Manny's Revenge

PHILADELPHIA - Phillies right-hander Brett Myers has spent most of the first four innings of Game 2 of the National League championship series, taking control of his own destiny.

He set the tone in the first inning when he threw a pitch behind Manny Ramirez which drew the ire of the Dodgers' bench with manager Joe Torre and hitting coach Don Mattingly shouting out to Myers. If the right-hander was trying to fire himself up, he did OK on that front.

As angry as the Dodgers seemed to be, they couldn't do much about it. In fact, Myers just kept rubbing it in, breaking off nasty curveballs for strikeouts and then when he had a bat in his hand, watch out.

Ramirez got his own personal revenge when he belted a three-run homer in the fourth on a pitch that jammed him, but he still managed to get the sweet part of the bat and drive it. Ramirez was pointing to the Heavens and once he got back into the dugout starting yelling out to the field at Myers, who ignored him.

Myers had stroked a two-out RBI single in a four-run second inning and then hit a bases-loaded single to right field in a four-run third inning knocking in three runs in his first two at-bats en route to an 8-2 lead over the Dodgers that slimmed down to 8-5 after the Ramirez homer.

In the bottom of the fourth in his third at-bat, Myers reached on an infield hit toward third base which advanced Carlos Ruiz to second base.

Myers hit .069 during the season, going 4-for-58 with one RBI.

The Phillies have taken full advantage of their home field so far, taking Game 1 3-2, and leading Game 2 with the series shifting to Los Angeles for three games starting tomorrow.

The 28-year-old Myers has been widely seen as the key to the Phillies' fortunes. He's had a series of spikes in performance after earning the right to be the Opening Day starter after being the Phillies' closer in 2007 with 21 saves.

Yet he went 10-13 witha 4.55 ERA this season and things got so bad he was optioned to Lehigh Valley on July 1st and spent 19 days and three starts trying to figure things out. After being recalled on July 20, Myers went 7-2 with a 1.80 ERA in his last 13 starts and held opponents to a .216 average.