Phillies Take Game One of NLCS

The Phillies were able to take game one of the best of seven with the Dodgers last night in a pitching duel/offensive outburst. In a game that was pegged as a great pitching matchup between Clayton Kershaw of the Dodgers and Cole Hamels of the Phillies, it lived up to its billing until the fifth inning. It was then that both teams had offensive outbursts. After James Loney hit a solo shot in the bottom of the second, there were four straight zeros put on the board.

Then the Phillies offense woke up in the top of the fifth when Carlos Ruiz belted a three run homerun to leftfield to make it 3-1 Phils. They didn’t stop there either. Ryan Howard came up with two outs and Rollins and Utley on the basepaths. Howard crushed the ball into the rightfield corner to score both Rollins and Utley, making it a 5-1 ballgame and lifting Kershaw from the game. The Dodgers came right back in the bottom of the fifth with a three spot to make it 5-4.

Hamels stayed in the game though, and he ended up picking up the win. Raul Ibanez came through with a three run homerun to make it 8-4 Phils in the top of te eighth, but Ryan Madson sure did make things hairy in the bottom of the eighth, giving up two runs before getting out of the inning. Finally, Lidge came on in the ninth to pick up his 3rd postseason save as the Phils hung on for an 8-6 victory. With that save, Lidge moved into second place all-time in postseason saves with 16. In other news, Chan Ho Park looked good in his fist postseason appearence, working a scoreless 7th. Game two will pit Pedro Martinez against Vincente Padilla today at 4:30.

Article originally appeared on BaseballDigest.com.

Phillies Take Game One of NLCS

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