LA Dodgers, Phillies win home openers

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Dodgers and defending champion Philadelphia started off on the right foot as the home teams prevailed in the opening day of the National League play-offs yesterday.

Matt Kemp got the Dodgers humming early with a first-inning homer en route to a 5-3 win over St. Louis and the Phillies rode pitcher Cliff Lee to a 5-1 rout of Colorado in game one of their NL division series. The Dodgers wasted no time getting to Cardinals starting pitcher Chris Carpenter and then got help from the bullpen to seal the victory.

"I was trying to be aggressive," Kemp said. "I put a pretty good swing on it and drove it to right field.

"Our bullpen is great. They got the job done."

The clubs established a Major League Baseball play-off record for a nine-inning game by stranding a combined 30 men on base.

Rafael Furcal earned three hits, including a triple, and knocked in a run for the Dodgers, who captured their second consecutive NL West title. Casey Blake finished two-for-four with a run batted in.

It took just three pitches for Los Angeles to score off Cy Young candidate Carpenter. He surrendered four runs on nine hits and walking four in five innings.

The Dodgers got a stellar performance from their pitchers. Randy Wolf gave up two runs on six hits and walked five in 3 2/3 innings. Jeff Weaver posted the final out in the fourth and looked just in solid in the fifth to record the victory.

Ronald Belisario tossed a perfect inning for Los Angeles and Kuo Hong-chih struck out pinch-hitter Troy Glaus to strand a two runners in the seventh.

George Sherrill and closer Jonathan Broxton finished it off.

Mark DeRosa went three-for-five with an RBI for the Cardinals.

St. Louis has dropped nine of their last 11 games dating back to the regular season.

Philadelphia’s Lee, making his postseason debut on the mound, scattered six hits, allowing a run only when the Rockies were down to their last out.

Philadelphia’s Raul Ibanez had two hits and drove in a pair of runs while Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth plated runners with extra-base hits off Colorado starter Ubaldo Jimenez.

Lee struck out five and baffled Colorado batters most of the day, retiring 16 in a row in one stretch. — AFP

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