Oct. 12 -- PREGAME: MANUEL SPEAKS & LINEUPS

BY SCOTT LAUBER

LOS ANGELES -- Less than an hour until the first pitch of Game 3, and the celebs are already filing in to Dodger Stadium. So far, The Blog has spotted Penny Marshall, Jon Lovitz and Peter Krause. We'll let you know if our spies see anyone else.

But you're a baseball fan, right? So, you probably prefer to know what Charlie Manuel said before the game and who the Phillies and Dodgers have in their NLCS lineups. Here goes. ...

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Here's a bit from Manuel, who spoke to the media for the first time since his mother died Friday:

Q: Charlie, first of all, my condolences, but how hard has this been for the last few days in dealing with everything?
A: Basically, I thought the other day when the game started, and I was -- I got really focused on the game and everything like that, I think it was kind of -- it was okay. It was fine. I mean, I got caught up in the game and everything kind of for, what, a couple hours or two or three hours, I was just totally involved in the game. And I felt like I was pretty good. I like being by myself a lot of times, and I think any time right now, any time that I can get away, I feel better that way. But we've got things to do. And I feel like that I know my mother would want me definitely in the dugout, because she used to manage a lot for me anyway. And I guess kind of like everybody else, but I feel very comfortable. I feel good. I feel like we've got some work to do.

Q: Following up, and you have spoken a lot about how she'll help you manage, when you're thinking about it, what great things did she tell you that you actually did follow or didn't follow?
A: Most of those things she'd tell me how to play baseball or something like that. I never listened to her anyway, but I'd just say, Yeah, Ma, whatever. And the fact she would always call me and she'd tell me things like, You go tell those guys that I said I'm praying for them and I want them to bear down and really get after it. And I used to say, Yeah, Mom, I'll be sure to tell them, okay. And also sometimes I might get a little upset I'd say one of these days I'm going to bring you up here and let you tell them. But she called me about four, five times a week. She's been actually about the last -- I'd say about the last eight or ten years she's always made a point to call me quite a bit.

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Your lineups:

PHILLIES
SS Jimmy Rollins
CF Shane Victorino
2B Chase Utley
1B Ryan Howard
LF Pat Burrell
RF Jayson Werth
3B Pedro Feliz
C Carlos Ruiz
LHP Jamie Moyer

DODGERS
SS Rafael Furcal
RF Andre Ethier
LF Manny Ramirez
C Russell Martin
1B Nomar Garciaparra
3B Casey Blake
CF Matt Kemp
2B Blake DeWitt
RHP Hiroki Kuroda

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A few numbers worth watching tonight: Jamie Moyer has struggled against several Dodgers hitters. Nomar Garciaparra is 15-for-36 (.417) with one homer and five RBIs against him, while Manny Ramirez is 18-for-53 (.340) with 10 homers and 20 RBIs.