The Delivery Men

NLCS: Myers's Arm, Bat Help Phillies Beat L.A. on a Day of Personal Loss: Phillies 8, Dodgers 5

PHILADELPHIA, Oct. 10 -- Shane Victorino walked into the Philadelphia Phillies' clubhouse with his head down, his face red from crying. He wiped away a few tears, then tried compose himself as teammates and coaches ambled to his locker to offer condolences.

Just moments earlier, Victorino led the Phillies to an 8-5 victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the National League Championship Series, putting the long-suffering baseball team in this championship-starved city on track to reach its first World Series in 15 years. As the final out was recorded, a crowd of 45,883 launched into a frenzy.

In the clubhouse, however, tucked far away from the noise and the cheers, the mood was an awkward mix of satisfaction and somberness. The day already was difficult for the Phillies, who learned before the game that the mother of Manager Charlie Manuel had died. When word spread that Victorino's grandmother died as the game was being played, it further dampened what should have been a night of celebration, not sorrow.

Victorino wasn't informed until his father, who was in attendance, broke the news shortly after walking off the field.

"Family comes first for everybody. It's tough when something like this happens," Phillies closer Brad Lidge said. "Two things in one day like this, it's unusual and it's unfortunate days like this have to happen."

Before the evening was tempered by the sobering news, the Phillies were rightly celebrating a dominating victory.

The difficulty in facing the Phillies this season comes from an explosive offensive team, whose fingers never stray too far from the detonator. The Bombers from Broad Street can strike at any time, and when they do, the results are both sudden and decisive.

But it was the more modest bats -- Victorino knocked in four runs while pitcher Brett Myers added three RBI -- that helped the Phillies ground the Dodgers' pitching staff into a pile of garden mulch.

The Phillies didn't need a home run to claim a 2-0 series lead. But 11 hits against Dodgers starter Chad Billingsley -- who gave away hits as if they were stale Halloween candy -- and five beleaguered relievers was good enough.

It all translated into a pair of four-run innings that the Phillies used to further cool off the once-hot Dodgers.

Manny Ramírez made it a game again in the fourth inning, lining a Myers pitch just over the short left field fence at Citizens Bank Park for a three-run homer. But even after Ramírez continued his magnificent postseason -- the homer was his third of the playoffs -- the Dodgers could hardly afford to trade punches with these heavyweights.

And because they did, the Dodgers head back to Los Angeles desperately needing a victory out of Hiroki Kuroda in Game 3 if they harbor any realistic hopes of pulling off another playoff stunner.