Photos: 2008 Phillies
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Jamie Moyer throwing balls over the heart of the plate.
And the Dodger Stadium crowd getting loud and excited.
Both happened.
Moyer is a master mixologist when he is hitting his spots. He's just another guy behind the bar when he's not.
The Dodgers ambushed Moyer for six runs in 11/3 innings. Most of the damage was done on pitches that Moyer wishes he had located better.
Manny Ramirez drove in a run on a first-pitch fastball over the middle of the plate with no outs in the first.
Moyer tried to manage the inning. He got big strikeouts on Nomar Garciaparra and Matt Kemp - both looking at perfectly located pitches, one away, one in. Moyer had a chance to get out of the inning with just two runs in. With Blake DeWitt at the plate, the bases loaded and two outs, catcher Carlos Ruiz called for Moyer to go away from the lefthanded-hitting DeWitt. Moyer missed over the inner half, and DeWitt yanked a bases-clearing triple to right.
Moyer opened the bottom of the second by trying to get a strike-one fastball by Rafael Furcal. He left it up and over the plate.
Home run - 6-1, Dodgers.
We know this is laid-back SoCal, but Dodger Stadium still gets pretty loud.
Myers came in tight on Russell Martin, then threw behind Ramirez in the first inning of that game. Dodgers players said they would not be pushed around in Game 3, and they backed up their words with six runs in the first two innings.
In the bottom of the second, Phillies reliever Clay Condrey gave Martin a little music under the chin.
That was enough for Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda. Armed with a 6-1 lead in the top of the third, he threw a fastball over Shane Victorino's head.
Victorino seemed to accept the fact that he was going to have to take the hit for Myers and Condrey. But he didn't like having the ball thrown at his head. He pointed to his ribs, as if to say: "I'll pay the price, but hit me here."
There was some brief jawing, and Victorino grounded out to first. After he crossed the base, he said something to Kuroda and the benches cleared. Ramirez had to be retrained. Before order was restored, Dodgers third-base coach Larry Bowa could be seen shouting at Myers.
The righthander kept on throwing that slider, with a few fastballs, as the Phils went down easily on 14 pitches in the fifth.
Even though Kuroda had thrown only 84 pitches, the Phils were getting to him, and manager Joe Torre knew it. Torre wasted no time going to his top setup man, righthander Cory Wade, who ranked seventh among NL relievers with a 2.27 ERA this season.
With runners on the corners, Wade retired Jayson Werth, Pedro Feliz, and pinch-hitter Greg Dobbs.
Wade's strikeout of Werth was pivotal. It was the first out of the inning. A hit could have given the Phils some life. Wade got Werth to check his swing on a hard slider. Werth didn't like the call, but the Dodgers surely did. Wade pitched a scoreless eighth before Jonathan Broxton closed it out. The Dodgers have a nice thing going with that tandem.
at 215-854-4983 or jsalisbury@phillynews.com.
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