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LOS ANGELES - Jamie Moyer has never been to a World Series. He has, however, been to a World Series parade. Moyer was in high school in Souderton when the 1980 Phillies won the franchise's only title.
"I can remember being at the parade, saying it would be pretty awesome someday to be sitting on those floats as they go down Broad Street," Moyer said yesterday. "So to see where we are, each time we win a game, we get a step closer to that. That's still part of the dream as well."
Moyer will start Game 3 of the National League Championship Series tonight at Dodger Stadium. He can't technically clinch the Phillies' first NL pennant since 1993, but he can come awfully close. Just ask Brad Lidge, who already has two saves in this series.
Lidge has been to the World Series. It was three years ago, when his Houston Astros faced the Chicago White Sox. That Series opened in miserable weather on the South Side of Chicago. The Sox won the first two games at home, just as the Phillies did in this series.
Back in Houston, the Astros were in the same place the Los Angeles Dodgers find themselves tonight: at home, facing a must-win situation. Game 3 of the 2005 World Series went 14 innings, the Astros doing everything they could to win.
They lost. The White Sox completed the sweep the next night.
"It's huge," Lidge said. "If you lose Game 3 and go down 3-0, that's a huge mountain to climb. They know how much pressure there is on themselves to win Game 3. That's nothing that anybody doesn't know. If they go down 3-0, that's really difficult to come back from."
That's a universal truth that is especially applicable in this series. In the two regular-season series between these teams, the Phillies swept four games at Citizens Bank Park while the Dodgers swept a four-game set here.
With the 2-3-2 format of the NLCS, a Dodgers sweep here would put the pressure on the Phillies. If the Dodgers hold serve, they go back to the Bank with a 3-2 series lead. They would need to win just one of two in Philadelphia to advance to the World Series.
A win tonight would be more than the prerequisite for a three-game streak. It would mean a huge psychological boost to the Dodgers.
"A momentum switcher is what we need," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. "We need to get things back on our side. I don't want to say it's more comfortable coming home, but it should give us a little more confidence, let's put it that way."
If getting that momentum switcher is big for the Dodgers, it is every bit as important for the Phillies to deny it.
"If you can come back home and win Game 3 and get on a roll, then all of a sudden it's a series," Lidge said. "But if you drop Game 3, I don't know if any team has ever come back from that. It's a turning point game. It either becomes a series and a grind for both teams or we capitalize and have incredible momentum."
The Phillies already have seized the momentum from the Dodgers, who steamrolled the superior Chicago Cubs in the division series. LA came into the Bank feeling pretty good about itself and left in the direst of straits.
"Momentum is so important," Torre said. "I've preached that. I've talked about it to the press. I've talked about it to the players. When the momentum is on your side, you want to keep it. When it's not on your side, you want to find a way to get it back."
Imagine, then, the pressure on 33-year-old Dodgers rookie Hiroki Kuroda. The righthander will start this must-win game against a Phillies lineup that finally seems to be getting hot. The one exception, Ryan Howard, is the kind of lefthanded power hitter most dangerous to a young righty.
"It's really hard to enjoy a game under pressure," Kuroda said, "but in any game I try to pitch my game."
So it feels right for the Phillies to have the 45-year-old Moyer taking the mound in this "turning point" game. He took the Phillies' only loss of this postseason - in Game 3 in Milwaukee - but was excellent in his big starts leading up to the playoffs.
"Results are results, good or bad," Moyer said. "I haven't dwelt on it. It's the playoffs. It's a fun time. It's exciting. It's a great opportunity. As a pitcher, obviously you dream about pitching in these types of situations."
Momentum switcher or one more step toward the World Series?
The ball will be in Moyer's hand. The Phillies wouldn't have it any other way.
Contact columnist Phil Sheridan at 215-854-2844 or psheridan@phillynews.com. Read his recent work at http://go.philly.com/philsheridan.
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