"Sometimes you just have to take your butt-whipping and come back and try to get them tomorrow," he'd explain with a philosophical shrug.

This isn't to suggest that Dodgers manager Joe Torre ever stopped believing during last night's 11-0 loss to the Phillies. And one game in a best-of-seven playoff series is obviously more important than one game in a 162-game regular season.

Still, Torre also clearly managed the latter stages of Game 3 with one eye firmly fixed on tonight's Game 4 after the Phillies took a 6-0 lead going into the third. When he was forced to bring Chad Billingsley into the game in the bottom of the second, Torre alrady was using his third pitcher. He clearly needed him to eat some innings.

He didn't double-switch even though the pitcher's spot was due up the next inning. And that preserved his pen when Billingsley went 3 1/3 innings and Ramon Troncoso went two. Nobody warmed up while Ronald Belisario was tagged for three runs mopping up in the eighth.

"You never want to get your rear end kicked," Torre said. "But these games, you don't toss and turn wondering [what would have happened] if I made this move or that move. This is one you can put away a lot quicker even though it's a lot uglier than most. But it's only one game and we're still in a position to tie the series [tonight] and that's basically what we need to do."

Here's the pitch

"Not that the Phillies aren't scary but Albert, I don't know if he has any holes that you try to exploit," he said. "Probably their best pure hitter is [Chase] Utley and he's in front of a guy [Ryan Howard] who's going to hit 40 to 50 homers a year. They're well-balanced with power and speed. I'm not saying we wouldn't walk Howard to get to [Jayson] Werth, but it's not something I'd be totally comfortable with. Albert is a special guy."

In the first three games of the NLCS, Howard is batting .400 and has driven in six runs.

Superstition

And a superstition was born.

Lee went on to pitch a complete game, allowing one run on six hits. Martinez never budged.

Lee made his second start in the NLDS at Coors Field. Again, Lee pitched out of first-inning trouble. This time Martinez watched from the bullpen, but he stayed in the same spot while Lee allowed just one earned run in 7 1/3 innings.

"When he's not on, he shows it really early," Martinez said of Lee. "He shows it from the get-go. Cliff's just that way."

Last night Martinez was back in the black leather chair in front of his locker. Lee set down the Dodgers in order in the first and ended up pitching eight shutout innings. Naturally, Martinez stayed in his chair until Lee came out of the game. No sense in taking any chances.

Numerology

6.92: Team earned run average for the Dodgers in the NLCS; Los Angeles had the best ERA (3.41) in the majors during the regular season.