Maybe Dodger manager Tom Lasorda is right. Maybe there really is a Big Dodger in the Sky.

The Dodgers were dead. They were losing to the Phillies, 5-3, with two out in the ninth inning of the National League's World Series preliminary. Eight straight batters had grounded out off relief pitcher Gene Garber, who was making it look easy. A crowd of 63,719 was screaming for the Phillies and jeering the Dodgers.

That was the scene, as described by Times sports editor Bill Shirley, 31 years ago Tuesday.

In the third game of a five-game NL Championship Series that was split 1-1, the Dodgers had scored two runs in the second inning (losing a potential third run when Steve Yeager was thrown out trying to score on pitcher Burt Hooton's double). The Phillies came back to take a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the inning during one of the most famous meltdowns ever by a Dodger pitcher.

Wrote Shirley:

Hooton walked (Ted) Sizemore to fill the bases. Hooton thought he had the next bater, pitcher Larry Christenson, struck out on a 1-2 pitch, but umpire Harry Wendlestedt did not agree. He called it a ball, and Hooton stormed around the mound in disgust. Then he lost his cool and his rhythm. While the notorious Philadelphia fans screamed and taunted him, Hooton walked Christenson, Bake McBride and (Larry) Bowa in succession to force in three runs. The fans loved every minute of it.

Lasorda said he did not think the crowd affected Hooton. The pitcher did not stick around to explain but some of his teammates said they thought it was probably a combination of the crowd and and the call on the pitch to Christenson. It was not a professional performance for a major league pitcher.

The Dodgers weren't down for long, tying the game in the fourth on hits by Ron Cey and Dusty Baker (each of whom hit grand slams - the Dodgers' last in the playoffs for 31 years - in the previous two games). Once again, however, the Dodgers lost a chance for more. With the bases loaded and one out, Rhoden (who had three homers in 1977) hit a fly ball to right field, and McBride threw Baker out at the plate - rather easily, according to Shirley, despite Baker's attempt to jar the ball loose from catcher Bob Boone.

Rhoden pitched 4 1/3 shutout innings in relief, and the game remained tied until the eighth inning, when the deuces went wild for the Philles, who combined two hits with two Dodger errors to score two runs. Poised to win the game was Garber, who nearly six years later, would be the on the mound facing R.J. Reynolds in the next decade's most memorable regular season Dodger game.

Garber got the first two outs. Facing defeat, Lasorda sent up 41-year-old Vic Davalillo, who had been out of the major leagues for nearly three seasons before the Dodgers signed him out of the Mexican League as a free agent in July, to bat for Yeager. The oldest player in the majors, Davalillo was batting .313 with no homers and no walks, so the Phillies knew he wasn't a power threat.

What they didn't know is that he would bunt - a perfect bunt that he beat out for a single.

Davalillo was followed to the plate by Manny Mota, just a few months shy of 40 himself. "Between the two of them, Vic Davalillo and Manny Mota are old enough to be dead," wrote Charles Maher in the Times. Yet in 49 games, Mota was 15 for 38 with a homer, 10 walks and no strikeouts. (His OPS was 1.021.)

Mota hit a long flyball to left field. Deep - but not deep enough. Catchable - but not catchable enough for Greg Luzinski, who got turned around and bungled the ball against the left-field fence. Mota got a double, and when Sizemore let Luzinski's throw into the infield get away, Davalillo scored to cut the Dodgers' deficit to one. Mota landed at third.

Davey Lopes came up. Shirley:

Lopes smashed a ground ball at third baseman Mike Schmidt, who already had made several marvelous plays. But this time, it appeared the ball hit a seam in the artificial turf and bounced off his glove to shortstop Larry Bowa.

Bowa fired the ball to first, almost catching the speedy Lopes, but umpire Bruce Froemming called him safe. On instant replay, it appeared Lopes got at least a tie. Anyway, Mota had scored the tying run and the Phillies were screaming at Froemming.

It was a day for everyone to get flustered. With Bill Russell now at the plate, Garber threw the ball away trying to pick off Lopes, allowing the speedy leadoff man to reach second base. Russell, who would win the 1978 NL pennant for the Dodgers over Philadelphia with a series-ending single up the middle, presaged his feat by knocking a Garner pitch to center field to drive Lopes in with the go-ahead run.

In the bottom of the ninth, the Phillies would get their own two-out chance when reliever Mike Garman hit Lusinski with a pitch. But Richie Hebner grounded out to Steve Garvey at first base, and the Dodgers had come away with an absolutely stunning victory.

After the game, Times writer Don Merry's focus was on Phillies manager Danny Ozark.

While Dodger manager Tom Lasorda was center stage, attempting to explain the weird events of the ninth, Ozark leaned limply against a wall, periodically putting a hand to his face. Then he would stare at the ceiling as if he were asking the man above why him? ... why his team?

"I certainly won't forget about this one for a while," the manager admitted. "This is a time I think I can bite a six-penny nail in half."

The Dodgers wrapped up the NL pennant the next day, with Tommy John, who had won 20 games with a 2.78 ERA (138 ERA+) in his second season following the surgery that would bear his name, throwing a complete-game seven-hitter. But Game 3 remained the one etched most firmly in the memory of those who lived through that series.

Jim Murray of the Times deserves the final word.

The things that happened to the Phillies should only happen to Idi Amin. Manny Mota, who hit his first home run in (five) years the other day, thought he detected a trend. Normally, in this situation, Manny perceives his job to poke one through the hole into right field and keep the rally going. This one he wound up on as though it were the head of a guy trying to creep in his bedroom window.

The Phils, the ingrates, would not take it. The mink didn't fit right. The new Rolls was the wrong color. Nobody was going to make charity cases out of them, by God. They spurned the Dodgers' best efforts to make them rich. ...

That's how it ended. Dodgers 6, Phillies 5. Thursday, here they go again.

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Back to the present: A commenter has hooked us up with Vin Scully's call of the ninth inning of Dodgers' National League Division Series-clinching victory Saturday, including "the one sweet, beautiful, marvelous" final out.

Meanwhile, Tony Jackson of the Daily News passes this along:

It does appear that the Dodgers' Game 4 starter will depend largely on whether Hong-Chih Kuo is healthy enough to be on the roster for this series. If he is, he'll be the second lefty in the pen and Clayton Kershaw probably will be the fourth starter. If Kuo isn't a go, Kershaw will likely have to be the second lefty in the pen, so Greg Maddux would get the nod in Game 4. Lefty relievers are vital in this series because the Phillies have so many dangerous lefties in their lineup, beginning and ending with N.L. MVP candidate Ryan Howard, who had a monster September.

Presumably, however, Derek Lowe remains a candidate to start Game 4 on three days' rest, which make sense, because thanks to off days, the Dodgers could follow with Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Lowe on regular rest if the final three games are needed.

Ken Gurnick of MLB.com, has more on Kuo.

With Kuo and that left elbow of his, the Dodgers never know for sure. In fact, the departure time for Tuesday's team flight was pushed back an hour so the club can first put Kuo through a morning simulated game as a final test before a roster is submitted Thursday.

"I'm ready," said Kuo.

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Jackson reported that every NLCS game except Game 2 will start at 5 p.m. Pacific time.