CHICAGO — Manny Ramirez and Joe Torre brought their winning postseason ways to the Los Angeles Dodgers — and Wrigley Field.
James Loney hit a go-ahead grand slam off a wild Ryan Dempster, Ramirez and Russell Martin homered and the new-look Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs 7-2 in their NL playoff opener Wednesday night.
The Cubs entered the postseason with the best record in the league, hoping for a fast start 100 years after their last World Series championship.
But Ramirez and Torre, winners of six World Series crowns in the AL, wound up on top in their first playoff game together. Ramirez’s homer was his 25th in the postseason, extending his own record.
“We get a sense of what he’s been doing all these years,” Loney said.
It was a good omen for the Dodgers. The last time they started a postseason series with a victory was 1988 — the Kirk Gibson game in the World Series.
The Cubs will try to get even in Game 2 on Thursday night when they send mercurial right-hander Carlos Zambrano against Chad Billingsley.
“Let’s hope we get better,” Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. “Let’s put this one behind us and go get them tomorrow.”
Torre made his 13th straight postseason managerial appearance — the previous 12 were with the Yankees — and extended his record for postseason wins to 77 in a matchup with Piniella, another veteran skipper.
The Cubs took a 2-0 lead on Mark DeRosa’s homer in the second inning off Derek Lowe, but the Dodgers rebounded against Dempster, who had trouble finding the strike zone all night.
Dempster walked the bases loaded in the fifth, and Loney delivered for the Dodgers.
After swinging and missing the first two pitches, he sent a 1-2 pitch over the wall in center for the grand slam that gave the Dodgers a 4-2 lead and silenced a Wrigley Field crowd that was cheering loudly for Dempster to get out of the jam he created.
“Invariably, when you keep putting people on, they’re going to score, and they scored there quickly with that grand slam,” Piniella said.
When Matt Kemp followed with a double, Piniella had seen enough and brought in Sean Marshall from the bullpen. Marshall gave up Ramirez’s solo shot in the seventh that made it 5-2.
The Dodgers padded the lead in the eighth when Blake DeWitt doubled and reached third on an error by Cubs’ center fielder Jim Edmonds, scoring on Casey Blake’s single off Jeff Samardzija. Martin homered off Jason Marquis in the top of the ninth.
On the first day of spring training, Dempster said he thought the Cubs would win the World Series this year. Now, they’re in a hole already.
Dempster (0-1), 14-3 at Wrigley during the regular season, threw 109 pitches in just 4 2-3 innings, giving up four hits and four runs while walking seven to tie a career high.
Lowe went 6-1 in his final 10 starts of the regular season as the Dodgers got past Arizona to win the AL West, with a huge boost from Ramirez’s 17 homers and 53 RBIs in 53 games after he was acquired from the Red Sox.
Lowe (1-0) worked six innings, allowing two runs and seven hits.
DeRosa, who played six positions this season while setting a career high with 21 homers, missed the final four games of the regular season with strained calf muscle.
After a single by Edmonds, DeRosa lifted a high fly down the right-field line, and the ball kept carrying, landing just over the fence and to the left of the pole to give the Cubs a 2-0 lead. It was his first postseason homer.
The wind at Wrigley Field, often a factor, was blowing from left to right across the field and announced at 6 mph to start the game.
Los Angeles also loaded the bases in the third on two walks and an infield single by Ramirez before Dempster struck out Andre Ethier to end it.
Dempster was helped in the inning by two nice defensive plays. Kosuke Fukudome, who got the start in right because of his defense not his slumping bat, snagged Blake’s foul fly as he tripped over the bullpen mound. And Alfonso Soriano raced to the warning track in deep left to flag down Russell Martin’s long drive.
Torre and Piniella met for the third time in the playoffs. Torre’s Yankees beat Piniella’s Seattle Mariners in the 2000 and 2001 AL championship series. The veteran managers came across each other at dinner Tuesday night.
“I felt pretty good about it. I said, ‘If you’re here, it must be a pretty good restaurant,”‘ Torre recalled telling Piniella.
The Cubs are out to end their 100-year championship drought and the Dodgers have been struggling in the postseason for the last two decades. Before winning Wednesday night, Los Angeles had been 1-12 in the playoffs since beating Oakland in the 1988 Series.
After all his successful years with the Yankees and the many eventful games, Torre was still well aware of his surroundings Wednesday night.
“I’ve been in the American League for 12 years, to come into Wrigley Field for a playoff game, this is pretty cool,” said Torre, who also has managed the Mets, Cardinals and Braves.
Notes:@ Greg Maddux pitched the ninth for the Dodgers. The 355-game winner made a couple of relief appearances in the postseason for Atlanta in 1998 and 1999. Maddux, who started his career with the Cubs and had two stints with them, got a warm welcome during pregame introductions.

