.01 WHIP in 42 regular season appearances, tossed a perfect ninth. Even without Saito, the Dodgers truly have an excellent bullpen, though some of the aforementioned stats were inflated by a friendly home pitching environment.

• Like Philadelphia, L.A. combined for seven hits. Man-Ram and Ethier combined for four of them, with Russell Martin, James Loney and Matt Kemp collecting the others.

Some other things that popped into my head.

• It is weird seeing Maddux in a relief role.

• Jeff Kent is old.

• Nomar belongs on the bench, even though Loney’s splits against lefties are far from impressive.

• This game featured two of the most exciting, fast leadoff-hitting shortstops in the game in Furcal and Jimmy Rollins. And they are both switch hitters, too. But neither player reached base, combining to go 0-for-8, and Furcal had the error. Still, it has to be nice to get him back in the lineup for L.A. He was a monster in April before his injury, posting a .357/.439/.573 slash stats line in 36 games overall.

Thinking about Game Two, it should be interesting to see which Brett Myers shows up. Myers was garbage in the first half, before being demoted to the minors. He returned to Philly rejuvenated, putting together a nice little string of quality starts together. He did struggle, however, in September.

Even with an effective Myers going for Philadelphia, L.A. has the edge in Chad Billingsley, who has excellent stuff and struck out 201 in 200.2 innings pitched during the regular season.

Billingsley can shut any offense down on any given night, and was perhaps the most valuable arm on the Dodgers all year—16-10, 3.14 ERA, 1.34 WHIP.

Anything can happen in one game, or a short series, which is why postseason baseball predictions are so ridiculous. Plus, the ballpark effect will play a factor, as the Coors Field of the East might play a role again. (Hey, if the game had been played in L.A. last night, Burrell and Utley might still be homerless for the series.) Still, I like the Dodgers in the second game.

Any thoughts on the series?