IT WAS GONE. All of it. The noise, the energy, the excitement. A game that had been hyped all week - over the airwaves, on television, in the newspaper - as the first League Championship series contest on Philadelphia soil in 15 years had devolved into a glorified game of infield practice. Dodgers pitcher Derek Lowe pitched, Phillies hitters swung, and Dodgers first baseman James Loney padded his put-out stats.
But in the span of about 5 minutes - time enough for Lowe to deliver two pivotal thigh-high sinkers to two hitters who'd been waiting all night for them - everything changed.
After Chase Utley tied the game with a two-run home run, Pat Burrell hit a solo shot with one out in the bottom of the sixth. The building exploded. The big bell in right-centerfield swung into action. And the Phillies clamped down for a 3-2 win in Game 1 of the NLCS.
"Now," manager Charlie Manuel said, "we have to concentrate on winning [today]. That's what we do."
For all the statistics and breakdowns and matchups that are as much a part of the sport as the base and the ball, winning in the postseason is as much about seizing what precious few opportunities the other team presents. Particularly in a game like last night's, which featured a showdown between a pair of aces who have spent the last month dominating the National League.
The Dodgers got their opportunity early, when Phillies' starter Cole Hamels struggled out of the gate, allowing a double to Andre Ethier and then a long line drive to Manny Ramirez that bounced off the only section of Citizens Bank Park that could have possibly kept it in play.
"I guess that's the furthest ball anybody can hit for it not to be out of the yard," Hamels said of Ramirez' RBI double, which bounced off the 19-foot wall above the 409 sign in centerfield.
Like he has done for most of the season, Hamels limited the damage. He stranded runners on second and third to hold the Dodgers to a 1-0 lead, ending the inning by getting Matt Kemp to fly out to rightfield. He also stranded two men in the third inning before allowing his only other run on a sacrifice fly by Blake DeWitt in the fourth.
While Hamels never seemed to recapture the dominance he displayed in Game 1 of the NLDS, when he allowed two hits in eight scoreless innings against the Brewers, he kept the Phillies' potent lineup within striking distance.
For a while, it wasn't clear whether they would get the opportunity to strike.
When Shane Victorino stepped into the batter's box in the sixth, he was staring down a pitcher who had stymied the Phillies for five straight innings. Lowe entered the game riding a dominant string, including Game 1 of the NLDS when he held the Cubs to two runs in six innings.
Lowe, a veteran of 19 playoff games, has a particularly effective sinker. But the Phillies were hopeful they could coax him into a few pitches up off the plate, and take advantage of those opportunities.
For the first five innings, they got next to nothing. They hit just two balls out of the infield - singles by Utley and Burrell - and recorded just one out in the air.
But then the Phillies caught their first break, a hard grounder that Victorino sent to Dodgers shortstop Rafael Furcal, who, perhaps seeing the speedy centerfielder charging down the line, unleashed a throw that sailed high. Loney managed to get the web of his glove on it, but couldn't keep it there. Victorino made it to second, and the long-dormant crowd rose to its feet.
And the fans stayed there for a while.
The first pitch Utley saw was a sinker at his thighs that hung in the middle of the plate. He torqued his body, put his bat in motion, and sent the pitch sailing into the rightfield seats for a two-run home run that tied the game.
"Everything was down in the zone, borderline kind of balls, and he makes it tough on opposing hitters," said Utley, who finished 2-for-4 after getting just two hits in the NLDS. "The pitch I hit was probably middle of the zone in terms of height. But that's not really up. But for Derek Lowe, a sinker guy, it was up a little bit."
Two batters later, Burrell followed suit, clubbing a 2-0 sinker into the leftfield seats for the decisive run.
Burrell's blast was all Hamels and the Phillies bullpen would need. Hamels (1-0) finished the seventh, leaving the game after surrendering two runs on six hits with eight strikeouts and one walk.
Ryan Madson retired three of the four batters he faced in the eighth, including Ramirez on a first-pitch line-out to Pedro Feliz at third.
Brad Lidge then pitched a perfect ninth, striking out DeWitt to end the game and sending a towel-waving crowd of 45,839 into a frenzy.
"It gave us that little extra adrenalin," Utley said of the crowd. "But again, you've got to treat this like any other game."
The Phillies, who beat Atlanta 4-2 in the first game of the 1993 NLCS and have won their last five playoff series in which they won Game 1, need three more of them to advance. *
For more Phillies coverage and opinion, read David Murphy's blog, High Cheese, at http://go.philly.com/highcheese.
Photos: 2009 Phillies 
