I was going to go with "Huuuu huuuuhhhh," but I'm not sure entirely how to spell out a deep breath. And I only do this because that's one of the few ways I can express my feelings on tonight's game.
And believe me, I had a lot of feelings. First, stunned silence. Then anger. Sadness. Denial. And now it's just deep breaths. In a way, they're kinda deep breaths of acceptance. We are down 3-1 in the NLCS. Our season is on the brink of ending, and our prospects don't look good.
I'd recap what happened for you, but chances are you've already seen it, and if you haven't, you probably don't want to know. Trust me, if you didn't see it, all you want to know is that we lost.
So, let's move on. Let's look ahead. It's easy to call it a season. It's easy to say we have no chance to come back. And in all honesty, it's probably the wise and correct route to go, so I don't blame anyone who wants to feel that way.
But here's how I'm going to look at it.
I am going to remain cheerfully (possibly ignorantly) optimistic.
And why not? I've, for a long time, believed in the idea of hoping for the best and expecting the worst. So... what is the absolute worst that happens? We lose Game 5 on Wednesday and go out in the NLCS. Ok.
And what's the best? Well, consider this. Coming into these three games in Philadelphia, would you be content with winning just one game out of three and bringing the series back to Los Angeles? No, it's not the ideal situation, but if I knew coming in we'd be able to bring the series back home, I would be content. Frankly, it's kind of what I was expecting anyway. I wasn't expecting a blowout and a heartbreaking loss in the span of two nights, but ultimately, how you lose doesn't matter in the end.
Look, all I'm saying is this: wait for Game 5. As crushing as this game was, and as bad as Game 3 was, we are still not eliminated yet. Again: We're not eliminated yet. Take it one game at a time. If we win Wednesday, then we've gone 1-2 in Philadelphia, and we're only down one game. Then we take it home. Then, who knows?
Right, Randy Wolf (via Dodgers.com)?
"All we have to do is win three in a row," said Dodgers Game 4 starter Randy Wolf, who was one out away from picking up a win against his former team.
"No matter how you spin it, when you're that close, it hurts. You feel stunned. It's not a good feeling and you've just got to move on. It's always tough to swallow. Now we have the opportunity to make something magical happen."
Don't give up hope. We've played underdog all year. We've come from behind all year. We've done some magical stuff already this year. Why not do some more?
3-1 is not impossible.
Why can't we do this?
Congratulations to the Philadelphia Phillies for winning the 2008 World Series, beating the Tampa Bay Rays in five games.
I guess that puts the Dodgers in third place in the league?
Anyway, now on to important stuff: the offseason! It starts now!
The Dodgers strike for five runs in the first inning and never look back as they take the third game in this series.
Hiroki Kuroda got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLCS. Jamie Moyer took the loss, he's 0-1 in the NLCS.
Hiroki Kuroda made a quality start. He went six innings, holding the Phillies to two runs on five hits and a walk while striking out three. Cory Wade pitched two scoreless innings in relief and Jonathan Broxton pitched a scoreless 9th to close out the game.
Several Dodgers had good games at the plate. Rafael Furcal went 2-4 with a homerun, a walk, an RBI, and two runs scored. 
Manny Ramírez went 1-2 with two walks, an RBI, and two runs scored and Nomar Garciaparra went 2-3 with an RBI. Finally, Blake DeWitt went 1-3, the one hit coming in the 1st with the bases loaded. DeWitt collected three RBIs on the bases clearing triple to give the Dodgers a 5-0 lead early in the game.
With the win, the Phillies lead in the series is 2-1. Game 4 starts tomorrow at 5:22 L.A. time.
Opinion: Coming out strong in the 1st was a good statement. These three games are very important. We need to take care of our business at home, especially because of our troubles on the road... The other good news about today's game? Jamie Moyer looked particularly weak, and if the schedule for the Phillies remains the same, and if we push the series to a Game 7, Moyer will be the starter. That's pretty good news to me...
The Phillies have two big innings to score eight runs and beat the Dodgers for the second game in a row.
Brett Myers got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLCS. 
Chad Billingsley took the loss, he's 0-1 in the NLCS. Brad Lidge picked up his 2nd save in the NLCS.
Chad Billingsley got lit up. He made it only 2.1 innings, giving up eight runs (seven earned) on eight hits and three walks. The bullpen held the Phillies scoreless the rest of the game, but by then the damage was too much. High notes for James McDonald, who went 3.1 scoreless innings in relief, and Clayton Kershaw, who went 1.2 scoreless innings.
The Dodgers scored all their runs in the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th innings, but were shut down by the Phillies bullpen for much of the rest of the game. Manny Ramírez went 1-4, but had a three run homerun in the 4th. James Loney went 2-4 with a walk and an RBI. 
