For those who missed it, here’s a summary of what happened:

1. Derek Lowe had his first 1-2-3 inning of the night in the 5th, grounding out Rollins-Utley-Howard. He was at 74 pitches.
2. Torre, perhaps trying to learn from what happened in Game 1 of the series, takes Lowe out and replaces him with Kershaw. Kershaw doesn’t get some calls he probably should on low pitches, walks the first two batters.
3. Of everybody in the entire Dodgers bullpen, Torre brings in Chan-Ho Park to clean up the mess. A sacrifice bunt and wild pitch later, the tying run scores.
4. Either because of the all important matchups, or the sudden realization that Chan-Ho Park is kind of not good at all, Joe Bleimel comes in to finish the 6th inning. For those of you keeping count, that is three pitchers in one inning.
5. Hong-Chih Kuo comes out for the 7th inning, absolutely mows the Phillies down. In the bottom of the 7th, Kuo bats for himself with two runners on, so it’s obvious he’s going to come back in for the 8th too.
6. Kuo gives up a weak hit to the lead batter (Ryan Howard), Torre freaks and pulls him. Okay it makes sense for Kuo to be on a short leash, because his arm might fall off at any time. Who is warming up in the bullpen? Corey Wade, who pitched two innings the previous night, and Jonathan Broxton.
7. In comes Corey Wade who pops up Burrell, but then gives up a screaming linedrive to Shane Victorino that clears the wall. He gets lucky with a lineout, but gives up another hit (this time to Carlos Ruiz). Maybe having the tired guy come in wasn’t really the right idea, Joe.
8. Broxton comes in, facing Matt Stairs who hits a homerun so huge it is unbelievable. No, really, watch.
9. Dodgers are now down 7-5 instead of up 5-3, and lose game 4 of the 2008 NLCS.

It’s really interesting to watch this from the point of view of someone who has experienced the trauma, but doesn’t really care about the outcome of the game. You still get that sense of horror, but it’s a passing thing.

Righthander Tom Gordon, who has not pitched since July because of an elbow injury, is expected to have surgery. The Phillies have a $4.5 million club option, with a $1 million buyout, on Gordon in 2009.

You may remember him as inspiring a Stephen King book as well being one of Joe Torre’s abuse targets in 2004 and 2005. The best thing he did for the team, however, was be a Type A free agent who signed elsewhere allowing the Yankees Ian Kennedy and Joba Chamberlain to grab in the 2006 draft. Thank you, Tom.

The track record speaks for itself. I hope he gets us back to the playoffs. This speaks volumes about what the team is willing to do to win. I talked to Scott Proctor today. He said to be ready to pitch a lot. He likes to use the bullpen. That’s fine with me.

Derek Lowe

Without further ado, stuff to read:

I can’t go through the whole season and be perfect,” said Papelbon, who has converted 35 of 38 save opportunities. “I can’t remember a closer who ever went through a season without blowing a save. If you’re a closer that goes through a season and doesn’t blow a save, I’d like to meet you.”

Even Eric Gagne’s fellow relievers are trying to forget him!

The star closer was stretching late in Sunday night’s game against the Red Sox, preparing to warm up, when an errant toss hit him on both bare hands. Rivera initially thought the ball might have come from the stands, but more likely it was a wild throw that sailed out of Boston’s nearby bullpen.

“I’m sure it was just an error,” he said. “I know they didn’t do it on purpose.”

Rivera continued to get ready, and he preserved New York’s 4-3 victory Sunday. Pitching with a bruised pinkie on his right hand, he allowed a run in the ninth inning before retiring slugger David Ortiz on a game-ending popup with the bases loaded.

Hopefully this really is nothing, though it at least rattled him on Sunday. Apparently when the ball hit him, his arm went numb. Here’s the New York Times’ report on the matter. Not cool. He looked okay last night, he never does very well against the Orioles but he got his one out done without giving up a homerun to Aubrey Huff!

Moose had some really good movement on the ball tonight and was placing it well, even though he did walk three guys (which normally leads to MUSSINA MELTDOWN). It would be great if he could keep this up, I’m a little worried about starting so many rookies (and an old guy with ligament damage and a bleeding forearm!) in the playoffs.

Here are some bad things from tonight:

• Joba pitching two innings. This means they assume they can get 7 or 8 innings out of Andy on Friday which makes me nervous. The seventh inning would have been a perfect time to plunk Farnsworth in, especially since he has been doing okay lately.
• Edwar coming into pitch even though he pitched two innings yesterday. It was only for one out, but COME ON. There are other relievers to pick from, Joe!
• FOUR OUT MARIANO SAVES MAKE LEO ANGRY!!!!

Over at the NY Times Yankee blog, Tyler Kepner writes that Bobby Abreu is making the Yankees forget Gary Sheffield. I have been trying to forget Gary Sheffield since before he was traded, personally.

In news that is making me upset, Andy Pettitte is thinking about retirement.

“I’m not real sure what I’m going to do,” said Pettitte, who is 13-8 with a 3.78 ERA. “It’s kind of strange, because for sure I didn’t expect my arm to respond the way it has this year. That’s the whole reason I wanted the option, so I didn’t feel obligated if I was hurting this year to come back.

“I want to sit down with my family, my wife and my oldest boy and see what they think. I’m really not even thinking about it now.”

Come back for just one more year, Andy, please. I’m not ready to say goodbye yet.

Roger Clemens is apparently hurt, and has been so since his start against the Red Sox. So the question on my mind is why did the Yankees let Clemens pitch?. (Another question of course is: Why did the Yankees sign him in the first place?)

The real answer is that the Yankees management makes consistently bad decisions about pitching. On Sunday, following a start where he went for 7 innings and threw 119 pitches he looked a little tired come the end of the sixth inning. He got himself out of trouble, and the Yankees were trailing 2-1. Behind, but still reachable. Torre then made the bizarre and Grady Little-esque decision to bring him in for the 7th when he had already thrown 110+ pitches. I don’t care if Pettitte said he could pitch fine, it was clear from the 6th inning that he needed rest and the 7th inning was a disaster that proved this. Especially when Pettitte was not taken out as soon as he looked shaky, even though there were relievers warming up in the bullpen since the 6th. Great.

Not that I have any faith the Yankees could have come back to win it the way they have been playing lately. It is like April and May all over again. Most of the the team looks lazy in the field, and even worse at the plate. It’s obvious that Derek Jeter is hurting, yet Torre consistently gives Rodriguez the rest in blowout games before him. Again, I don’t care if Jeter says he’s okay he’s obviously not and it’s the manager’s job to tell him that he’s far too important to the team to risk getting a knockout injury.

To add to this, the ball that hit Andy Phillip’s wrist broke it. The only way this can end in anything but tears is if Giambi is the everyday first baseman, but I expect to see everyone’s favorite not a first baseman Wilson Betemit appear there more often. Andy Phillips is not a fantastic player by any means, but he is stable. Okay at the plate and good in the field. Scrappy players are generally overrated but the loss of Phillips is going to have a big impact on the team (who I doubt will be the Wild Card now).

(Click for the non-cropped version).

Although I took my screencap at 24 pitches, it listed Melky’s at-bat as a 176 pitch strikeout that ended with a foul with several hits for outs and no outs along the way.

Edit: Found a screengrab of all 176 pitches mapped.