Torre no stranger to cold-weather success

Yesterday in the Los Angeles Dodgers' clubhouse, Joe Torre was managing the Yankees.

The images flickering across a smattering of suspended TVs showed the 2003 playoffs: Torre's New Yorkers were playing Boston in the American League Championship Series, and the Yankees' Aaron Boone was about to hit an 11th-inning home run in Game 7, sending Torre's old club to the World Series.

A few yards away, in the visiting manager's office at Citizens Bank Park, Torre appeared to be watching the same broadcast, his feet kicked up onto a chair, his eyes looking upward.

Sure, it's been years since that night. Torre is across the country and players have switched teams, but you couldn't help but watch Boone's heroics and wonder if this National League Championship Series, tied at a game apiece, might end in similar, surprising fashion.

There's been enough craziness already.

That night six years ago, New Yorkers were drinking hot chocolate and blowing on their hands. The weather was frigid, much like that of yesterday's afternoon workouts in Philadelphia and the forecast for tonight's game, during which temperatures are expected to dip into the 30s.

At 8:07, Game 3 commences. The Dodgers will pitch righthander Hiroki Kuroda, who will make his first start since suffering a herniated disk in his neck, which was revealed on Oct. 2.

In last year's league championship series, which the Phillies won, four games to one, Kuroda was the only Dodgers pitcher who triumphed.

The Phillies will start lefthander Cliff Lee, who dominated Games 1 and 4 of the division series against Colorado. Lee has yet to face the Dodgers this season.

Yesterday afternoon, a few minutes before the Dodgers worked out, Torre and his players talked about having faith in Kuroda, the second life offered by the team's Game 2 comeback, and playing in the cold tonight at Citizens Bank Park.

Kuroda, the Dodgers' opening-day starter, has yet to pitch in this postseason after an injury-filled season that included a concussion as he took a line drive off his head on Aug. 15.

Kuroda said yesterday that he was "not worried" about his capabilities physically, but surely remembered last season's postseason victory over the Phillies.

"They obviously have a powerful lineup and I was able to pitch well against them," Kuroda said through a translator, adding that "perhaps there is a little bit of confidence."

In Kuroda's only start against the Phillies this season, he pitched six scoreless innings.

Torre gave Kuroda the thumbs-up after watching him pitch Tuesday.

"I was very surprised by his command. . . . He looked a lot more comfortable than I anticipated he would," Torre said.

"He's a guy who wants to step up in this situation," said outfielder Andre Ethier, whose bases-loaded walk in the eighth inning of Game 2 drove in the winning run in the 2-1 victory. "He's a guy who wants to have the light on him."

"We feel pretty good about Kuroda, but Cliff Lee was a good get for that team," Torre said.

Of Friday night's game, Torre said, "To come away 0-2 would have been, not impossible, but . . ."

Torre said tonight's weather would favor the pitchers, not the hitters, but Ethier, who at the time was pulling on a second layer of spandex, said he would not be bothered at all by the weather.

"Magnitude of this game, you can't use the weather as a crutch," he said.