Intense!

Wow. No need for a caffeine buzz during that game. I felt like I was floating three inches off the couch for almost the entire game. I'm beat. I've got to stop doing that to myself.

But the good part is the Dodgers won and now they're back in the series. And fortunately, neither the Phillies nor the Dodgers lost their heads (although you could make a case for Manny) during that brush-back nonsense. So, hopefully, the series will continue with a sense of decorum. Unfortunately, I know I won't be able to say the same for the TV networks. My count after the benches cleared in the top of the third: Fox showed the bench-clearing incident 6 more times. ESPN News showed it five times within a 15-minute period of airing the live postgame press conferences.

I tried to put together a timeline of my thoughts during the game. There was no way I was going to blog live. I can't write coherently when I'm that emotionally invested. So I scribbled down some stream of consciousness to write here later. Hopefully it makes sense. Oh, and the Dodgers won 7-2. Phillies still up in the series 2-1.

8:07 p.m.: Joe Buck makes the first intro before the game. First player mentioned: Manny Ramirez.
8:11 p.m.: Nomar Garciaparra is replacing James Loney at first base. Nomar is hitting .417 lifetime against Phillies pitcher Jamie Moyer.
8:25 p.m.: It's time for the "Ford Keys to the Game." One of the "Ford Keys" is that the Phillies won two games at home and now they're in L.A. That's not a key to the game. That is called an "obvious statement of fact."
8:27 p.m.: High pitch, but over the plate, to Chase Utley. Everyone's favorite announcer Tim McCarver wonders if it was intentional.
8:29 p.m.: Dodger starter Hiroki Kuroda throws a similar pitch to Ryan Howard. Nobody says anything.
8:30 p.m.: First spotting of L.A. fans waving hankies. Oh, goody. Fortunately, there doesn't seem to be as many as there was in Philly. I don't know if that means there are more L.A. fans willing to take a stand or if that's just the usual la-di-da L.A. reputation.
8:31 p.m.: McCarver gets Blake DeWitt confused with Rafael Furcal. They sure do look alike!
8:33 p.m.: Ahh!! It's Mary Hart! Giving the Dodgers lineup! I haven't seen her since 1989. She is cringe-inducing as always.
8:36 p.m.: Manny singles after base hits from Furcal and Andre Ethier. Dodgers lead 1-0. Wow, the crowd's loud.
8:43 p.m.: Casey Blake, after a lousy strike call by the ump, cues a shot to right field. Dodgers lead 2-0.

8:48 p.m.: Blake DeWitt turns on a high breaking ball and clears the bases with a triple! 5-0! Moyer is toast!
8:57 p.m.: Joe Buck prattles on about how Manny's changed the culture in the Dodger clubhouse. McCarver adds insult to injury by saying, "When that happened they were anything but blue." Why, Tim, why?

9:02 p.m.: Brooke Shields is selling volkswagens now. She looks great. The subject of so many teenage boy fantasies when I was in high school. I'm sadly transfixed.
9:03 p.m.: Furcal hits a HOME RUN! He nearly lost his helmet jumping on the pitch. It's as close as he'll ever get to being Reggie Jackson. Moyer's out of the game.

9:11 p.m.: Russell Martin ducks out of the way of a high-and-tight pitch and then smacks his helmet on the ground after grounding into a double play. THAT looks like it got under Martin's skin.

9:19 p.m.: Kuroda throws OVER Shane Victorino's head. Victorino's pointing and gesturing -- not at my head, throw at my ribs, he's saying (I actually thought Victorino's gestures were amusing. It made me appreciate him more, even though there was no way the pitch was all that close to his head. He had the presence of mind to know that Kuroda might not understand him if he started yelling at him).

9:20 p.m.: BENCHES CLEAR! Manny's being held back by FOUR Dodgers (my initial thought at all this was "Oh god, this is what Red Sox fans were talking about. Manny's going to destroy every ounce of good will he's built up with this one act.") Coaches Mariano Duncan and Davey Lopes are jawing! Fired up as players and fired up as coaches! How come Larry Bowa didn't try to clock someone? (Victorino later said some teammates said Kuroda was saying stuff and that's what started the bench clearing, but I haven't heard much else about what led to it).

9:45 p.m.: McCarver makes some stupid comment about how players from different teams never fraternized with each other 25 years ago and if pitchers threw at players more that would "take care of the fraternizing." I never understood what was so bad about players being friendly with each other. They still play just as hard. And I certainly wouldn't whip a ball at someone to put a stop to it.

9:48 p.m.: Garciaparra knocks in a run. 7-1 Dodgers. Good move, Torre!

9:53 p.m.: Joe Torre looks distracted in his in-game interview with Buck and McCarver.

9:54 p.m.: Furcal guns down Pedro Feliz at first. Great, great arm. I think arm strength impresses me more than anything else -- more than home run power, a great glove, speed, anything. Probably because my arm is useless.

9:59 p.m.: Casey Blake slides into first on a ground out. Dumbest play in baseball.

10:00 p.m.: Dodgers fans, in yet another unfortunate act, perform the wave. McCarver stays with the unfortunate theme and says, "Dodger fans hope it's a tidal wave." Sense-meter's at zero, Tim.

10:02 p.m.: As I'm sorting my cards, McCarver starts rambling about Don Drysdale, just as I pull a Drysdale card from it's nine-pocket sleeve.

10:08 p.m.: The Phillies' So Taguchi wears No. 99. How come we didn't hear endless stories about Taguchi when he picked No. 99 to wear?

10:36 p.m.: Matt Kemp is another guy with an awesome arm. Very cool.

10:40 p.m.: Twelve-year-old Ellie Smith sings "God Bless America." They couldn't find Sarah Palin's daughter?

10:47 p.m.: Martin gets hit with a breaking ball. Everyone's cool. Everyone's cool.

11:02 p.m.: Great showing by Dodgers reliever Cory Wade. I've barely seen this guy this year. He looks unshakeable right now.

11:07 p.m.: Buck points out Hart again and Pat Sajak. So far we've seen those two, Jon Lovitz, Danny DeVito, Ryan Secrest, Tiger Woods, Henry Winkler, but nothing of probably the biggest celebrity Dodger fan Alyssa Milano (she's not the biggest celebrity. But she's a huge, knowledgeable Dodger fan).

11:15 p.m.: Jonathan Broxton is in. He always makes me nervous. But Broxton breezes through the inning and the Dodgers win!

11:22 p.m.: The first person Fox interviews after the game is not Kuroda, not DeWitt, but Victorino. The hype machine is cranking into overdrive. Then they interview Martin. The Dodgers are not polished interview subjects.

11:30 p.m.: Baritone Jeanne Zelasko says Eric Karros will replace the painful Mark Grace in the pregame studio for the rest of the NLCS. So now there are two Dodger fans in the studio, with Karros and Kevin Kennedy. That's got to please the Phillies faithful.

11:31: Martin is interviewed by ESPN. He uses the non-word "aggressivity." You've got to love Martin.

11:32: Phillies manager Charlie Manuel is holding his postgame interview. He's not polished either. But you can tell he's distracted by the noise going on just outside the room. It's Dodgers players screaming, "Our House! This is Our House!"

Very entertaining game. But very exhausting. I'll be working tomorrow night and won't get to see much of Game 4. Perhaps that's a good thing.