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Dodgers hope to draw even behind Lowe

Oct 13, 2008 - 1:14 PM National League Championship Series Philadelphia leads 2-1

Philadelphia at LA Dodgers, 8:22 p.m. EDT

LOS ANGELES (Ticker) -- The Los Angeles Dodgers have something going at home, and they're hoping Derek Lowe can keep it up.

Home-field advantage is proving to be all the rage in the National League Championship Series, and the Dodgers are lucky enough to be playing the next two games at Dodger Stadium. They host the Philadelphia Phillies in Game Four on Monday.

Trailing two games to none in the best-of-seven series after a pair of losses at Citizen's Bank Park, Los Angeles got back into the series on Sunday with a 7-2 victory in Game Three.

A five-run first inning got the Dodgers off on the right foot, with Blake DeWitt providing the big blow with a three-run triple, and some strong starting pitching by Japanese import Hiroki Kuroda ensured that the runs would stand up.

"I didn't think I pitched that bad early in the game," Kuroda said through an interpreter. "But the big support was our offense. I had big run support early in the game, so that helped me get into my rhythm."

Kuroda allowed two runs in six-plus frames.

Since August 2, Los Angeles has gone 20-6 at home. In 11 games against the Phillies this season, the home team has won each of the contests.

"Well, location probably helps," Los Angeles manager Joe Torre said. "A little more friendly here for our ball club."

Torre and company are helping location makes a difference for Lowe (0-1), who will be pitching on three days' rest after taking the loss in Game One on Thursday. The veteran righthander cruised through the first five frames in the opener before surrendering homers to Chase Utley and Pat Burrell in the sixth inning.

"I think he's got the mind-set and the experience that makes him raise his hand any time you think about doing something like this," Torre said of Lowe. "And it certainly makes my job easier as opposed to trying to talk somebody into pitching on short rest."

Lowe, a sinkerball specialist, owns a 3.32 ERA in 20 career postseason appearances - nine starts.

"Plus if he maybe is a little tired, a sinkerball pitcher is probably the one guy that's not going to feel the effects of it," Torre said. "Am I going to say that we're not going to monitor him tomorrow and what you may be looking at in the seventh, you may be looking at in the sixth, stuff like that."

In four career starts on three days' rest, Lowe is 2-1 with a 5.09 ERA.

"There's still plenty of time to do what you had to do," Lowe said about getting ready on short rest. "And it's easy this time of year because you pretty much cut back a lot of your workload anyway as far as the conditioning and lifting weights. So you're not really missing anything as far as that goes."

Philadelphia will counter with Joe Blanton. The burly righthander has yet to suffer a loss since arriving in the National League after a trade with the Oakland Athletics in July.

He picked up the win in the clinching game of the NLDS against the Milwaukee Brewers, allowing one run in 6 1/3 innings while striking out seven.

"I think, just for any pitcher being aggressive is helpful," Blanton said. "Attacking the zone is always a good thing. Keeps your pitch count down. It allows you to work ahead in the counts, which is any time you're facing a good team, if you fall behind you're going to be in a lot of trouble. So that's a very helpful thing.