Sometimes when teams look at their opponent they see almost a mirror image of themselves. This series featured two teams that were just that similar. Both teams play in small ballparks, have big bats and have average pitching. Philly's advantage would be one Brad Lidge, who was perfect in 2008 (41 of 41), while the Dodgers did not have a guy who could close. Brooklyn opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first as they had runners on 2nd and 3rd. Duke Snider hit a sac fly to center to score Pee Wee Reese. Philly starter Cole Hamels was lucky to escape with only 1 run against. The bottom of the 1st saw Ryan Howard hit a 3 run shot off of Don Newcombe to put Philly up 3-1. Brooklyn tied it up in the 2nd when Andy Pafko doubled home Gil Hodges and Pee Wee Reese plated Pafko with a sac fly to left. Philly retook the lead with a solo run in the 4th when Ruiz singled home Werth. the top of the 5th saw Brooklyn take a 2 run lead when they scored 3 runs after a Chase Utley error. The following inning Philly notched 3 runs to take a 7-6 lead, which they would never relinquish. Pedro Feliz homered & Shane Vitorino had a big double. Newcombe went the distance, but was barely effective. Hamels got the win, but was barely ok. Brad Lidge was his perfect self pitching a scoreless 9th and striking out 2.GAME 2 (Citizens Bank Ballpark): Dodgers 8, Phillies 4
With the score tied at 1 the Dodgers scored 3 in the 4th off of Brett Myers. Gil Hodges led off with a homer, which seemed to un-nerve Myers as Carl Furillo followed with a single. Two batters later Billy Cox dropped one into right and both runners were on 3rd as Dodger starter Preacher Roe bunted them over. With 2 outs Jackie Robinson hit one thru the middle to score 1 and Reese followed suit. Duke Snider was intentionally walked, which loaded the bases, but Campy struck out swinging to end the rally. Brooklyn got another solo run in the 6th and two more in the 7th, when Cal Abrams doubled home Hodges and Furillo. Philly scored a run in both the 8th and 9th to cut the deficit in half, but Preacher Roe was solid in a complete game effort.
GAME 3 (Ebbets Field): Dodgers 4, Phillies 0
Carl Erskine and Jamie Moyer hooked up in an old fashioned pitchers duel. Both hurlers tossed blanks for 6 innings when Moyer tired and Chad Durbin replaced him. Durbin surrender 3 run in just 1 inning of work, while Erskine pitched 8 shutout innings before Ralph Branca came on to close it. The Dodgers manufactured a run in the 7th when the fleet of foot Jackie Roosevelt Robinson walked of 5 pitches. He promptly stole 2nd and 3rd off of Durbin and with 2 outs Campy singled him home. Leading 1-0 the Dodgers needed some insurance and they got exactly what they were looking for in the 8th when pinch hitter Cal Abrams doubled home two and the Duke of Flatbush singled home another. Philly made 5 errors in this one including 2 by J-Roll in the same inning.GAME 4 (Ebbets Field): Dodgers 6, Phillies 4
With their backs up against the wall the Phillies went with ace Cole
Hamels on 3 days rest. Hamels ran out of gas in 5th, but attempted to start the 6th, which was a big mistake as the Dodgers scored 2 runs and cut Philly's lead to 1. Philadelphia scored 3 big runs in the first off of Ralph Branca, who curiously closed the game the night before and was then tapped to start this contest. Pat "the bat" Burrell's 3 run homer + Jason's Werth's RBI single in the 3rd accounted for Phillies runs up until this point. Unfortunately for the residents of Broad St that would be all the scoring they would get. The Dodgers scored a solo run in the 7th to tie the game when Billy Cox led off with a triple and scored on Gene Hermanski's grounder to Chase Utley. With the score tied the Dodgers took the lead for good in the 8th when Campy hit a two run shot, which was aided by J-Roll's error on a hard hit grounder by Furillo. Clem Labine came on to close out the 9th and record the save. Podbielan notched the win as 'dem Bums clinched the series in 4.
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