PHILADELPHIA -- What, the lines of communication between the Los Angeles dugout and bullpen suddenly were on the fritz?
The telephone lines were cut? Nobody could come up with hand signals? Smoke signals?
Tommy Lasorda couldn't shout from his front-row seat behind the third-base dugout out to the bullpen beyond the right-center field fence?
The Dodgers got waxed 8-5 here Friday to fall into a 2-0 hole to Philadelphia in this National League Championship Series.
Losing wasn't the shame of it, because the more you see of this Philadelphia club, the more you see a team that may just be capable of -- hold your breath, cheesesteak lovers -- winning only the second World Series title in more than a century of Phillies baseball.
No, the shame of it was that when the Dodgers should have been putting starter Chad Billingsley on notice and heating their bullpen, manager Joe Torre and pitching coach Rick Honeycutt were otherwise occupied. Maybe they, like most everyone else, were glued to the meltdown on Wall Street. Whatever.
But this much we know: As this series heads west for Game 3 on Sunday, the Dodgers stock has plunged to pre-Manny Ramirez depths.
"I think the first inning was fine," Torre said of Billingsley. "I mean, he went through that part of the lineup and got away without getting hurt. And then the second inning he gets the first two hitters out, the five and six guys, and then all of a sudden strange things happened."
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| Hey, maybe Joe Torre should have come out to get Chad Billingsley sooner, hmm? (Getty Images) |
"Mostly pitch selection," a dazed Billingsley mumbled afterward. "I should probably have thrown something different in different situations."
OK, well, um, doesn't catcher Russell Martin call the pitches?
And if you don't agree with what he's calling, can you not shake him off and throw what you want to throw?
This was not a good loss, and not just because it put the Dodgers down two games.
No, while the Dodgers were showing a lack of reflexes, Billingsley was exhibiting a lack of character. Pitch selection. Yeah, just go ahead and pass the responsibility on to Martin.
"When you're not throwing the ball like you want to, it's easy to second-guess yourself," Martin, the mature, well-adjusted, third-year catcher said without appearing to take offense at Billingsley's suggestion. "It's easy to do that after a game. We're going to have to make adjustments."
One of those Game 2 adjustments could have been to put the young right-hander on ice before the game went out of control. Saturday's off day would have given any spent relievers plenty of opportunity to rest.
Granted, there were a couple of unexpected, opposite-field base hits mixed in and, in the beginning, it wasn't as if the Phils were pinning Billingsley's ears back.
But what, exactly, was it going to take to get the Dodgers bullpen stirring on a lovely, 74-degree Philadelphia October afternoon?
A bomb threat?
With the Dodgers leading 1-0 and two out in the second, the Phillies banged out five consecutive hits and then Billingsley walked Chase Utley.
Through it all -- four runs scored -- the Dodgers bullpen sat motionless.
"No, he's done too much for us," Torre said of his 24-year-old right-hander who went 16-10 during the season and won a huge playoff game against the Cubs last round. "And, I mean, he's got the catcher (Carlos Ruiz) and he pitched to the pitcher (Brett Myers).
"We had a situation where we have the pitcher, I think he had four hits all year and he gets three in this game. So that's tough to sort of count on and defend against."
OK. But Pat Burrell started the third inning with a single. Still no activity in the Dodgers pen. Jayson Werth followed with a double. Seven of the past eight Phillies had reached base.
And finally, with Honeycutt trotting to the mound, Chan Ho Park began warming.
It was another six batters before Torre came to the mound to summon Park. Nine of 10 Philadelphia batters reached base against Billingsley during the run as the score went from 4-1 to 8-2.
Granted, there were some quirky, unpredictable moments. Myers is a career .116 hitter who was 4-for-58 this season. His three singles nearly gave him as many hits in Game 2 alone as he had all season. His three RBI were more than he has ever had in any one season.
"We gave up too much early, basically," Torre said. "But to me, Billingsley has meant too much to this club to take him out in a situation where he's performed so well."
That explanation washes after the first inning, when it was 4-1.
But what the Dodgers needed to do, especially with Ramirez lurking in their lineup, was stop the bleeding. And they didn't.
And because they didn't, when Ramirez did blast a three-run homer in the fourth inning, it only pulled them to within 8-5.
Which is where it stayed.
Charlie Manuel, the guy who once caught all kinds of grief in Philadelphia because he talks with a thick West Virginia accent and maybe doesn't seem on the surface to be the most polished baseball guy around, has out-managed the sainted Torre through two games running.
You can make a point that Derek Lowe could have been hooked when it was 2-2 in Game 1, before Burrell clobbered a hanging breaking ball for what turned out to be the game-winning home run.
Torre briefly said a few words to the Dodgers after it ended, before they showered and dressed for the charter back home for Game 3.
"He told us we worked too hard to get here," Martin said. "He told us now's the time to not let go. We have to realize what we're playing for, and play better baseball."
The "now's not the time to let go" part? Very instructive. From the starting pitcher, to the manager, to the lineup.