Similar to yesterday, there were then some assorted hits and walks here and there, but the Dodgers couldn't capitalize enough to comeback.
With the loss, the Dodgers fall down to 0-2 in the NLCS. They now travel back to Los Angeles to play game three, starting at 5:22 L.A. time on Sunday.
Opinion: That was ugly. Chad Billingsley seemed like he couldn't get a pitch near the zone in the 2nd and 3rd innings without it getting whacked. He's going to definitely need to bounce back from this one if we can continue on in these playoffs... And another thing, how many hits were we going to give up to Brett Myers. He's the pitcher! He had three RBIs and two runs scored today. He was the difference in this game. There is a reason the pitcher bats ninth and is consider an automatic out. It's because he is!!! Geez... It's hard to feel good about these last two games, but I do have some good points. For one, we now have three games at home, where we swept the Phillies earlier in the season. We need to capitalize on this, and put the pressure back on Philly. Secondly, it's not like we are being beaten handily. We've caught some back breaks. 
Yesterday, in the first inning, when Manny hit that ball to the deepest part of the park and it bounced off the top part of the highest wall, he only got a double. If that had gone out, the Dodgers would've had the extra run they needed. Today, Casey Blake sent another ball to the deepest part of the park that was caught at the wall for an out in the 7th. He put enough on the ball that if he just pulled it some more, we could have tied the game. I feel like these games were both winnable, we're just hitting the balls in the wrong places. So... let's just hit them in the right places. Easy enough, right?
The Phillies come back to beat the Dodgers in the first game of this seven-game series.
Cole Hamels got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLCS. Derek Lowe took the loss, he's 0-1 in the NLCS. Brad Lidge picked up his 1st save in the NLCS.
Derek Lowe made two mistakes in the game. Two bad pitches that equaled three runs. He went 5.1 innings, giving up three runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk. Chan Ho Park got the final two outs in the inning. Greg Maddux and Hong-Chih Kuo each added a scoreless inning in relief.
The Dodgers weren't able to mount much offense against Phillies pitching. They scratched across two runs in the first four innings, but were shut down the rest of the way. Andre Ethier went 2-4 with a double and a run scored. 
Manny Ramírez went 2-4 with a double and an RBI. Other than that, there were a few other assorted hits and walks, but not much to speak of.
With the loss, the Dodgers fall to 0-1 in the series. They'll play game two tomorrow starting at 1:35 L.A. time.
Opinion: This was a tough loss, but foreseeable. Giving up the lead was tough, but if you had to look at the schedule for this series and pick a game that we would probably lose, this would be it. We've seen Cole Hamels three times (twice during the season, and now once in the playoffs). All three times, he's gone seven innings and given up just two runs. We definitely are going to need more than that to be the Phillies. Luckily, Hamels is easily the best starter for the Phillies. We should do better. Hopefully... One thing I did like though, is that in the 9th inning, against Brad Lidge, even though he retired the side, the Dodgers did hit the ball pretty hard. Even though Lidge was perfect in save opportunites during the season, that doesn't mean he can't be beat. We have to remember that, in case we end up in a situation like tonight again.
The Dodgers beat the Cubs to complete the sweep and move on to the NLCS.
Hiroki Kuroda got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLDS. Rich Harden took the loss, he goes 0-1 in the NLDS. Jonathan Broxton picked up his 1st save of the NLDS.
Hiroki Kuroda continued his good pitching against the Cubs. He went 6.1 scoreless innings, giving up six hits and two walks while striking out four over that span. Cory Wade pitching 1.1 innings in relief, allowing a run. Jonathan Broxton struck out three in his 1.1 innings of work to close out the game and pick up the save.
Offensively, James Loney drove in two important runs. Despite going 3-14 in the series, he collected six RBIs. He went 1-4 in the game, but the one hit was a two RBI double. Russell Martin had a similar series. Martin went 2-4 with two doubles, an RBI, and a run scored. He went 4-13 with a homerun, three doubles, and five RBIs in the series. Finally, Manny Ramírez went 1-2 with two walks and a run scored in the game. He had a good series as well. He went 5-10 with two homeruns, three RBIs, four walks, and five runs scored.
The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Milwaukee Brewers today to win their series 3-1. The Dodgers will face off against the Phillies now in the NLCS for a chance to go to the World Series. They split eight games (4-4) in the regular season.
Opinion: That's how you handle business. Bury the Cubs. Don't even give them a chance to come back. Now use this momentum. Carry it on to the NLCS against the Phillies. One down, two to go... I was at the game last night, and it was pretty amazing. You can feel the energy radiating through the stadium. Every strike, every out, every hit, was met with cheering and applause. There is a constant level of noise that grows to be ten times as loud as the game goes on. When Broxton was pitching the 9th, the stadium was as loud as I've ever heard it. There's camaraderie. You are high-fiving and yelling and celebrating with people you've never met before. It's pretty amazing... One more thing, I'm really tired of all the sports writers who say Dodger fans leave the game early. 
