Phillies-Dodgers: Third Time (Through the Lineup) is the Charm for Philly

In football, you always hear about "halftime adjustments." In baseball, it's a little different; there is no break to analyze what the other team is doing to you.  Good starting pitchers will set batters up early in the game, often using their second or third-best pitch to try to get people out at the start of the game, so they can catch them off-guard down the stretch. The really good pitchers will throw what they want when they want it and dare you to beat them. Derek Lowe is a sinker-ball pitcher. For 5.1 innings last night, Lowe was brilliant—throwing sinker after sinker, inducing ground-out after ground-out—daring the Phillies to beat him on his best pitch. The Phillies obliged. Facing the dangerous Phillies lineup for the third time, Lowe gave up a game-tying two-run home run to the previously-ice-cold Chase Utley, and then two batters later, watched as Pat Burrell launch a line drive into the short porch in left field. And that, my friends, was the end of Mr. ... (link)