10:59: Yes!!!! Phillies win! One last tense moment, as strike three from Lidge is in the dirt, but Ruiz makes a great stop and makes the throw to first.
What a flawless game -- this is a team that does what it has to do to win. They clearly weren't on their A game against Derek Lowe, who was excellent for 5 innings, but they exploded when they absolutely had to in the 6th, and took advantage of L.A.'s biggest mistake. Great defense and great pitching from Hamels, Madson and Lidge.
Cue the fireworks! That's the 96th win of the season, three more for the Series, four more for J-Roll's prediction of 100, and seven more for history.
10:56: Two deep flies to center, two outs -- excited and nervous here!
10:50: Brad Lidge time! We're be back with the exciting conclusion to this game (hopefully) in a minute.
10:43: Ryan Madson rocks here! Essentially gets four outs after the uusually steady Feliz boots a shot (scored a hit) to 3rd. This is playoff baseball, crisp, taut -- and the Phillies are winning! It would nice for the middle of the lineup to get an insurance run here in the 8th.
10:34: Phillies are going to regret the way they misplayed the bottom of the 7th here.
10:25: Quite an effort by Hamels here, a real quality start, 7 innings and 2 runs, stong finish. Not his best, but what we needed. Getting nervous about the 8th inning, though.
10:10: BOOM! and DOUBLE BOOM -- wow!!!! The Phillies needed two things here -- a break and big hit and they just got both and then some. First an unlikely throwing error by steady Dodgers' shortstop Rafael Furcal allowed Victorino to reach second and then Utley followed with his first post-season home run EVER. a towering bomb to right-center, and after a Howard ground-out, Burrell -- who's fast having a post-season for the ages -- lined one into the bleachers in left.
3-2, Good guys! Amazing.
9:55: Nuttin'. The vibe for this game seems all off. Even in the DN newsroom there's a palpable lack of excitement (maybe because the hard-core fans all manuevered to be at home.) Ditto at the game -- too many rich non-rowdy fans scoring tickets?
Appropos of nothing, does anyone else hate those ads for E*Trade with the baby -- they manage to combine babyhood, stock trading, sex and spitting up, which is downright creedy.
Great DP by J-Roll, reminscent of the clincher (in fact, they just replayed it for that reason.) A little Phillies' momentum, but I'd say it's now (6th inning) or never.
9:51: Switched to traditional reverse order live-blogging style here -- not sure why I was doing it backwards originally. I was going to also change the title of the post to "Simply Blue," but then Cole Hamels finally showed the other guys how to hit, and the crowd is back in the game a little. Let's see what J-Roll can do -- someone needs to come up big (besides Cole.)
9:29: OK, 2-0, normally not a big deal except when every one of your batters meekly grounds out to second. Derek Lowe is a good picture but the Phillies are making him look like right-handed Sandy Koufax, ridiculous. It's time for Ryan Howard to start doing for the Phillies what Manny does for L.A.
9:00: Wasting baserunners, not what you were hoping to see. Still 1-0 after 2.
8:49: Well, Hamels looks relaxed here, but so do the Phillies' bats. It's going to be a long night and the pitcher's dual that everyone expected, but with the Phillies starting out a run behind.
8:26: How was that not an HR by Manny Ramirez -- looked like a 550-foot bomb when he hit it but it bounced off that crooked wall in far, far centerfield, for a run-scoring double. It's only 1-0, but it defintitely has taken some of the air out of the Bank early here.
8:12: Not live blogging here, but I have commandeered a computer near the TVs and will comment from time to time -- this is really a place for any of you who want to discuss the Phillies first NLCS appearance since I was frequently interrupted by a crying 11-month old baby...who is now a sophomore in high school, amazing. Anyome who tells you they know what will happen next -- they don't. I honestly think this game could be 11-0 Phillies or 11-0 Dodgers, or decided in the 13th inning on an Eric Bruntlett home run.
Will Bunch, a senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News, blogs about his obsessions, including national and local politics and world affairs, the media, pop music, the Philadelphia Phillies, soccer and other sports, not necessarily in that order.
E-mail Will by clicking here.
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