Text size:

Feisty Dodgers win Game 3 of NLCS

BY DAVID LENNON | david.lennon@newsday.com

11:51 PM EDT, October 12, 2008

Los Angeles - Think (Black and) Blue.

Their egos bruised and World Series hopes battered, the Dodgers added a new twist to the team slogan that sits on a hillside here at Chavez Ravine. For the first time in this NLCS, it was laid-back L.A. that went into .Terminator mode, bullying the Phillies, 7-2, in Game 3.

After stewing for two days about Brett Myers using them for target practice Friday, the Dodgers blitzed 45-year-old Jamie Moyer for five runs in the first inning, a rally highlighted by Blake DeWitt's three-run triple.

Rafael Furcal homered in the second inning and then Manny Ramirez spearheaded L.A.'s blue wave during a benches-clearing melee in the third. Ramirez was so enraged that he had to be restrained by both Russell Martin and manager Joe Torre.

This time the Dodgers didn't turn the other cheek. After Martin was hit by Moyer and later buzzed by Clay Condrey, it was Hiroki Kuroda who dispensed the frontier justice by gunning a fastball over and behind Shane Victorino's head in the third.

Victorino took exception to the head-hunting -- he even pointed to his ribs as a better .alternative for Kuroda -- and screamed at the pitcher after grounding out to first to end the inning. With the two players jawing, the dugouts emptied, but no punches were thrown.

"The one thing you don't want to do is feel like you're getting pushed around," Derek Lowe said before the game, "with the other team thinking they can do whatever they want and you're not really going to stand up for yourself."

The Phillies got the message. In the first inning, the relentless Dodgers had three hits on Moyer's first five pitches, the last an RBI single by Ramirez. Casey Blake added an RBI single and DeWitt tripled. Moyer threw 30 pitches in the first, but it wasn't until Furcal homered to open the second that the bullpen stirred.

Pat Burrell's RBI single cut the deficit to 7-2 in the seventh, but the Phillies stranded two runners when Corey Wade retired the next three hitters in order. Chad Durbin nailed Martin for the second time -- on the shoulder -- in the seventh, but it was a hanging curveball, and he trotted to first without incident.

The Dodgers were in a fighting mood before anyone threw a pitch last night. Already down 0-2 in the series, the L.A. players still were fuming about the pitch Myers threw behind Ramirez in Game 2.

Ramirez shrugged it off that day and later blasted a three-run homer off Myers. But Lowe suggested before Game 3 that it was time for the Dodgers to draw the line after a few of those brushback incidents in Philadelphia.

Lowe described the Manny episode, when the fastball sailed to the backstop, as evoking the "Nuke LaLoosh style" from the movie "Bull Durham." But this was a real-life, dead-serious call for payback.

"In hindsight, I think everybody, especially probably on our team, wished it would have been handled differently," Lowe said. "You don't want to sit up here and say you're going to hit people. But I think there was definitely a situation where you could have maybe done the same thing back. And it's been talked about a lot over the last two days."

The Phillies kept up those intimidation tactics yesterday. In the first inning, Moyer nailed Martin on the left knee with a 74-mph changeup, which probably didn't hurt much. But that further annoyed the Dodgers, and after Moyer was knocked out with the Phillies in a 6-1 hole, Condrey went right at Martin again in the second inning by buzzing him under the chin.

It had the desired effect, as Martin bounced into a double play. Little did the Phillies know that the fuse had been lit for the benches-clearing incident that would follow in the third. That's when Kuroda rifled a fastball at Victorino, angering the centerfielder.

Victorino frantically began pointing at his head, then to his ribs, gesturing that the purpose pitch should have been directed at his torso instead. As Victorino pleaded his case to Martin, plate umpire Mike Everitt walked out to give a warning to Kuroda. But that did not do much to cool off either club.

When Victorino grounded out to first base, he had words for Kuroda, who had hustled over in an effort to cover on the play. The two began yelling at each other, and moments later, the Phillies began streaming from the dugout. Once that happened, both benches emptied, as did the bullpens, and a furious Ramirez led the charge.