Second inning: Throwing the curve

They just showed all-time Dodgers great, Sandy Koufax on the TV here hanging above my head. If he is sitting where I think he is, Tommy Lasorda is directly behind him. Great… Sandy Koufax is going to go home with pasta stains on his shirt and peanut shells in his hair.

“Dammit Lasorda, chew with your mouth closed…”

It goes without saying that Sandy Koufax was one of the greatest pitchers ever. Actually, it might be more apt to say he put together four of the greatest seasons in a row. Sandy was like a comet – he developed late and before anyone knew what they were looking at, he was gone. That actually enhances his legend because Koufax’s career was cut short because of that curve ball he threw. It simply put too much pressure on his arm until he just couldn’t do it anymore.

So yes, Sandy Koufax suffered for his art. That makes him a genius.

If you don’t think so, just look at the stats from his last four seasons. Better yet, find the box score and play-by-play from his perfect game against the Cubs. Just awesome.

Legend has it that the pitch Koufax suffered for – the curve – was the best ever. No one before or since could chuck the deuce like Koufax. Brett Myers tried in the second, but Sandy’s old team posted the first run of the game set up by a leadoff single by Andre Ethier and a long double from James Loney.

But Myers limited the damage by getting a strikeout, a grounder and a fly ball, though his pitch count soared to 36.

Chad Billingsley brought the heat. To start the second the righty whiffed Pat Burrell and Jayson Werth with an overpowering array of pitches. Even though Greg Dobbs broke his bat fighting off a slider, he got just enough to get a two-out single.

That changed everything. Big time.

Carlos Ruiz laced a fastball into the gap in left-center for an RBI double then scored the go-ahead run when Myers, inexplicably, poked a slider into center for an RBI.

Yeah, that’s Myers’ second hit of the playoffs. And yes, he had just four hits during the entire season.

Brett Myers: Professional hitter.

Another two-out single by Jimmy Rollins set the table for Shane Victorino’s two-run single on a 2-2 pitch.

That hit set off epically loud “Beat LA!” chant that rattled the row homes in South Philly all the way up to Lombard.

These people… good fans.

Here’s the thing – it all happened with two outs. Better yet, it all happened without the long ball.

End of 2: Phillies 4, Dodgers 1

Second inning: Left on base, ibid

MILWAUKEE – The Phillies are back to putting runners on base, while Jayson Werth is back to striking out. Actually, it’s been feast or famine for the Phils’ right fielder who has a pair of two-hit games and six strikeouts in 14 at-bats.

However, Pat Burrell got his first hit of the series. Not so coincidentally, the hit came off Jeff Suppan, a pitcher Burrell has a career .429 batting average against with three homers.

Still, the Phillies got back to leaving runners in scoring position when Greg Dobbs, starting for the first time in the series, laced a single to right-center. He advanced to second on a wild pitch to give the Phillies a big opportunity to break it open a bit with just one out, but Suppan bore down and whiffed both Carlos Ruiz and Joe Blanton to end the threat and strikeout the side.

Meanwhile, Blanton looks pretty good on the mound through two frames. He got two pop ups during a perfect second and five of his six outs have come on soft flies.

Still, with 36 pitches through two innings, Blanton might be piling them up a little too quickly.

End of 2: Phillies 1, Brewers 0

Second inning: Lidge takes top honors

Before the game the local chapter of the Baseball Writers Association of America – a secret society in charge of the demise of our great nation – handed out the post-season awards in the form of a handsome plaque. The writers chose Brad Lidge for the MVP, Cole Hamels for top pitcher despite the fact that Lidge also is a pitcher. Greg Dobbs took home the prize for “Good Guy,” while Jamie Moyer got the special achievement award.

Perhaps the highlight of the brief, on-field ceremony was when the Philly Phantic mused up the flowing locks of the well coiffed scribe, Todd Zolecki. However, with his usual aplomb and a stylish flip of that mane, all returned to order for Zolecki.

Thank God.

Anyway, based on what Lidge said last night he is chomping at the bit to get out there in the ninth with a lead today.

Moyer issued a two-out walk to Aaron Boone, son of ex-Phillie great, Bob Boone. However, he threw 16 more pitches in the second and has racked up 33 through two innings… that’s too many.

The Phillies kicked up a bit of a fuss in the second against John Lannan when Pat Burrell walked and Shane Victorino singled to left with one out. However, Burrell was caught off second base when Pedro Feliz popped out to short center field.

That’s two base-running gaffes this week for Burrell if you are scoring at home.

End of 2: Phils 0, Nats 0

All it takes is one

There is really no smooth way to do a curtain call. Even the guys who hit the really big home runs all the time look dorky when they tip their cap to the screaming fans who want them to take a step out of the dugout and give a smart little wave or salute. First of all, it's really difficult to hear in those dugouts. Imagine being locked in a hermetically sealed room with no windows or cell phone reception - that's exactly what it's like to sit in a big-league dugout. The difference is a guy in the dugout can see 45,000 people in the stands ringed around the diamond freaking out. He can see everyone screaming, but can't make out any of the sounds.

