So now that I’ve had 24 hours to process what happened last night, I’m ready to move on, a new man, ready for Game Five!  How did I do it, you might ask?  Well, I first read Josh Rawitch’s inspiring stats (the Dodgers have won three straight games 10 times this season, they’ve won back-to-back games on the road 17 times this season, etc.).

I then thought back to the five stages of grief that people tend to go through when experiencing something traumatic (ok, these are for dealing with death and dying, but I’ve adapted them in a more light-hearted manner for the Dodgers’ recovery after the Dodgers’ loss to the Phillies on Monday): 

Denial – This cannot be happening!  This is definitely how I was feeling in the top of the 8th when Wade and Brox gave up those homers to Victorino and Matt Stairs.

Anger- Why is this happening to the Dodgers?!?  I’ll admit it, I had some anger and frustration collectively towards the Dodgers – Torre and his decisions to pull Lowe and Kuo, Martin’s inability to come through in the clutch, etc., but for the most part, I felt pure shock and numbness. 

Bargaining- Ok, this stage doesn’t really work for me.  Dodger fans are both realistic and optimistic - we don’t need to bargain with ourselves.

Depression – Yup, this and resignation summed up my post-game feelings for sure.  In my head, I was already moving on to the off-season, thinking about what moves the Dodgers should make, whether Manny or the pitching staff deserved the majority of free agent dollars, etc.  I considered this series a lost cause.

Acceptance - My current state of mind.  I’ve accepted that the Dodgers need to win three in a row, and, hey, that’s not so bad!  They’ve done it before, and they’ll do it again, right?  Hell, we’re in the friggin’ NLCS for god sakes!   

So I say, bring it on Phillies, and let’s see you try and rip this series from the Dodgers at the Ravine!  Ok, I feel much better now, and I hope you do too.  GO BLUE!

Ok Phillies fans, this is your chance.  We see you’re checking out our content in much higher numbers than usual, so this is your chance to comment on what you think the keys to the series have been so far.  We’ve rallied over here, and are now ready for game five, baby!  Do you think it’s over?  Comment below – it’s an open forum for Philadelphia fans!

The Wade and Kershaw choices were the strangest ones for me. Wade threw over 30 pitches the night before in the Dodgers win in game 3 – was it really necessary to bring him in ahead of Kuo? The Kershaw situation was another strange one…Clayton doesn’t have experience in the postseason and had only acted as a relief pitcher three times in the entire 2008 season – definitely not a seasoned veteran for mid-game appearances.

Bottom line – we may have stocked up on hitting with the likes of Manny Ramirez and Casey Blake this year, but pitching may be the piece that costs the Dodgers the chance at the World Series. Don’t blame Torre, blame the pitching dilemma we are in – an issue that is the responsibility of the Dodgers front office.

I’m still in shock over the way tonight’s game turned out. I noticed that the Dodgers also canceled their workout as well as Joe Torre’s news conference for tomorrow. Looks like Joe and the team are a little sad as well.

Image Credit: Washington Post

Furcal, SS

Ethier, RF

Manny, LF

Martin, C

Loney, 1B

DeWitt, 2B

Blake, 3B

Pierre, CF

Lowe, P

Cory Wade

And what was up with that bench-clearing moment?  Looks like one “accidentally” got away from Kuroda – most likely in retaliation for the BS that went on with Russell Martin last night.  Hopefully that’s the end of it and we can go back to some good ol’ fashioned baseball tomorrow.

Finally, give another game ball to the fans tonight!  I’ll be uploading a few great shots from the Ravine a bit later, but their enthusiasm and passion definitely helped the Dodgers tonight.  Great job Dodger fans – let’s bring it again tomorrow!

- Remember Charlie Manuel as a Dodger?  He was a reserve outfielder with the club for parts of the ’74 and ’75 seasons

- Fan favorite OF Jayson Werth and reliever Rudy Seanez both played for Big Blue recently (2004-06 and 1994-95, 2007, respectively)

- Dodgers Chief Operating Officer Dennis Mannion worked for the Phillies from 1982-97

- Third base coach Larry Bowa not only was a HOF legend as a player, bur managed the club from 2001-04

Now our regular readers know that we love to see what the opposition thinks about the Dodgers, so following is a link to The Phillies Zone, a blog by The Philadelphia Daily News’  Todd Zolecki.  I’m recommending that we all keep an eye on it throughout the series, as Todd offers up a ton of great info and links.

Finally, we’re working on getting a Philly blogger to post on Dodgerfan.net periodically throughout the series with his or her thoughts.  While we all bleed Dodger Blue over here, we thought it would be interesting to get a view of the game from the opposing press box (we’ll let you know if we get a reciprocal offer).

Series analysis coming later tonight…

So we know that many of you are eager to see what Hollywood stars that came out to see the Dodgers in the playoffs.  According to ESPN, here’s who was in attendance for Game 3 against the Cubs (I’ll try and add some photos of these stars from the game later tonight).  Ellen Pompeo is representing the women?  Where’s Alyssa Milano?  (maybe she’s been going, but she’s not keeping her blog up to date…must be that clothing line).  Where’s Jennifer Aniston? (not sure she’s a baseball fan, but it would be great to see her there).  Come on Hollywood, we can do better than this! I expect a better turnout during the NLCS!

Stars at Game 3 included: Vince Vaughn, Ellen Pompeo, Dennis Haysbert, Pierce Brosnan, Larry King, Paul Walker, James Denton, Isiah Thomas and Eric Balfour (NOTE: I also heard Baron Davis was also rockin’ it at the Ravine on Saturday night).

For the Cubs, the end of this series marks the second straight year they have been swept out of the playoffs by an NL West team (Arizona had the privelege of dispatching the Cubs last year).

L.A. did its job by getting up 2-0 early in the game and preventing the Cubs from ever holding a lead during the game – all courtesy of a two-run double hit by James Loney.

Strangely, the Cubs seemed to be in a state of flux throughout these post-season games. Across three games, the Cubs put three different lineups out there – something you can try during the regular season but can often backfire on you in the postseason.

Dodger skipper Joe Torre indicated the key to success thus far has been taking calculated risks. “What we’ve done the last couple of games, with two pitchers that have thrown the ball pretty hard, is to try to maintain patience and try to get something we can handle,” Torre said. “What I like to call controlled aggressiveness as opposed to being aggressive and swinging at everything you see.

Loney certainly was vying for Dodger MVP in this series, as hey not only drove in the two key runs early in this game but also a grand-slam home run in the 5th inning of game 1.

This is the first Dodgers sweep in the postseason since 1963 and the first postseason series win for the team since 1988.

Congrats to the Dodgers for ending a 20 year drought!