Top 10 Phillies-Dodgers Game One Takeaways

10) I’d like to sincerely thank MLB for allowing me to see the game, since as the NLDS and tomorrow’s game shows, that’s really not a given.

9) The fact that Davey Lopes is the Phillies’ first base coach and Larry Bowa is the Dodgers’ third base coach is making my entire childhood a lie.

8) Carlos Ruiz has the nickname “Chooch” from Philly Fan; after the three-run homer early in the game, it might need to change to “Chutch.”

7) Tonight’s home plate umpire, Randy Marsh, was clearly being paid by the number of three-ball counts.

6) You have to admire Skip Caray for continuing to use the word “Fisted!” despite all of the weeks of Internet giggling about it.

5) In the offseason, I seriously doubted Phillies GM Ruben Amaro for acquiring Chan “Crazy Eyes” Ho Park and Raul “Ancient Mariner” Ibanez, who merely provided a shutdown inning of relief and a three-run homer. In other news, I lost two of three fantasy leagues while drafting Jose Reyes and Grady Sizemore in the first.

4) In terms of betting this series, Take The Over.

3) After watching Jonathan Broxton destroy Ryan Howard, I’m still amazed that Matt Stairs took him deep last year.

2) A moment of serious analysis: The Dodgers had 14 hits and only two walks tonight to get six runs and were aided by uncharacteristically weak Philly defense. If you believe in clutch hitting, you’re really not believing in this Dodger team right now.

1) Brad Lidge still looks incredibly shaky and hittable to me, but he’s now three for three in the postseason and seems to think he’s back…and if he thinks it hard enough, who the hell are the rest of us to argue, really?

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As for the longer analysis…ye gads, how does Phillies Fan stand this bullpen, really?

In tonight’s game, after Ibanez delivered a monstrous three-run bomb in the top of the eighth to make the game 8-4, my mind wandered to the lineup. Six outs for the Dodgers, so clean relief means that the game ends without seeing Andre Ethier and Manny Ramirez again.

So Ryan Madson comes in…and gives up three straight hits, the first of which was an inexcusable 0-2 single. When the inning ended, it was 8-6, and only after Madson had gotten Ramirez to ground out.

Given the two three-run homers from continuing playoff monster Ruiz and newbie Ibanez, and the fact that Cole Hamels has a dynamite lifetime record at Dodger Stadium, this really shouldn’t have been hard tonight. It should have been as easy a Game One win as you could hope for. Instead, it was nausea-inducing, and this isn’t even my laundry, really.

Tomorrow, it’s old friend Vicente Padilla against Pedro Martinez. Phillies Fan can only hope that the long layoff agrees with Pedro the way it seemingly has with Park, and that Padilla remembers that he’s, well, Vicente Padilla.

But when you win Game One on the road, you’re playing with house money…and it’s time to get greedy.

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