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JERRY LODRIGUSS / Staff Photographer
His evening over, Cole Hamels hits the dugout with a 3-2 lead. After allowing a run in the first, he held the Dodgers at bay. "He ended up pitching pretty good," Charlie Manuel said.
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- Phillies beat Dodgers in Game 1
- Hamels turns in ace of mound performance
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- With homer, Burrell's crazy ride continues
- Sounds and sights of opening night
- Lowe knows why: It was that flat sinker
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- Ruiz contributes at plate, too
- Fearless in 8th, Madson sets up the save
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- Myers, Billingsley: Game 2 foes
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- Batter-by-Batter
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Bill Lyon
Hamels turns in ace of mound performance
It is a soft, intoxicating October night in South Philadelphia, and 45,839 howling, victory-starved zealots are creating a blizzard by furiously helicoptering those ubiquitous white rally towels.
You can smell their urgency. Fifteen years they have waited, 15 long, dispiriting, disheartening years since the Phillies last played for the National League championship.
And now they turn their haunted, hopeful eyes to the mound. Standing on that little hillock is Prince Valiant, he of the lefthanded, dead fish change-up: Cole Hamels, of whom much is expected.
To him has been entrusted Game 1. It is both honor and challenge, and it does not start auspiciously for Hamels or the Fightin's.
In the very first inning, he finds himself facing Manny Ramirez, the free-swinging howitzer, with a Dodger on second.
Ramirez is, depending on your rooting preference, either a tempestuous prima donna with a self-inflated ego, or a blithe spirit just havin' some chuckles.
Each Ramirez at-bat is a three-act production that would be the envy of any diva; there is much strutting about and posturing. But in the oh-by-the-way category, he happens to be one hellacious hitter, which he demonstrates thunderously on Hamels' second offering to him.
Hamels' delivery looks like a lawn chair unfolding, a gangling tangle of loose limbs that flummox hitters and . . . oops, hold that thought because Ramirez is not flummoxed.
He picks up the trajectory of Hamels' pitch and launches a magnificent tracer, 419 feet to center, the farthest part of the park, a foot from being a home run but still good for two bases and the first run of the game and of the series.
The Dodgers stitch together another run with a nifty lesson in the manufacturing of small-ball offense - double, ground out, sacrifice fly. Hamels is down two and his pitch count is rising - 84 through five innings.
But the Fightin's are hardly beating down the fences in supporting him - their bats are being pounded into plowshares by Derek Lowe and his paralyzing sinker. Of the Fightin's first 14 outs, 10 are ground outs.
Plus, the Dodgers can throw some serious leather at you.
Lowe's sinker is a temptress: "Here I am, Big Boy, right below the belt, fat and just begging to be hit. Go ahead, unbutton your shirt and have a swing . . . a hearty swing." Then comes - whooooosh - a nasty drop and another 6-to-3, if you are scoring at . . . well, you know.
Oops, again. As this paean to defense is being typed, Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, rushing to beat the rubber-burning Shane Victorino to first on his ground ball, pulls the first baseman off the bag.
One on and . . .
And Chase Utley promptly swivels his bad hips, unfurls that syrup-sweet stroke and lofts a moon ball into the right-field stands, and just that fast, it is a tie game.
And even faster, it becomes untied when Pat Burrell slashes a Lowe offering into the left-field seats and a 3-2 lead that will hold up.
Meanwhile, Hamels has slammed the door. His 105th pitch ends the Dodgers' seventh and ends his night. It is a nice, tight, efficient effort, exactly what you want from an ace.
It also serves as a rebuttal to those who have slandered Hamels with the charge that he is "soft."
In two playoff games this postseason, against Milwaukee and Los Angeles, Hamels has pitched 15 innings, allowed only two runs on eight hits, with 17 strikeouts.
This night, he gets the Fightin's to the bridge - Ryan Madson to pitch the eighth, Brad "Lights Out" Lidge to seal the deal.
As for falling behind early, manager Charlie Manuel said of Hamels' effort: "I thought he was a little bit revved up, but he kept them at bay."
And this understatement: "He ended up pitching pretty good."
Asked about the shooting gallery coziness of Citizens Bank Park, Hamels said: "Baseball is all about home runs now. You have to grind and be mentally tough. If you can pitch here you can pitch anywhere."
And to the question of whether he now feels like a big-game pitcher, he said: "I hope so."
Two performances do not a trend make. But it is a promising start.
