What could possibly go wrong?

Oh, sure, sure. There's that old lingering doubt, cultivated in the fields of former failure, but the first two games of the National League Championship Series should serve as a ready antidote.

If the sight of Brett Myers windmilling around the bases yesterday wasn't enough to inspire belief, maybe Shane Victorino's backhanded catch against the center-field wall late in the game did the trick.

One day after opening the series with a taut pitcher's duel of a win, the Phillies bashed around Los Angeles Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley in Game 2. They built a big lead and made it stand up for an 8-5 win that sends the teams to L.A. with the Phils holding a lead of two games to none in the best-of-seven series.

Perhaps there has to be a cloud in every faultless sky. The Phils took their big step yesterday on the day manager Charlie Manuel learned that his 87-year-old mother had died as a result of a heart attack suffered earlier in the week at her Virginia home.

It would be too pat to say the Phillies went out and won it for Manuel - they want the World Series for themselves, first and foremost - but there was a bit of heaven-sent magic in the South Philly air.

"I gave him a hug before the game and told him, 'I'm going to win this one for your mom today,' " Myers said. "It was in the back of my mind for sure. He's been so good to us."

The script didn't come out exactly the way Myers might have envisioned it, but perhaps that was part of the magic, too.

For instance, if the fans had been told the starting pitcher would enjoy a three-hitter yesterday, there would have been a lot of inaccurate assumptions.

One of the worst-hitting pitchers in all of baseball, Myers did have a three-hitter, but it came at the plate. He drove in three runs with his first two singles, ran the bases like an outcast being chased by villagers with pitchforks, and set the tone for the offense. If Myers could hit Billingsley that well, the rest of the lineup had to figure that any random usher from the upper deck could do the same thing.

"I'm baffled. I can't explain it," Myers said. "I'd rather go out and throw seven solid innings than get three hits, but it worked out for us."

On the mound, where he really earns his paycheck, Myers wasn't quite as overwhelming, but it wouldn't matter on this day. He gave up a three-run home run to dreaded and dreaded slugger Manny Ramirez that made it an 8-5 game in the top of the fourth inning, but that's where the score stayed.

The Phillies' bullpen pitched four scoreless innings, but not without the help of Victorino, who made the defensive play of the series so far. With two runners on against Ryan Madson in the seventh inning, Victorino caught up with a deep drive by Casey Blake just before it caromed off the wall.

If he missed the catch, the Dodgers would have pulled within a run and would have had the tying runner in scoring position. Instead, Victorino put away the backhander on the run, and a series in which fortune had smiled on the Phillies didn't change direction. In another sort of unbelievable mingling of joy and sadness, Victorino learned after the game that his grandmother had passed away.

Some of what transpired on the baseball field left Los Angeles manager Joe Torre scratching his head, particularly the part about Myers' getting three hits.

"He had four all year and three in this game. That's tough to defend against," Torre said.

Closer Brad Lidge finished the game with his second save of the series, his fourth of the playoffs, and his 45th of the 2008 season without a single blown opportunity. He ended things yesterday by facing the tying run twice, striking out Matt Kemp and Nomar Garciaparra while 45,883 fans stood and turned the stands into a sea of waving white rally towels.

If the final out didn't register like a door slamming shut on the Dodgers, it at least sent them home with a terribly steep task.

For the Phillies, the win guaranteed there would be more baseball at Citizens Bank Park this season, either a continuation of this series or a return of the World Series to Philadelphia after a significant absence.

What can go wrong? Plenty, actually. And in the past, that has been the case.

But it will have to start going wrong very quickly this time, because there seems to be something unexplainable in the air.