PHILADELPHIA — Cole Hamels put Philadelphia in position to win, then Brad Lidge barely hung on. Behind their top two arms, the Phillies grabbed their first postseason victory in 15 years.
Hamels pitched eight brilliant innings, Lidge escaped a ninth-inning jam and Philadelphia took advantage of Mike Cameron’s miscue in center field for a 3-1 win over Milwaukee in their playoff opener Wednesday.
Chase Utley’s two-run double slipped out of Cameron’s glove in the third, helping the Phillies take a 3-0 lead. Lidge allowed a run in the ninth but struck out Corey Hart with runners at second and third to end it.
Game 2 in the best-of-five series is today, with ace CC Sabathia going to the mound for the wild-card Brewers on three days’ rest for the fourth consecutive start. Brett Myers pitches for the Phillies.
It’ll be tough for anyone to match Hamels’ superb performance. The
24-year-old lefty retired the first 14 batters and allowed two hits, striking out nine.
Lidge, 41-for-41 in save chances during the season, pitched out of trouble in a shaky ninth. The Brewers had the tying run at the plate when Prince Fielder fanned for the second out. After J.J. Hardy walked to put two runners on, they advanced on a wild pitch. But Hart struck out swinging to end it.
Hamels baffled the fastball-hitting Brewers with his dazzling changeup, helping the Phillies earn their first postseason win since the 1993 World Series against Toronto.
The NL East champions were swept out of the first round by the surging Colorado Rockies last year. Hamels lost the opener of that series.
Making his second start since returning from surgery for a torn knee ligament, Milwaukee’s Yovani Gallardo got rattled after his defense fell apart in the third.
The 22-year-old righty allowed three unearned runs and three hits in four innings, walking five. Gallardo became the second pitcher in major league history to start a postseason game without recording a win that year. He pitched in three games before he injured his right knee on May 1 and had a 1.88 ERA to go with four no-decisions.
Carlos Ruiz started Philadelphia’s third inning with a single. Hamels then bunted hard to third baseman Bill Hall, who bobbled the ball, costing him a chance to get Ruiz at second. Second baseman Rickie Weeks dropped Hall’s throw to first for an error.
Gallardo almost worked out of the jam, though. He retired Jimmy Rollins on a shallow fly and struck out Jayson Werth. But Utley ripped a liner through a swirling wind to center. Cameron took a poor route, raced back and reached up for a backhanded catch only to have the ball bounce out of his glove.
Both runners scored on Utley’s double for a 2-0 lead. A three-time Gold Glove winner, Cameron usually makes that play look routine.
Gallardo intentionally walked Ryan Howard and then walked Pat Burrell to load the bases. Gallardo walked Shane Victorino to force in another run, before retiring Pedro Feliz on a fly to center.
Hamels, who didn’t get much run support as he went 14-10 in the regular season, didn’t need any more. The Phillies had just four hits.
Hart lined a single to right on an 0-2 pitch with two outs in the fifth for Milwaukee’s first hit. Hamels pitched out of his only jam in the sixth. Craig Counsell singled with one out and Cameron walked. But Hamels fanned Hall on a down-and-away changeup and got Ryan Braun to pop out.
A sellout crowd of 45,929 at Citizens Bank Park withstood a steady rain for most of the game, waved their “Fightin’ Phils” rally towels and savored a rare playoff victory.
This championship-starved city hasn’t celebrated a title since the NBA’s 76ers won it all in 1983.
The Brewers, in the postseason for the first time in 26 years, now turn to Sabathia. The burly left-hander almost single-handedly carried Milwaukee into the playoffs, going 11-2 with a 1.65 ERA after he was acquired July 7 from Cleveland. But Sabathia is just 2-2 with a 7.17 ERA in four postseason starts.
The Brewers haven’t fared well in Philly this year. They were swept in a four-game series here three weeks ago. Manager Ned Yost was fired with 12 games remaining after that series and third-base coach Dale Sveum took over.
Milwaukee entered September with a 5½-game lead in the wild-card standings, but didn’t clinch a spot until the New York Mets lost to Florida on the final day of the season.

In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement and discussion guidelines.

Need help? Email Us.