Dodger fans don't leave the game early. The people who leave the game early aren't Dodger fans. Dodger fans stay till the very end of the game. Dodger fans are the people who show up for a playoff game. Dodger Stadium was filled with 56,000 fans yesterday. And 56,000 fans stayed till the very last pitch, and most stayed even after that. Real Dodger fans don't leave the game early to beat traffic. They don't leave in the 7th inning. So stop refering to Dodger fans as people who leave the game before it's over. Call them "Game Attendees" or something like that, but don't insult real Dodger fans by calling them so. I, and all the other fans, are tired of it.
The Dodgers, thanks in part to some Cubs errors, beat the Cubs to take the second game of the series.
Chad Billingsley got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLDS. Carlos Zambrano took the loss, he's 0-1 in the NLDS.
Chad Billingsley gave up only one run over 6.2 innings. He gave up only five hits and a walk over that span, while striking out seven. Cory Wade followed with 1.1 scoreless innings. Takashi Saito came in to start the 9th and gave up two runs without recording an out. Jonathan Broxton had to come in to relieve Saito and retired the side, collecting two strikeouts.
Several Dodgers had good games at the plate. Seven of the nine Dodgers in the starting lineup reached base by hit or walk. Rafael Furcal went 3-6 with two RBIs and two runs scored. 
Manny Ramírez went 2-4 with a walk, a homerun, two RBIs, and two runs scored. Russel Martin went 1-5 with a double and three RBIs. Finally, Casey Blake went 2-4 with an RBI and two runs scored.
With the win, the Dodgers go up 2-0 in the series. They'll try for a sweep and a trip to the NLCS on Saturday, at Dodger Stadium. The game starts at 7:05 L.A. time.
Opinion: I was really only hoping for at least a win in this first two games. We got two. We've really flashed the offense: 17 runs in two games. We've also had some pretty good pitching, holding the potent Cubs offense to five runs. We've now won twice as many playoff games as our total since 1988. I say we go for triple. I'm heading to the game Saturday, my first playoff game ever. Hopefully, I'll get to see a clinch. Let's keep our fingers crossed...
The Dodgers use the long-ball to beat the Cubs and go up 1-0 in the series.
Derek Lowe got the win, he's 1-0 in the NLDS. Ryan Dempster took the loss, he's 0-1 in the NLDS.
Derek Lowe went six innings, giving up two runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out six. He had an uncharacteristically high pitch count, but still got a quality start out of his outing. Cory Wade, Jonathan Broxton, and Greg Maddux each pitched a scoreless inning in relief to keep the Cubs to two runs.
The Dodger offense started slow, but heated up. After not scoring in the first four innings, including leaving the bases loaded at the end of the 3rd inning. A similar situation seemed to be rearing it's head in the 5th. 
The bases were loaded with two outs when James Loney stepped to the plate. He quickly fell in the hole with two strikes on him, before drawing a few more pitches, then stroking a grand slam homerun into the left-center bleachers to put the Dodgers up 4-2. They wouldn't look back from there. Manny Ramírez hit a solo homerun in the 7th (Manny went 2-4 with a walk, a homerun, an RBI, and two runs scored), Casey Blake singled in Blake DeWitt in the 8th (DeWitt went 2-4 with a double and a run scored), and Russell Martin added a solo homerun in the 9th. Every player in the starting lineup reached base at least once.
The Dodgers get the all important win in the first game of the series. Game 2 in the series starts tomorrow at 6:37 (?) L.A. time.
Opinion: Wow, seriously good win for the Dodgers. They really sent a message that they are a serious contender. 
They came into an opponent's stadium, filled with loud hungry fans, facing a pitcher who's been excellent at home all season, and they pulled out a strong victory. Also, most importantly, this was the win they needed. To win the series, they needed at least one win on the road, and now they've got it. Not that they should leave it all to winning the home games, but they got the road win. Now, just to be safe, let's get another one tomorrow...
The Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the St. Louis Cardinals 12-3 earlier today to fall behind 4.5 games with only three games to go. 
This allows the Dodgers to clinch the National League West.
As such, Eric Stults will replace Greg Maddux today. The lineup is also being juggled around so Joe Torre can see who he'll want to put on the playoff roster. Rafael Furcal and Jeff Kent are batting 1st and 2nd respectively.
In any case, congratulations to the Dodgers on their first division win since 2004 and first playoff appearance since 2006.
