LOS ANGELES – When the game was over Friday afternoon and he'd driven in the winning run and thankfully not taken the last fly ball off his face, Andre Ethier(notes) sat amid the duffel bags in the Dodgers' clubhouse, he listened to Joe Torre muse over the ugliness of such a win, and he wondered what was running through his own body.

By then, the Los Angeles Dodgers had scored their runs in the eighth and they'd given themselves a chance after two games of the National League championship series. By then, the people had cleared out from Dodger Stadium and were inching along the narrow streets of Chavez Ravine, and the late-afternoon sun had turned the San Gabriel Mountains a purplish gray.

They'd won 2-1. Pedro Martinez(notes) was sensational but didn't beat them. The Philadelphia Phillies' breakneck offense got a fourth-inning home run from Ryan Howard(notes), but Vicente Padilla(notes), Hong-Chih Kuo(notes) and Jonathan Broxton(notes) pitched to the minimum 17 Phillies from there.

LOS ANGELES – This is how the Philadelphia Phillies bury teams.

This is how they get ahead and narrow the risks that come with their own bullpen.

Narrow, not eliminate. Nobody scores that many runs.

This is how they get the ball to Pedro Martinez(notes), up a game out here, nothing to lose, Let 'er fly, Pete.

This is how they win a championship, maybe two, by turning a game into a rout in the course of a handful of pitches. Then doing it again, if they have to. And, OK, again.

It is an amazing game they play, sometimes ratty and always so dangerous. They score a few and let some in, work some counts and get into the other guy's bullpen, hunt the occasional first-pitch curveball that turns a game and have their big fellas even defer sometimes to their little fellas.

The Phillies' Carlos Ruiz hit a three run homer in the fifth inning of Game 1.

(Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

No National League team scored more runs. Only the Yankees hit more home runs in all of baseball. And now

LOS ANGELES – CEO Jamie McCourt owns half of the Los Angeles Dodgers, her attorney said Thursday, a claim that conflicts with owner and husband Frank McCourt's attorney's public statement and reveals the level of rancor that lies in a divorce settlement that will determine the direction of the iconic franchise.

Meantime, Frank McCourt is telling confidantes he has paperwork signed by Jamie that demonstrate he is the sole owner of the Dodgers and their holdings, according to sources. Frank McCourt's lawyer, Marshall Grossman, told Yahoo! Sports on Thursday that his client is the sole owner and that the team would not be sold. Furthermore, a high-level source with Major League Baseball confirmed that Frank McCourt is the sole owner of the team on the league's legal documents. "If that is disputed, I'm confident that there will be no mistaking Mr. McCourt's ownership for what it is – 100 percent," Grossman said. "I can confirm there is an agreement between the parties and that anyone

LOS ANGELES – On a short workout day before the Dodgers and Phillies would begin the National League Championship Series, Rafael Furcal(notes) stopped in a dank Dodger Stadium hallway, for a moment allowing buddies Manny Ramirez(notes) and Ronnie Belliard(notes) to walk ahead.

Rafael Furcal hopes to erase bad memories from last season's NLCS, particularly Game 5.

(Getty Images)

He'd hit a little, taken a few grounders, loosened his arm, treated his lower back.

He was wearing sunglasses on one of the grayer days of the year, but smiling. See, while the game is inherently cruel, it has its forgiving moments.

On the anniversary of perhaps the worst baseball game he's ever played, Furcal will get another shot at the Philadelphia Phillies. He gets the rare do-over.

“I'm going to try to play better,” he said, all but bowing to the opportunity, “and try to help my team play better.”

Last Oct. 15, the Dodgers were trying to hold off the Phillies. The Phillies were trying to finish the

LOS ANGELES – Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and his wife, team CEO Jamie McCourt, have separated, they confirmed in a joint statement provided to Yahoo! Sports on Wednesday night, the eve of the National League Championship Series.

“Frank McCourt and Jamie McCourt confirm that they are separated,” according to their statement. “This is a personal matter and they request that their privacy be respected. They will be making no public statements.”

It is unknown if the McCourts intend to divorce or what that might mean for the franchise, which Frank McCourt purchased in 2004 for $271 million. The price included the team, Dodger Stadium, the team's spring training facility in Vero Beach, Fla. and its academy in the Dominican Republic.

In April, Forbes magazine estimated the club was worth $722 million.

The contentious divorce of San Diego Padres owner John Moores from his wife, Becky, precipitated the sale this spring of the Padres to a group led by Jeff Moorad. Before the sale, Moores carved

LOS ANGELES – Dodgers manager Joe Torre said on the eve of the National League Championship Series that working for team owner Frank McCourt was not so unbearable that he would leave the club before his contract expired after next season.

“My relationship is fine here,” Torre said. “It's far from the living hell that it seems to say I was going through. You know, managing is tough during the course of the year, and you get worn out by the time the year is over, especially when you get to this time of year. But you get regenerated for the postseason.

“I know nothing about where that came from. And as I say, I still have the same plan that I've always had.”

The topic arose because of comments made earlier on Wednesday by ESPN's Peter Gammons, who told Michael Kay on 1050 ESPN NY that he believed Torre would resign after the season: “I think life with the Dodgers is pretty much a living hell. There will be a lot that comes out in time regarding Dodgers ownership.”

On Tuesday evening,

LOS ANGELES – Asked Tuesday evening to identify his four starters for the National League Championship Series, Joe Torre declined.

"I can't get into that," he said.

Clayton Kershaw pitched 6 2/3 innings, allowing two runs on nine hits while striking out four in his first postseason start last week.

(Stephen Dunn/Getty Images)

Whatever the names and whatever the order, few figured the pitchers would have the Los Angeles Dodgers here, through the NL West, past the St. Louis Cardinals and back in front of the Philadelphia Phillies.

They'll put Randy Wolf(notes), Clayton Kershaw(notes), Vicente Padilla(notes) and, it would seem, Hiroki Kuroda(notes) out there, keep pressing their guys' games against the other guys' names and play it out. It's an unlikely spin-off for a rotation that sought yet never did add the unqualified ace, that appears to have gone on without Chad Billingsley(notes) (who started two NLCS games last October) and that went through the likes of Eric Milton(notes),

DENVER – While Troy Tulowitzki(notes) stared balefully at his bat barrel, and the crowd here worked up its lungs for the umpires' exit, and Jim Tracy dropped his head just slightly, Brad Lidge(notes) and Carlos Ruiz(notes) met in front of the mound for among the most awkward man hugs ever.

They'd pumped four sliders at Tulowitzki, just sliders, with two runners on base and two out and, wouldn't you know, another one-run lead for the Phillies.

The National League Championship Series and the Dodgers and real baseball weather waited out beyond the next pitch. Ruiz, whom everyone calls "Chooch," had stood and gone to the mound after those four sliders, when the count was 2-and-2.

The man at second base, Rockies' imp Carlos Gonzalez(notes), had those four chances to decipher and relay Ruiz's sign for a slider. So Ruiz went to Lidge, the Phillies' wonky closer, to deliver more instructions.

Colorado Rockies closer Huston Street gave up three runs to the Phillies in the ninth inning of Game