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dd88
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Post subject: Dodgers 0, Phillies 11 - NLCS Game 3
 Posted: Oct 19, 2009 - 12:08 AM PST
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The Dodgers picked their Game 3 starter out of an instructional league game, and let that be a lesson.
Hiroki Kuroda in five innings Tuesday convinced manager Joe Torre and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt that the herniated disk in his neck was healed, but he wasn't facing any Ryan Howards or Jayson Werths in Arizona.
complete postseason coverage PostSeason.tv
But they showed up on a chilly Philly night and so did starter Cliff Lee, a combination that overwhelmed the Dodgers in an 11-0 rout as the Phils took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven National League Championship Series.
It was the Dodgers' worst postseason loss since an 11-0 setback to the Chicago White Sox in the 1959 World Series.
Dealing with game-time temperatures of 46 degrees, Kuroda wasn't out there long enough to catch a cold. He was charged with six runs in 1 1/3 innings for an ERA of 40.50, unable to duplicate his victory over the Phillies in last year's NLCS when he stepped up after the Dodgers lost the first two games.
Howard tripled in a pair and Werth followed with a two-run homer that rocketed through the wind in a four-run first inning off Kuroda, who had been left off the Division Series postseason roster and was making his first Major League start since getting hammered in Pittsburgh almost three weeks ago.
Chad Billingsley, bumped from the rotation by Kuroda's return, ate up 3 1/3 innings in long relief, but also was charged with two runs. Billingsley mopped up a year after starting (and losing) two games against the Phillies in the NLCS.
Shane Victorino, a former Dodgers farmhand, delivered the final blow, a three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth off Ronald Belisario.
Meanwhile, the Dodgers were very familiar with the winning pitcher. It was the left-hander the Phillies outbid them for at the Trade Deadline. Lee allowed only three singles (two by Manny Ramirez) in eight scoreless innings and didn't let a Dodger reach second base until the seventh inning. The Dodgers had only five singles in winning Game 2 and in the past two games have scored on an error and a walk.
Maybe Kuroda was rusty or still sore or just overwhelmed by the Philadelphia lineup, but he was in trouble from the second batter, Victorino. He singled, stole second and was stopped at third on Chase Utley's single to right. Kuroda was unable to get a fastball far enough inside to Howard, who tripled into the right-field corner for two runs.
Former Dodger Werth was next and caught a 2-1 fastball thigh-high down the middle, launching it off the ivy-covered wall in center field, 427 feet away. Kuroda finished off the first inning with no more damage, but Dodgers killer Carlos Ruiz doubled to open the second and when Jimmy Rollins doubled him home, Kuroda was done.
That made for the shortest Dodgers NLCS start since 1983, coincidentally also a pitcher contending with an injury. Bob Welch left that Game 3 with numbness in his leg, the result of a vitamin injection the previous day that struck a nerve. The last Dodgers starter who was unable to finish two innings in the postseason was John Tudor in the 1988 World Series.
Scott Elbert relieved Kuroda and walked Victorino and Utley to load the bases for Howard, who tapped out for his third RBI. In the Phillies' fifth, Pedro Feliz tripled in a run and was singled home by Ruiz. |
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