Phillies overpower Dodgers to seize series lead

Pitcher Cliff Lee dominated the Dodgers and got plenty of support from the Phillies bats in an 11-0 victory in baseball's National League Championship Series.

The lopsided triumph gave the reigning World Series champion Phillies a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series that will send the winners to the Fall Classic.

Lee struck out 10 and allowed just three hits with no walks in eight innings.

"Cliff Lee, what can I say about him? He was absolutely outstanding," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said Saunday of the Cy Young Award winner acquired from Cleveland in July.

Left-hander Lee has been outstanding in three starts this postseason, allowing only two earned runs in 24 1/3 innings for an 0.74 ERA. He has also struck out 20 and walked only three.

Ryan Howard recorded a triple and Jason Werth homered as the Phillies took a 6-0 lead after two innings.

Howard has driven in a run in all seven of Philadelphia's playoff games this season - a record for a single postseason.

On Sunday Howard had three RBIs, including his two-run triple in the first inning. Werth followed that with a two-run homer, and that was more than Lee needed.

Lee surrendered two singles to Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez and one to Ronnie Belliard.

Lee also hit a single in the eighth and scored on Shane Victorino's three-run homer in the eighth. Chad Durbin relieved to begin the ninth and pitched a hitless inning.

The Phillies wasted no time in pouncing on Dodgers starter Hiroki Kuroda.

Every starter except Raul Ibanez had a hit and all nine starters scored a run.

Kuroda, making his first start in 20 days, got just four outs. He was pulled after allowing six runs and six hits.

"I think I made it hard on myself because I couldn't throw the first-pitch strikes," Japan's Kuroda said. "It just became harder and harder later on in the count. That's it."

Dodgers manager Joe Torre went with Kuroda over Chad Billingsley even though Kuroda was unavailable for the first-round series against St. Louis because of a herniated disk in his cervical spine.

Kuroda refused to blame his performance on any problem with his neck.

"I'm not going to make that the excuse, and I don't think it was the reason," he said.

"The ball didn't behave," Torre said.

Game four is here on Monday, when the Phillies will send Joe Blanton to the mound and the Dodgers give the ball to Randy Wolf.

"You never want to get your rear end kicked," Torre said. "But you don't toss and turn and wonder if you made the right move. It's still only one game and we're in position to tie the series tomorrow."

A sellout crowd of 45,721 made things as tough as possible for Kuroda and the Dodgers, waving their rally towels and chanting even before the first pitch was thrown.

Ramirez, who served a 50-game doping ban in the regular season, endured steroid jibes before he struck out in the seventh.

Victorino, who had words with Kuroda in the NL championship series last year after a fastball near his head, got the ball rolling in the first with a one-out single followed by stealing second base.

Chase Utley then singled, before Howard lined a ball into the right field corner to score both. The hefty slugger powered around second and dived into third for the triple.

"It was one of those things where I had to make up my mind," Howard said. "Once I hit second, I was going for it."