"I always felt Game 3 was a pivotal game," Dodgers manager Joe Torre was saying before his team was clobbered, 11-0, by Cliff Lee and the Phillies. "It's a game that sort of gets the momentum on your side . . .
"It just gives you a little jump start, especially for us coming on the road here."
Little of this postseason has mimicked the last postseason for the Phillies. The bullpen is a dice roll, the starting rotation changes by the hours. Joe Blanton, who took a regular turn in the 2008 postseason, will make his first start in Game 4 tonight. Asked who his Game 5 starter would be, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said, "Probably Hamels."
"Anything you might do to change that up?" he was asked.
"Don't know," he said. "Like I said, we're thinking about today."
Not much to think about. Because in a postseason of constructive chaos, of deciding upon starting pitchers based on the cold in Colorado, the heat in Los Angeles, or the familiarity of your home park, Cliff Lee is your constant. Good weather, bad weather, first game, fourth game, third game or potential seventh game, he has been every bit the unconscious ace that Cole Hamels was a year ago.
Maybe even more. Lee allowed one earned run in his first start against Colorado, and one earned in the 5-4 Game 4 clincher out there. Dominant as Hamels was last postseason, there was no start of his as ridiculously suffocating as Lee's eight-inning, 10-strikeout effort last night. Typical of his best performances here and in Cleveland, the 31-year-old lefthander worked quickly, pitched ahead against most batters and improved in both command and velocity as the game went on.
One game after Pedro Martinez slowed down the clock with seven shutout innings, Lee sped up bats with his usual array of offspeed stuff, and his typical - at least in this postseason - black-of-the-plate control.
