Dodgers Rally Past Phillies, Even Series

Dodgers 2, Phillies 1

LOS ANGELES, Oct. 16 -- The Los Angeles Dodgers are baseball's ultimate contrarians, loose when you think they're tense, charging back when you think they're pinned down, playing dead just for the thrill of it. So here are some critical things to remember about this year's National League West division champs, just so we aren't fooled the next time:

When the Dodgers look like they're finished, they are only at the starting line.

When the Dodgers are behind, they are still relaxed. Upheaval is their comfort zone.

And when the Dodgers are, oh, about six outs away from receding into the background, giving full glory to a resurgent Pedro Martínez, they can claw back in one inning against five relievers, stealing a lead and upsetting the prime time story line.

On Friday, again, the Dodgers flipped everything, waiting until the final innings to transform a potential season-crushing defeat into a 2-1, series-evening victory against the Phillies in Game 2 of the NL Championship Series. Because of their 45th comeback win of the season -- and their third of the playoffs -- Los Angeles left Dodger Stadium, bound for Game 3 in Philadelphia, with its World Series hopes very much intact and its knack for drama on full display.

"This club has done a really good job in the month that I've been here, where, when we've needed to win a game we've won a game," Jim Thome said. "And that's special. When you have that mojo, you don't try to talk about it too much. You don't try to think about it too much. You just go play. And you let the ability in the room kind of take over."

In a way, this game was as much about what almost happened. Philadelphia's Martínez, a week from his 38th birthday, a month removed from his last quality start, almost led the Phillies to a clean 1-0 win, throwing seven scoreless innings of two-hit ball, leaving after 87 pitches, not a single one hit solidly.

"His ability to throw a handful of different pitches at varying speeds, that's what the game is about," Los Angeles Manager Joe Torre said. "He did a masterful job today."

Ryan Howard's solo home run to the opposite field in the fourth inning was almost the only run support the Phillies needed.

Vicente Padilla (7 1/3 innings, four hits one run), dominant in his own right for the Dodgers, was almost the hard-luck loser.

The Dodgers, entering the bottom of the eighth trailing 1-0, were almost down 2-0 in this series.

Then, Los Angeles's rally in the eighth against Philadelphia's bullpen reshaped the dynamic between the NL's top two clubs.