The Dodgers' win over the Cardinals was especially thrilling — with two out in the 9th inning, the Cardinals up 2-1 and no one on base for the Dodgers, a playable liner to left was dropped by sure-handed fielder Matt Holliday. Three clutch at-bats later, slumping veteran Mark Loretta scratched out the biggest hit of his career and the Dodgers buried him in teammate love on the infield grass. (Here's Vin Scully calling the key at-bats of another Dodgers' walk-off win.) Nate Silver, whose fivethirtyeight.com got rave notices for statistical analysis of last year's presidential election campaigns, won't be surprised the Dodgers are leading the series 2-0 despite facing the Cards' top two pitchers. In 2006, he studied playoff winners in baseball and found that momentum, a veteran lineup and other factors don't predict success. Only three kinds of performance predict playoff winners, all related to pitching and defense, and the Dodgers stand out in Silver's so-called secret sauce categories.

Noted: Former Daily News managing editor Oscar Garza is blogging about the Dodgers for the LA Weekly.

Photo: MLB.com