Phil Sheridan: Phillies won't let bad inning linger

LOS ANGELES - If what we've learned about these Phillies the last two Octobers remains true, they will leave the mess they made in the eighth inning right here in Dodger Stadium. They did not carry it home on the charter flight, and it will be all but forgotten by the time they take the field for Game 3 tomorrow night.

It may be a different story for fans who have 48 hours to replay the train wreck in their minds, and who may recall another shocking inning, played on another (Black) Friday against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The Phillies blew a game that would have given them a commanding two-games-to-none lead with three to play in Philadelphia. They squandered a truly masterful pitching performance by Pedro Martinez. And they did it in slow motion, with a series of mistakes and just plain bad breaks that could haunt a team that believed in ghosts.

"You have to give a team opportunities in order for them to capitalize on them," shortstop Jimmy Rollins said. "Unfortunately, we gave them that. They were able to put together two runs with a walk and a ball that was thrown away. We're very confident, regardless of what happened today. It's not like we got out there and they just pummeled us. It was a game that got away from us. I like the way we're playing."

The fatal bottom of the eighth inning really began in the top, when manager Charlie Manuel decided to hit for Martinez. It was not a bad decision. Manuel could have tried to go one more inning with Pedro, but he'd gotten just what he'd said he hoped to get in Martinez's first real start in a month.

Manuel went to Chan Ho Park, who looked terrific the night before. Park looked just fine yesterday afternoon, too.

Stuff happened.

Leadoff man Casey Blake hit a sharp grounder that would normally be a routine play for third baseman Pedro Feliz. But the Phillies had Feliz guarding the line against a double.

"We shade the lines, tie ball game or one run up, in the late innings," coach Sam Perlozzo said. "We're guarding against this guy hitting a double down the line. If he hits a single, they have to bunt him over and they need a hit."

Blake's grounder ticked off Feliz's glove and rolled into left field. Ronnie Belliard pushed a bunt that got by the charging Park and rolled, as first baseman Ryan Howard put it, "into no-man's-land." Both runners were safe. Dodgers catcher Russell Martin came up looking to bunt, too.

This falls under the category of a bad break. Martin fouled off two bunt attempts. With two strikes, he hit away and stroked another grounder at Feliz. It was a clear double-play opportunity.

Feliz threw to Chase Utley and Utley, for the second time in about 21 hours, threw the relay over Howard's head. Juan Pierre, pinch-running for Blake, scored to tie the game, 1-1.

"Chase makes that play all the time," Perlozzo said.

"Chan Ho made a good pitch to get a ground ball, which we wanted in that situation," Utley said. "I just wasn't able to turn the double play."

There will be understandable speculation about whether Utley is suddenly beset by the kind of throwing anxiety that tormented former major-league second baseman Chuck Knoblauch. But his situation is the Phillies' situation in microcosm. What happened here is only a problem if it follows him back to Philadelphia.

His Game 1 throw was partly a result of the ball getting stuck in Rollins' glove, disrupting the timing of the play. The Game 2 throw was just a mistake.

"He lost his grip on the ball," Howard said. "That's baseball. It's really simple. Real-ly sim-ple."

The rest of the inning unfolded like a slow-motion sequence in a horror film. Manuel brought in Scott Eyre to face Jim Thome. Single. Ryan Madson came in to pitch to Rafael Furcal and walked him to load the bases. After Matt Kemp struck out, J.A. Happ came in to pitch to Andre Ethier, who has been dreadful against lefthanders. Happ walked him to force in the losing run.

Thome had the only clean hit in the whole horrific inning.

Last year, before they won the whole thing, you'd have worried that such a painful, shocking loss would have sent these Phillies into a death spiral. But not now. They are still in good shape in this series. Just as important, they know that.

"It's 1-1," Rollins said. "We've been here before. In the grand scheme of things, we accomplished what we needed to, to make sure we got a split on the road."

What happened in Chavez Ravine will stay in Chavez Ravine. The Dodgers' momentum will last only until they get a look at Cliff Lee's first pitch in Game 3.