Don’t look now, but it appears as if a pitching duel has broken out.
That shouldn’t come as a surprise, though. The old cliché is that playoff baseball is all about pitching and defense is transcends mere cliché-dom. It’s rock hard fact.
Be that as it is, the Phillies are going to have to break out the bats soon. Maybe sooner than soon. That’s because the Dodgers posted another run during the top of the fourth when Cole Hamels sawed off Matt Kemp on the first pitch of the frame only to have him fight it off for a ground-rule double.
Kemp moved to third on a ground out and came around to score when Blake Dewitt popped a sacrifice fly to deep center. Interestingly, Hamels threw a pitch high in the strike zone to Dewitt, which made it much easier for him to hit a fly ball.
Hamels is not at his sharpest tonight. His change is good, but he doesn’t seem to have a handle on his curve or the best command on his fastball.
Lowe, on the other hand, is locked in. He got Chase Utley for his first strikeout, forced Ryan Howard to hit a soft grounder to second for another out, and then whiffed Pat Burrell to end the inning.
The Phillies look as if they left the offense in Milwaukee.
End of 4: Dodgers 2, Phillies 0