This Game 5 loss was on a dispirited bunch of players who didn't appear to want to endure another cross-country flight back to Philadelphia. But Torre's Game 4 pitching decisions left plenty of room for questioning — even if he wouldn't admit it after the fact.

But Derek Lowe said he was ready to pitch the sixth inning after only 70-plus pitches, and wouldn't you want your veteran horse on the mound, rather than a 20-year-old rookie left-hander who calls the manager, 'Mr. Torre'?

It took Clayton Kershaw, Chan Ho Park and Joe Beimel to get through that inning, leaving Hong-Chi Kuo as the lone remaining lefty. And after a quick and brilliant top of the seventh, Kuo was yanked after Ryan Howard's leadoff single in the top of the eighth that barely made it through the infield.

You know what happened after that: Shane Victorino's two-run homer off Cory Wade to tie it, and Matt Stairs' two-run homer to win it off closer Jonathan Broxton to seal a pivotal 7-5 victory.

Still, two days later, Torre stuck to his line that he wouldn't want anything to be different except the results.

So now the Dodgers face a winter of upheaval. Yes, they do have a quality core group of young stars, and this experience will serve them well.

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As Torre said, “this feels like the worst day of their lives, but I guarantee you, when they face this again, they will call this up, learn from it and move on. They did a lot of learning this year.''

But there are the pending free agencies of Ramirez, Lowe and Furcal. There are the up-in-the-air injury statuses of Takashi Saito, Brad Penny and Jason Schmidt. And the unknown futures of displaced veterans Juan Pierre, Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones, plus the likely retirement of Kent.

If this was the best the National League had to put in the Phillies' way, Manuel's team better be anticipating a whole new level of competition next week, when it will run into the American League champions.

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