"You can't hear anything," said Phillies pinch hitting savant, Greg Dobbs. "It's just a bunch of noise."

So surrounded by all that noise that he couldn't hear, Dobbs' teammates pushed him out of the dugout so he could give a little wave or a salute to the screaming crowd. But instead, Dobbs stood there for a second like a deer in the headlights trying to make sense of his surroundings. But once he saw that the game had paused for a moment and the wave of noise cascading down from the top tiers of the bowl had washed over him, Dobbs gave a big wave before ducking back into the home dugout.

That was it. A brief moment that last a second or two will be something Dobbs remembers for the rest of his life.

"It's very humbling," he said.

Dobbs got the curtain call - yes, ballplayers get curtain calls - after slugging a three-run pinch-hit home run in the fifth inning that capped off an inexplicable seven-run frame against the Atlanta Braves and proved to be the game-winning hit in the Phillies' 10-9 comeback victory.

Better yet, Dobbs' shot was his 20^th pinch hit of the season, which tied the club record set by a guy named Doc Miller in 1913. With 59 games remaining in the season, there's a strong chance that Dobbs will have the record all to himself very soon.

But here's the wacky part about Dobbs and his pinch-hitting prowess... he's better when he gets just one chance a game than he is when he starts a game and gets four chances. At least that's what the stat sheet says. An under-the-radar waiver pickup from Seattle prior to the 2007 season, Dobbs is hitting .362 (34-for-94) as a pinch hitter since joining the Phillies, including a lusty .435 (20-for-46) in that role this season.

Meanwhile, Dobbs is hitting just .264 (95-for-360) in non-pinch hitting situations. That means Dobbs has turned the so-called toughest job in baseball into child's play.

The secret to his success?

Practice, practice, practice. And then some more practice.

"I have a tendency to over-prepare," Dobbs admitted. "I take a lot of flak from my teammates because sometimes I go to the (batting) cage (as early as) the fourth inning."

Manager Charlie Manuel says that the foundation for Dobbs' pinch-hitting prowess was laid when he was an up-and-comer with the Mariners. Tired of yo-yoing back and forth between Seattle and Triple-A, Dobbs found himself a mentor who explained the finer points of the art of pinch hitting.

"He was around a guy named Dave Hansen. When Dobbs was in Seattle he used to sit with Hansen on the bench and some of the things they talked about rubbed off on him," Manuel recalled. "He's always ready and always concentrating on each at-bat, and I think that helps him."

Like Dobbs, Hansen was a part-time third baseman and full-time pinch hitter. During his career with the Mariners, Dodgers, Cubs and Padres, Hansen set a big-league record in 2000 with seven pinch-hit homers. In 15 Major League seasons and one in Japan, Hansen had 139 pinch hits and practiced a Zen approach to the roll, calling it a "state of mind."

"He was kind enough to take me under his wing and I paid attention to what he told me and took a lot of notes," Dobbs said.

Actually, Hansen mostly taught Dobbs about preparation, concentration and developing routines. If he's not starting at third base, Dobbs watches the first few innings in the dugout before heading off to the indoor batting cage. Once he gets loose and warmed up, Dobbs focuses his attention on the opposing team's pitchers to the point where he doesn't notice anything going on around him.

Sometimes he doesn't even hear Manuel tell him to grab a bat and get into the game.

"About a week ago I tried to rush him up there before they had a chance to warm up a lefty, and I kept telling him to get up there and hit," Manuel said about Dobbs. "After the game he told me that when I told him to get up there he started to thinking about how he was going to prepare for him and attack him. Actually, he said he didn't hear when I told him to get the hell up there and hit. He stays ready and he's prepared."

"It happens a lot," Dobbs said. "I'm so focused on the pitcher and preparing myself for that at-bat that I don't hear him yelling at me, telling me something."

Otherwise, Dobbs says his approach is to remain calm. Pinch hitting can seem like a high-wire trapeze act where the player is suddenly thrust into a pressure-packed situation where the outcome of the game is often hanging in the balance. When he can rein in his adrenaline, Dobbs says he breaks the task down to its essence.

All he wants to do is get on base, he says.

On Saturday he ended up circling the bases.

"I wanted to keep the inning going," Dobbs explained. "I had to find any way - a walk, a hit, a hit-by-pitch - to get one base."

In the meantime, Dobbs is not going to work on his curtain-call techniques. You won't catch him walking into the house or a different room and suddenly wave to the folks sitting there. Nor will anyone find him waving to passersby on the street or the produce aisle in the grocery store as if it was a great accomplishment to pick out the ripest piece of fruit.

Instead, count on Dobbs remaining focused and prepared to take his one hack per game.