Brewers, Cubs both tumble into 0-2 holes

PHILADELPHIA -- With one more loss to the Phillies, CC Sabathia and the Milwaukee Brewers will have all winter to rest.

Brett Myers rankled Sabathia with a pesky at-bat and dominated the rest of the Brewers from the mound, and Philadelphia beat Milwaukee 5-2 on Thursday night behind Shane Victorino's grand slam for a 2-0 lead in their best-of-five NL playoff series.

"I don't think starting on three days' rest had anything to do with it," Sabathia said. "I just didn't make pitches when I needed to."

Myers allowed two runs and two hits in seven innings, pulling the Phillies within one win of the NL championship series. Ryan Madson and J.C. Romero worked the eighth, and Brad Lidge had a suspense-free ninth for a change.

Pitching on three days' rest for the fourth consecutive start, Sabathia had his worst outing since joining the Brewers in a trade with Cleveland on July 7.

The burly left-hander allowed five runs and six hits -- all for extra bases -- in 3 2-3 innings. He walked four, his second-highest total of the season.

The Phillies are closing in on their first trip to the NLCS in 15 years. Game 3 is Saturday night in Milwaukee, with 45-year-old Jamie Moyer (16-7) pitching for the NL East champions against Dave Bush (9-10).

Sabathia was 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA in 17 starts for Milwaukee, almost single-handedly leading the wild-card Brewers to their first postseason berth since 1982.

But he struggled in the playoffs -- again. He's lost his last three postseason starts, including two against Boston in last year's ALCS. Overall, Sabathia is 2-3 with a 7.92 ERA in the playoffs.

"I just didn't finish at-bats, finish innings," Sabathia said.

Sabathia was uncharacteristically erratic in the second and the Phillies took advantage. Jayson Werth lined a one-out double to left-center and Pedro Feliz followed with an RBI double down the left-field line to tie it at 1.

After Carlos Ruiz grounded out, Myers kept the inning going by working a walk.

"I know I'm a terrible hitter," Myers said. "It was one of those freakish things where I was able to lay off his good pitches."

Sabathia then walked Jimmy Rollins on four pitches to load the bases. That brought up Victorino, who had a career-high 14 homers this season. Victorino fell behind 1-2 before driving a hanging cutter into the seats in left to give the Phillies a 5-1 lead.

caped further trouble by getting Corey Hart to hit into a home-to-first double play on a bouncer to the mound.

Dodgers 10, Cubs 3

CHICAGO -- After two duds by the Cubs at Wrigley Field, Manny Ramirez and the Los Angeles Dodgers look ready to run Chicago's championship drought to 100 years.

Ramirez hit a mammoth homer to extend his postseason record, Russell Martin had a three-run double and the Dodgers took advantage of four errors by the clumsy Cubs in a 10-3 victory Thursday night that gave them a 2-0 lead in the NL division series.

The Cubs became the 23rd major league team to lose the first two games at home in a best-of-five playoff series, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Only one has come back to win -- the 2001 New York Yankees against Oakland.

Of course, that Yankees team was managed by Joe Torre, now in the Dodgers' dugout.

The series switches to Dodger Stadium for Game 3 on Saturday night. Rich Harden will face Los Angeles' Hiroki Kuroda, who pitched a four-hit shutout against the Cubs in Los Angeles on June 6.

Chad Billingsley shut down Chicago's slumping lineup and Ramirez's 26th postseason home run landed on the roof of the batter's eye club in center, at least 450 feet away. It was his second jaw-dropping shot in two nights.

On defense, the Cubs collapsed. All four infielders made an error, including two in the second that led to a five-run inning for Los Angeles.

AMERICAN LEAGUE Rays 6, White Sox 4

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Evan Longoria and the Tampa Bay Rays looked perfectly at home in the playoffs.

The rookie homered in his first two at-bats and the surprising AL East champions were a big hit in their postseason debut, beating the Chicago White Sox 6-4 Thursday in their AL playoff opener.

After 10 seasons as baseball's doormat, Tampa Bay took the division with the best home record in the majors. And there were no October jitters as the young Rays kept winning at Tropicana Field behind James Shields' effective start and Grant Balfour's testy, bases-loaded escape.

Tampa Bay ranked near the bottom of the attendance charts this year, yet was cheered on by a sellout crowd of 35,041

Game 2 is Friday, when Tampa Bay's Scott Kazmir (12-8) faces Mark Buehrle (15-12).

"We want to win both of them now. We have such an advantage at home," Longoria said.

-- The Associated Press