In a Pinch, Phillies Take Charge
By Bob Nightengale
LOS ANGELES — Center fielder Shane Victorino, who spent six years in anonymity in the Los Angeles Dodgers farm system, made sure Monday that his former franchise will never forget him.
Victorino and fellow castoff Matt Stairs hit dramatic eighth-inning home runs that carried the Philadelphia Phillies to a 7-5 win against the Dodgers and within a game of their first World Series appearance in 15 years. The Phillies lead the National League Championship Series 3-1. Game 5 is Wednesday at Dodger Stadium.
“Everybody knows the Flyin’ Hawaiian now,” Phillies reliever Scott Eyre said. “We talked about it in the bullpen, saying he would be the perfect guy to do something after what happened.”
Victorino, fined $2,500 by Major League Baseball for exchanging heated words Sunday with Dodgers starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda, was booed in each at-bat. He said he barely even noticed.
“It was no big deal to get booed,” Phillies reliever J.C. Romero says. “Hey, we all get booed at home, too.”
Victorino, whose grandmother died Sunday in Hawaii, stepped to the plate with one out in the eighth. He sat back on Cory Wade’s first-pitch curveball and sent it into the Phillies bullpen, tying the score with his 10th and 11th RBI of the postseason. Carlos Ruiz singled one out later, chasing Wade for closer Jonathan Broxton.
Stairs, a 40-year-old pinch-hitter playing for his 11th major league team, had no idea that Broxton had not surrendered a home run at Dodger Stadium this season. He ended that streak by slamming a 3-1 fastball deep into the right-field seats, silencing the crowd of 56,800.
“My whole career, my approach has been the same: swing for the fences,” Stairs said. “I’m not going to hit a single and steal second.”
The victory, sealed with Brad Lidge’s 46th consecutive save, might have doomed the Dodgers. Slugger Manny Ramirez was reminded that his Boston Red Sox rallied from a 3-1 American League Championship Series deficit in 2007, but he provided little optimism.
“That was Boston,” Ramirez said. “That was a great team. This is different.” (c) Copyright 2008 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.