And tonight, he gave L.A. fans someone to boo as he hit a two-run homer in the eighth inning of a 7-5 triumph in Game 4. The Phils lead the best-of-seven series, three games to one.
Victorino arrived in L.A. only as a vaguely recalled Dodgers prospect whom the Phillies had stolen away in the Rule 5 draft. He didn't draw any real attention from the fans here until a baseball sailed over his head in Game 3 Sunday night.
From the moment he gestured angrily at pitcher Hiroki Kuroda - Throw at my body, not at my head, you dummy was the gist of his message - Victorino became a lightning rod again. And when his confrontation with Kuroda near first base led to both dugouts and bullpens emptying, the deal was done. Victorino was booed louder and longer than even the Phillies' biggest stars whenever his name was announced.
Early today, Victorino learned he was among seven players and coaches fined by commissioner Bud Selig for his part in the near-brawl.
That made Victorino's eighth-inning, two-run shot into the Phillies bullpen all the more delicious. Once again, the 5-foot-9, 180-pound Hawaiian did what his bigger, stronger, better-known teammates have struggled to do. In a clutch situation, in a game that was getting away from the Phillies, he crushed a low, inside breaking ball over the fence to tie the game.
When Matt Stairs delivered the second two-run shot of the inning, the Phillies had a 7-5 lead.
The distance between a tied series and a three-games-to-one lead is about the same as the distance between home plate and the right-field bleachers where Stairs' titanic shot landed.
A few innings earlier, Victorino had been in the middle of a tense managerial duel between Charlie Manuel and Joe Torre. He came to the plate with runners on first and second and nobody out.
