It was 13-Oct’08, the astonishing moment for everyone at Dodger Stadium, in Philadelphia and across Canada at the Game 4 of Major League Baseball’s NLCS. With two out in the bottom of the eighth inning Monday night, Fredericton’s Matt Stairs snapped a 5-5 tie with a pinch-hit, two-run home run over the fence in right field off Los Angeles relief pitcher Jonathan Broxton. Broxton tried to throw a 3-1 fastball past Stairs, and the 40-year-old left-handed hitter drove it halfway up the right-field pavilion. Stairs’s first hit of the 2008 playoffs was also the first homer of his post-season career and third for Philadelphia in 19 games since he arrived in an Aug. 29 trade from the Toronto Blue Jays.
Three batters before Stairs went deep, Victorino erased a 5-3 Phillies deficit with a two-run home run off Dodgers rookie reliever Cory Wade. Victorino made headlines in a 8-5 Game 2 win with four runs batted in and in Game 3 Saturday when he exchanged words with Hideki Kuroda after the Los Angeles starter threw a pitch over his head.
Down 3-2 in the sixth, Philadelphia drew even on a Chan Ho Park wild pitch that allowed Ryan Howard to score from third base. With one out and the bases loaded, Phillies second baseman Chase Utley made the defensive play of the game, snaring a Martin liner and diving to touch second base to double up Rafael Furcal.
After the Dodgers cut the lead in half in the bottom of the inning against Phillies starter Joe Blanton, they went ahead with a pair of runs in the fifth. Lowe, pitching on three days’ rest for the fifth time in his career, allowed six hits and two runs in five innings. Blanton also went five innings, giving up seven hits and three runs.
Thanks to Stairs and a Dodgers bullpen that gave up five runs in four inning, the Phillies will head into Game 5 on Wednesday looking to wrap up the National League Championship Series behind ace Cole Hamels. Stairs’ home run provided a fitting end for a game that saw the two best regular season bullpens in the National League take turns trying to hand the game away.
Tie game, eighth inning, two outs, runner on first base. With the pitcher due up, the Phillies called on Stairs, who’s on the eleventh stop of his career in Philadelphia at the age of 40, to pinch hit. And Stairs launched a Jonathan Broxton pitch deep into right field in Dodger Stadium, giving the Phillies their 7-5 margin of victory and quite possibly breaking the Dodgers’ backs in the process.
After sixteen years, Stairs’ massive, button-popping swing has run into a huge post-season home run, and it’s hard not to be happy for the guy.
Related Articles : http://mlb.fanhouse.com/2008/10/14/matt-stairs-is-your-unlikely-postseason-hero/
