"You like being a villain?" he was asked after his blast ignited a four-run inning that pushed the Phillies to a 7-5 Game 4 victory over the Dodgers.
"Why wouldn't I?" he said. "It means you're doing well . . . I just try to go out there and be myself. Have fun. That's what it's all about."
Matt Stairs followed Victorino's two-run blast with a two-run bomb off Dodgers reliever Jonathan Broxton. But Victorino pulled it out of the Dodgers' back pocket like a deft thief. Or a vengeful one. He was in the middle of that bench-emptying craziness Sunday night, jawing at Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda after he sailed a pitch over Victorino's head.
The clip has been played countless times. Victorino pointed to his head, then to his ribs, back to his head again. The message, in sign language that the foreign-born pitcher clearly understood, was that pitching inside was OK by the Phillies centerfielder. He was even OK with getting one in the ribs.
But the head? Well, even Joe Torre admitted yesterday that it was a no-no.
"The head is not a place you throw at," the Dodgers' manager said. "It's not something that I think any of us try to preach to anybody."
"It freezes you sometimes," agreed Charlie Manuel. "You don't know where to move."
Anyway, "The Cryin' Hawaiian" T-shirts sprang overnight, much to his glee. You get the sense that Victorino loves any attention, loves even to be booed by fans of the team that rejected him not once, but twice. In 2005, the Phillies claimed him through the Rule 5 draft. When they couldn't place him on their 25-man roster, he had to be returned to his original team, the Dodgers.
He said, "Not really," when asked about that last night, insisting that his motivation came from dreams that far preceded that.
