PHILADELPHIA – Derek Lowe spent a good deal of last night’s NLCS opener assembling the DVD that he would want, among others, the New York teams to view when deciding how to spend their free-agent dollars this offseason.
He was a cool, efficient, groundball monster in the October crucible. When the sixth inning began, he had recorded 15 outs, one in the air. He was throwing a four-hit shutout, lead ing the Phillies by two runs, threatening to win an opener on the road as he did last week at Wrigley Field to set the tone for a surprising Dodgers Division Series sweep of the Cubs.
But as the Mets can attest it is one thing to have the Phillies down, another to keep them down. Anyone who has watched how the NL East has been settled the past two years recognizes you do not want to give this tough-minded, resourceful team an opening. The Phillies tend to make you regret that.
“There is a certain toughness here that I am not sure everyone else has,” Philadelphia closer Brad Lidge said.
How tough? Game 1 lasted 2:36. For perhaps 10 of those minutes, Philadelphia outplayed the Dodgers. It was one four-batter spurt in the bottom of the sixth in which the Phillies capitalized on their offensive diversity and the coziness of their home. That was enough.
The speed of Shane Victorino hurried Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal into a throwing error to lead off the sixth, and the power of Chase Utley and Pat Burrell made the price for that mistake a 3-2 loss for the Dodgers.
“We did a lot of things right,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “Unfortunately we came up on the short end.”
The Furcal error should have been the 13 out on the ground for Lowe vs. just one flyout. Instead, there was a runner on second and Lowe’s first-pitch sinker to Utley tailed back over the plate. Utley launched a ball that in spacious Dodger Stadium likely is a flyout to the warning track. At Citizens Bank Park, it cleared the fence for a game-tying two-run homer.
With one out, Burrell hit such a missile to left and Manny Ramirez did not even retreat. He simply turned and watched a ball that probably would have slammed the fence at Dodger Stadium, instead clear the fence here comfortably to give Philly a one-run lead. It was a lead the Phillies it maintained because: Ace Cole Hamels settled down from a shaky first to hold the Dodgers to two runs in seven innings, and the superb end-game combo of Ryan Madson and Lidge combined to retire six of seven hitters.
“We never feel we are in a hole,” Lidge said. “We always feel we are going to catch up.”
The Mets know that well. There is a certain intrepidness about the Phillies, perhaps best exemplified in Game 1 by Hamels. He did not have his A-stuff as he did in blanking the Brewers over eight innings in Division Series Game 1. Here he needed to gut his way through, doing that in part by throwing his exquisite changeup even if way behind in the count.
Ramirez doubled in a run high off the center-field wall in the first. That was the lone hit in eight at-bats with men on base vs. the resolute Hamels.
“Hamels keeps it together,” Torre said. “He will throw any pitch at any time. He’s proud of his changeup. He’s not afraid to repeat it.”
Hamels is not afraid, a symbol of this team. The Mets have been forced to watch the past two Octobers because they could not match Philadelphia’s iron stomach. Now the fearless Phillies have an edge on ending the Dodgers’ season in October earlier than Torre wants.