Phillies win again

PHILADELPHIA - Twenty-eight-year-old Brett Myers only participated in five innings of today's 8-5 win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, but while he will not receive style points for his pitching, he set the tone from an emotional and offensive standpoint and allowed the Phillies to leave Citizens Bank Park with a 2-0 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship series.

Myers spent most of the first four innings taking control of his own destiny and it took a lot out of him because he was only able to get through five, allowing five runs, six hits, four walks and six strikeouts and throwing 102 pitches. But his hitting was another story - three hits, three-at-bats and three RBIs - which fit in well with a fine performance by Shane Victorino, who knocked in four runs and made a spectacular catch in center to preserve the three-run lead in the seventh.

Myers's tone-setting came in the first inning when he threw a pitch behind No. 3 hitter 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 righthander was trying to fire himself or his team up, he succeeded.

As angry as the Dodgers seemed, 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 as he rounded the bases and stopped short of home plate and pointed upward again before touching the plate. Once he got back into the dugout he yelled out to Myers, who ignored him.

Myers, who hit .069 (4-for-58 with one RBI) in the regular season, stroked a two-out RBI single in a four-run second inning that started with two outs and also included big RBI hits by Carlos Ruiz and a two-run single by Shane Victorino, who later made an excellent catch against the center-field wall in the seventh when the Dodgers had men on to rob Casey Blake of extra bases and preserve a three-run lead.

Myers then hit a bases-loaded single to right field in a four-run third inning knocking in a pair of runs, while Victorino also knocked in two with a triple, to open up an 8-2 lead that slimmed down to 8-5 after the Ramirez homer.

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

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 with a 4.55 ERA this season and things got so bad he was optioned to Lehigh Valley on July 1 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. He had a 17-inning scoreless string from August 20-30 and also had 52 strikeouts over a 45-1/3 inning span from August 14-September 10.

The home run has certainly been Myers's enemy, allowing 24 of them in his first 17 starts, though he reduced that significantly to five over his final 13.

The Phillies' bullpen continued to fare well, however with Chad Durbin, J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson and finally Brad Lidge, who recorded his second save in as many nights after putting two runners on base, shut down the Dodgers as the crowd noise here reached unbearable decibels.