It was worse.

The Phillies have done a pretty decent job of compartmentalizing their baseball lives this season, not dwelling on the past, not looking beyond the task immediately at hand. It's an approach all teams strive for and it has served them well.

Looked at it through that prism, what happened to Moyer in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series at Dodger Stadium - six runs allowed on six hits in just 1 1/3 innings - was containable. Messy, ugly, but containable.

Except that the one-game-at-a-time mantra is really nothing more than a mind game, a kind of self-hypnosis. The truth is that what happens in one game often has a ripple effect that impacts the next game or even the next several games.

The Phillies will take comfort in the fact that, despite last night's 7-2 pratfall, they still lead the best-of-seven series, 2-1.

The Phils' veteran lefty faced 11 hitters and retired only four of them. Hey, it happens. Even the best pitchers lay an egg every now and then.

This had a different feel than that, though, an indefinable something that has begun to cast a lengthening shadow over whatever remains of the Phillies' postseason magic carpet ride.

Part of it, honestly, is that Moyer is 45 years old. That may be unfair, since he's in remarkable shape. But he has pitched more than

200 innings this year and you have to wonder if the needle isn't almost on "E.''

"I don't think so," he said. "Not at all. I felt strong. I had a good bullpen. It's all about making pitches."

Part of it is that this is the second straight start that he's run into problems. In Game 3 of the division series at Milwaukee, with the Phillies having a chance to clinch, he lasted only four innings.

Asked what adjustments he thinks he needs to make, he just shook his head. "At this point, I really haven't thought about it," he said. "I have a few days and then we'll see where it goes from there."

Moyer's mission last night was simple. To convince the Dodgers that there was no way they were going to come back and win this series. These teams had met 10 times previously this season. The home team had won every time. A Phillies victory would have made their opponent realize that not even Dodger Stadium is a safe house for them.

Now Los Angeles can dream about taking the next two at home and then trying to steal a victory at Citizens Bank Park to advance to the World Series for the first time since 1988.

The twist is that if this series does go the distance and a decisive Game 7 is needed Saturday, the way the rotation sets up means the Phillies' pitcher would be . . . Moyer.

That's because Dodgers manager Joe Torre took advantage of the extra off day built into the LCS to slot Derek Lowe in to start on 3 days' rest tonight. He'd be fully rested for Game 7 if needed.

Because Charlie Manuel chose to go with Joe Blanton tonight, he will get only two starts out of ace Cole Hamels. He could choose to bring back Blanton for Game 7 - and that's an option that will have to be seriously pondered, if it comes to that - but that would be somewhat out of character for a manager who tends to stick with players who have produced for him. And Moyer was amazingly consistent all season.

"I don't know about that," Manuel said. "We'll just have to wait. He had a tough time. They came out swinging on him. They hit some balls hard and it also seemed like everything they hit went through.

"It just wasn't his night."

It may all be moot, of course. The Phillies could finish Los Angeles off before it ever gets to that point, and have the rotation set up for Hamels and Myers to pitch the first two games at Boston or Tampa Bay.

What then, though? A Phillies rotation that has been a strength to this point would suddenly have a fairly significant question mark right in the middle of it.

The first three batters Moyer faced singled and then he hit Russell Martin with a pitch. With one out, Casey Blake singled. Moyer was one out away from escaping the inning allowing just two runs, but second baseman Blake DeWitt cleared the bases with a triple and the Phillies never got back in the game.

"Probably the killer was the pitch to

DeWitt," Moyer said. "It was too good a pitch in that situation. I was trying to throw something away and got it pretty much down the middle."

Instead of the Phillies being on the brink of clinching the pennant, the Dodgers served notice that they won't go quietly.

It was only one loss. But it had implications that could last long after the lights blinked off over Dodger Stadium last night. *

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