Victorino suffers family loss as well

Victorino was told by his father after the game that his grandmother, 82-year-old Irene Victorino, had passed away earlier in the day.

His father kept the news from Shane until after the game. At first, Victorino politely declined to talk to reporters, but eventually he did talk about his grandmother and the impact he had on both offense and defense in a win that gave the Phillies a two-games-to-none lead in their best-of-seven series.

The Phillies had already been dealing with news that manager Charlie Manuel's mother, June, had died yesterday morning at the age of 87. And then Victorino had to cope with his own personal loss. "She was struggling and I knew she was sick," he said in a whispered tone. "It was a tough day around here."

Victorino said he was very close to his grandmother, whom he had talked to on the phone Thursday.

"When I would call her she would usually be upbeat, but she wasn't very happy and wasn't responding well," Victorino said.

Then he politely asked the media if the topic could shift to baseball, but even when that happened, his grandmother and Manuel's mother weren't far from his thoughts.

Last night, it was a stellar defensive play by Victorino that overshadowed his offense, which is saying something, since he went 2 for 5 with a single, triple and four RBIs.

Victorino saved the game with his glove in the seventh inning. The Dodgers were trailing, 8-5, but had two runners on base with two outs when Casey Blake hit a shot to deep center field. Victorino got a good jump on the ball and, as he was nearing the wall, stuck out his right arm to see how much distance he had before making the grab that ended the inning and deflated the Dodgers.

Initially the ball looked as if it would leave the Citizens Bank Park launching pad.

"It started getting cold, and the ball wasn't traveling as well as it usually does," Victorino said. "He [Blake] hit the ball, and I told myself to try to get back and make the catch."

When the ball left his bat, Blake had a good feeling.

"I knew I hit it pretty good," he said. "I don't know if it didn't have any backspin or not, but it just didn't go anywhere. I thought for sure it had a good chance."

Victorino said he would stay with the team and hopes that funeral arrangements could be made on an off-day.

No matter what, it was a terrible day off the field for the Phillies, despite their success against the Dodgers.

"Everybody knows we are here for our teammates and our manager," Brett Myers said.