LOS ANGELES — In the end Thursday night, grit won over glitz.
Philadelphia’s Raul Ibañez, the hardworking, 36th-round draft pick, overshadowed the Dodgers’ Manny Ramirez, the slugging drug cheat with dreadlocks. Ibañez is proof that there’s nothing wrong with a dream. The lifetime grinder lifted the Phillies to an 8-6 victory over the Dodgers, his three-run home run the final loop in Thursday’s entertaining rollercoaster ride.
“My heart is still pounding,” admitted Phillies reliever Chan Ho Park. “What a game.”
Given the quicksand nature of the Phillies’ bullpen, it felt like the Dodgers were leading, even when they were trailing 5-4 in the eighth. But everything changed with Ibañez’s swing. Facing George Sherrill, Ibañez crushed a hanging breaking ball into the right-field seats. Sherrill, his former teammate in Seattle, hadn’t allowed a home run to a left-hander all season.
“You try to do less,” Ibañez said, “and you end up doing more.”
Even the Phillies’ relievers couldn’t blow a four-run lead. Not that they didn’t try.
Ryan Madson was tagged for two runs on four hits in the bottom of the eighth. But when he needed to make a pitch, he retired Ramirez on a weak groundball with runners at the corners.
“I just wanted to get out of there with us ahead,” Madson said.
Lidge recorded the save, his third straight this week and his 10th consecutive in the playoffs. He is a better pitcher than he was during a difficult regular season, benefitting from a healthy right knee that allows him to push off better.
“October is different,” Lidge said. “Nothing that happened before matters.”
Earlier in the game, Ramirez welcomed stardom back into his life with a glare. The Dodgers don’t have a Rally Monkey, like the rival Angels. But in the fifth inning, they had a Rally Manny.
Ramirez blasted a two-run home run off Cole Hamels, shaving the deficit to 5-4.
He paused and savored his blast before flipping his bat and staring into the Phillies’ dugout at Manuel, his former hitting instructor in Cleveland.
There were two notable facts about the blast. It was Ramirez’s first home run in 48 at-bats, a Grapes of Wrath drought that ended with him being serenaded with chants of “Mann-y!” for the first time since Sept. 18. The hit came on a third consecutive changeup by Hamels.
“A bad sequence,” Hamels said. “But who looks changeup 2-0?”
It was Ibañez who stole Ramirez’s thunder.
He was one of the few Phillies sluggers not to punish the Rockies in the last round. It took his swing to overshadow the crazy middle rounds. As innings go, the fifth was a great game. The teams combined for eight runs on six hits, three walks and three wild pitches.
The uprising began when Dodgers manager Joe Torre sat on his hands. Clayton Kershaw was sharp through four innings. But not unlike the Rockies’ Jason Hammel, when Kershaw’s command goes, there’s nothing gradual about his decline.
After the left-hander walked Pedro Feliz, pitching coach Rick Honeycutt made a visit. Yet nobody got up in the bullpen. Seconds later, Carlos Ruiz, who delivered two big hits in the NLDS, roped a three-run home run.
Kershaw remained in the game, looking more like Rick Ankiel than Sandy Koufax. After two more walks, Kershaw was punished for his wildness when Ryan Howard swatted a two-run double. Kershaw left to boos, a prelude to the Dodgers’ ultimate disappointment
“Tonight was a prize fight,” Torre said. “And we just came up a little bit short.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
