Chase Utley belted a two-run home run as the Philadelphia Phillies rallied to beat the Los Angeles Dodgers 3-2 and win the opening game of their Major League Baseball semi-final series on Thursday.
Pat Burrell also added a solo home run in the sixth inning for the Phillies who won their first semi-final game in five years. Cole Hamels (1-0) pitched seven strong innings for Philadelphia.
“It was definitely intense out there,” Utley told reporters. “It gave us that little extra adrenalin.”
PHOTO: AP
“It feels great, but you can’t get too caught up in this,” Burrell said. “We’ve got a lot of work to do. It’s just one game. We’ll take it, don’t get me wrong, but this is a seven-game series.”
The Phillies won the National League Division Series 3-1 over the Milwaukee Brewers while scoring in just six different innings over the four contests.
Trailing 2-0 entering the sixth, Shane Victorino led off the frame with a grounder to shortstop.
Rafael Furcal fielded the ball but rushed the throw, allowing Victorino to advance to second on the error.
TIE
Utley followed and cracked the first pitch from Derek Lowe (0-1) into the right-center field bleachers to forge a tie.
“At that point, I was trying to get [Victorino] over to third base, no matter what,” Utley said.
“The pitch I hit was probably middle of the zone in terms of height, but for Derek Lowe, sinker guy, it was up a little bit,” he said.
After Ryan Howard grounded to third, Burrell worked the count in his favor and deposited a 3-1 fastball into the stands in left to put Philadelphia on top.
“[Lowe] keeps the ball down. He’s got a great sinker,” Burrell said. “We were able to wait him out long enough to be able to get something to hit.”
Philadelphia led the NL with 214 homers in the regular season and belted five in the NLDS.
RBI DOUBLE
Hamels allowed an RBI double by Manny Ramirez in the first and a sacrifice fly by Blake DeWitt in the fourth.
The 24-year-old lefthander was charged with six hits while walking two and striking out eight.
Lowe cruised through the first five innings, using his trademark sinker to record 12 groundouts against two flyouts before leaving fastballs up to Utley and Burrell.
He was charged with two earned runs and six hits while walking one and striking out two.
Ryan Madson tossed a scoreless eighth and Brad Lidge set down the side in order in the ninth to earn the save.
“I always feel like we’re gonna come back and win,” Lidge said. “We’ve done it so many times this year.”
Lidge also felt the crowd was a big factor in the Phillies win.
“The fans here get you going, you can feel the electricity,” Lidge said. “It felt really good out there.”
“I have no fear of what’s going to happen ... I just go out there and try to get guys out and having [the fans] behind me really helps,” he said.
“We did a lot of things right,” Dodgers manager Joe Torre said. “Unfortunately we came out on the short end.”
The series is a match-up between two franchises both looking to end long droughts. The Phillies last won the World Series in 1980, while the Dodgers’ last triumph came in 1988.
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