--LF Pat Burrell, who slumped during the season's second half, has three homers in his last two postseason games. Burrell has seven hits in eight career postseason games. Four of the hits are home runs. Burrell's line-drive blast to left field in the sixth inning Thursday night snapped a 2-2 tie and was the deciding blow in the Phillies' 3-2 win over the Dodgers. Burrell is 5-for-7 in the last two games after going 0-for-8 in the first three games of this year's postseason.
--RHP Brett Myers marched into his pre-start press conference Thursday with his chest puffed out and a bat resting on his shoulder, making him look more like a guard at Buckingham Palace than the Phillies' Game 2 starter. "I figured y'all would want to talk about my hitting," Myers said. "So, I brought a bat." In Game 2 of the NL Division Series, he stymied the Brewers, serving up just two runs on only two hits in seven innings in a 5-2 victory that sent the Phillies to Milwaukee with a 2-0 stranglehold on the best-of-five series. But Myers' first playoff start will be remembered more for his at-bats.
Facing Brewers ace CC Sabathia, he drew a nine-pitch, two-out walk to extend the second inning for Shane Victorino to smack a grand slam that broke open the game. Then, in the fourth inning, Myers forced Sabathia to throw 10 pitches before flying to center field. Both times, he drew boisterous ovations.
"He's 100 miles an hour," Dodgers manager Joe Torre said of Myers. "I'm not necessarily talking velocity. I'm just talking about his aggressiveness. I watched him on TV as a closer (last season). He's never backed off. The kid's aggressive, and he's going to give you everything he has."
--3B Greg Dobbs, a left-handed hitter, figures to make at least a few starts with the Phillies facing three straight Dodgers right-handed pitchers in the first three games of the NL Championship Series. But Dobbs was on the bench for Game 1. Manager Charlie Manuel opted to start righty-hitting Pedro Feliz on Thursday night because of his defensive superiority. Dobbs also is 0-for-9 with three strikeouts in his career against RHP Derek Lowe, the Dodgers' Game 1 starter. "Dobbs is a big asset on our team," Manuel said. "I think, actually, that the more he gets to play, the better he will play. He definitely can play regular. It's just a matter of him getting to play more."
--C Carlos Ruiz went 1-for-14 in the NL Division Series, but he was back behind the plate for Game 1 against the Dodgers on Thursday night because the Phillies have been pleased with his defense and game-calling. Backup C Chris Coste is defensively inferior to Ruiz and went 3-for-32 with two RBIs after Aug. 29. "I've been going with what's working for us," manager Charlie Manuel said. "That's the only reason Coste hasn't been getting to play. I like Ruiz, too, because of his defense. He throws a little better."
--RHP Rudy Seanez was right. As Seanez expected, the Phillies opted to keep rookie LHP J.A. Happ on the 25-man playoff roster as a long reliever and exclude Seanez, a 38-year-old right-hander and veteran of six postseason series. Happ didn't pitch in the NL Division Series against the Brewers. "If we need innings at the start of the game or if he have a tie game and it goes extra innings, goes for a long time, (Happ) is the guy on our club that can give us that," manager Charlie Manuel said.
BY THE NUMBERS: 13 -- Hits in 35 at-bats this season against the Dodgers for Phillies 2B Chase Utley, a Los Angeles native.
QUOTE TO NOTE: "People are driving by, honking at my house. I didn't even know they knew I lived there. Now I really don't want to screw up. They'll burn my house down." -- RHP Ryan Madson on the excitement of the playoffs.
