. . . and that right soon.  It's a play on one of my favorite parts of The Shawshank Redemption.  "His judgment cometh and that right soon."  It was the sewn art piece on the warden’s wall that guarded the safe.  I don't want you all to think I'm plagiarizing.  I figured it's an applicable quote though with the Dodgers going down 3-1 in the series.

I was at Game 4 last night, and before I start complaining, let me just say that there's nothing like going to a live playoff game.  The atmosphere just can't be matched.  My friends and I got to the game an hour early so we got to settle in and prepare for the madness to come.  And let me just say, the transition from thunder sticks to rally towels is one of the major improvements that can't be underscored.  I hate thunder sticks.   They're like the Rally Monkey only a hundred times worse.  Rally towels on the other hand?  Amazing.  They don't make an unbearable noise in your ear.  People seem to take them out at appropriate times instead of having little kids take the thunder sticks out and bang them on your chair for no good reason other than they're 8-years old and love thunder sticks.  The other great thing about the rally towels is how it looks when a whole stadium waves them in unison.  It looks good on TV, but it looks even better in person.  I have yet to see too many things that top the sea of the rally towel waving phenomenon. 

Moving on to Game 4.  It got off to a rough start, which people might forget.  However, even though D. Lowe gave up those two early runs, that first inning could have been much worse.  Shane Victorino grounded into an inning-ending double play, so even though we were down 2-0, the inning ended on a good note and things were looking up heading into the bottom of the first.  The good mojo then continued.  Rafael Furcal tried to lay down a bunt but he popped it up to third.  But because the third baseman charged in, the bunt went over the third baseman's head.  Lead-off runner on, and he came around to score on a Loney double.  One of my friends wanted Bowa to send Manny from first on the double, even though he'd have been thrown out, because of the collision at the plate that would have occurred.  I still like the decision to hold him up, because if Ruiz holds onto a ball after getting trucked by Manny, it would have been a huge momentum swing in Philly's favor.

Little to nothing happened for the next few innings, and, being down only 2-1 in the middle of the game, things felt ok.  Then, in the bottom of the fifth, Manny singled in a run, Martin grounded out for an RBI, and we were up 3-2.  The stadium was rocking.  Not even Chan Ho's wild pitch in the next inning threw things too far off, even though it resulted in a run.  By the way, I did not like the switch to Chan Ho.  He always worries me.  The guy behind me dressed like William Wallace from Braveheart told me I was wrong about Chan Ho.  Well, I wasn't.  I would have much rather seen James McDonald come in at that point.  He looked amazing in Philly in Game 2.  Why not use him again? 

Anyhow, 3-3 heading into the bottom of the 6th, we were feeling pretty good.  Then Casey Blake came up and hit a shot.  Our seats were front row of the Loge, right by the left field foul pole.  We were bending down to try and get ourselves to the level and the wall to eye the ball's track.  I can tell you that it cleared the wall in left by about 6 inches.  Unreal.  4-3!  Rally towel time!  Rafael Furcal came up and got Ryan Howard to throw a ball into right field.  5-3!  More rally towels!  Even with Ethier lining out and then Martin lining into a double play, we still felt good.

Note:  Not scoring any runs in the 6th after the Howard error with 2nd and 3rd, no outs, and then bases loaded one out would come back to haunt us, in case you missed the game, which you didn't, so I'm just torturing myself by reliving all of this.

A blank 7th inning and then came the 8th.  Kuo had been lights out in the 7th but gave up a lead-off hit to Howard in the 8th and Torre pulled him.  To anyone who was watching this game on TV, please tell me there was a reason for this.  I heard a rumor of tightness in Kuo's arm.  For Joe Torre's sake, please tell me this is true, because, between pulling Lowe early, and then pulling Kuo, Torre didn't look so hot in his decision-making.  You know what happened next.  I was trying to find someone that my friend Alex was pointing out.  I heard a loud smack, my friend, Arjun yelled an expletive and I looked up in time to see Victorino's line drive land in the right field seats.  Wade came out, and Broxton came in.  I hated this move.  I hate when closers come into non-save opportunity situations.  Unless it's Mariano Rivera, I never think it's going to work.  Maybe Joe Torre got too accustomed to doing this with Rivera in the playoffs because he forgot that something happens to a closer when he comes into a tie game with runners on.  I don't know what it is, but it definitely happens to Broxton, even though he used to be a setup guy.  The second he became a closer, he forgot how to pitch in these situations.  Freaking Matt Stairs.  I hope he chokes on another Philly cheesesteak.  Are you kidding me?  Ethier didn't even budge when that ball was hit.  The park went silent.  Even after Victorino's dong, we were still feeling ok.  The top of our lineup was coming up in the bottom half and it was a tie-game.  The Stairs homer was a blunt knife to the heart.  Furcal reached to start the 8th, but then Ethier grounded into the DP.  Mild rally after that, which of course involved Manny, but Loney flied out and they may as well have ended the game right then.  7-5.  Game over.  I woke up this morning with a headache from all the excitement and noise, but without the joy of a win.  It was an amazing game.  The atmosphere was electric, but we lost.

Where does that leave us?  I know we're down 3-1 in a best-of-seven series.  Not good.  But, I see one scenario in which we can win.  Provided we win Game 5 tomorrow (no guarantee by any means), I think playing the final two games in Philadelphia will be to our advantage, again, if one scenario arises.  That scenario:  We need to pull a Seabiscuit in Game 6 and come from behind.  The Dodgers need to have a game like Game 1 in the Cubs series.  We have to go down early and be down going into the middle innings.  Then something has to happen to quiet the stadium.  A homerun.  A lucky play.  Anything.  The Philly fans will freak out a la Chicago Cubs fans.  If that happens, the Dodgers have proven that they can capitalize.  Again, the odds of that happening are slim to none, with slim packing its bags.  I'll say this though.  I have yet to meet a Philly fan who wasn't polite.  I couldn't be mad at any of them.  They seemed depressed if nothing else, like they expected to lose at some point.  I almost feel bad for them.  I know that they're brutal on their home teams, but when they come out to L.A., something must happen to them.  They're all nice out here.  Every one of them smiled when they were jeered.  I didn't see anything that remotely resembled a fight despite the peanut throwing from the Dodgers fans.  They Phillies fans were like Mets fans or Red Sox fans, only the exact opposite.  Nice bunch.

To conclude, I'll leave you with how I felt when I got home.  I signed onto AIM.  My friend D.J., another member of the crew at Chavez Ravine, IM'd me to let me know that a mutual friend had messaged him to let him know that he had won a 4-team parlay that involved the Browns to the over and the Phillies to the over.  As much as I love my L.A. teams, D.J., an NY native, probably loves the New York Giants 10-times more.  So of course, our friend picked that moment to bring up a random parlay to rub the loss of his Giants in his face right after it happened.  But he wouldn't do that to me, right?  Right after getting home from the game, right?  Wrong.  I even gave him an out.  He IM'd me right after D.J., and I knew why.  But before he could say anything but "hey," I said, "hey, just got back from the game, such a downer," or something to that effect.  Didn't stop him.  He brought up the freaking parlay.  It's like getting killed at the craps table and then having your friend come over from the other side of the table and brag about how much money he won on the Don't Pass.  Or, you know what it's like?  It's like going to a playoff game, watching your favorite team take a brutal loss, driving home, trying to take your mind off of the game by going on the computer, and having your friend brag about a stupid bet against your team, even though he knows you were at the game and are devastated because you told him so.  WTF.  That's what it's like. 

Oh well, go Dodgers!