LOS ANGELES | Is a short-rested Derek Lowe a better option than veteran Greg Maddux or the youthful skills of Clayton Kershaw for tonight&#8217;s game against the Philadelphia Phillies?</p><p>Manager Joe Torre might be betting the Dodgers&#8217; season that he is.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;s got the mind-set and the experience,&#8221; Torre said, &#8220;that makes him raise his hand anytime you think about doing something like this.&#8221;</p><p>The official announcement came before Sunday&#8217;s game, with the Dodgers in a 2-0 hole in the National League Championship Series, but it was made even before the regular season ended.</p><p>&#8220;We were actually in San Francisco (at the end of the season),&#8221; Lowe said. &#8220;So we knew this was going to happen 10 days ago. I think that makes it easier to prepare for it, and it&#8217;s not a, &#8216;We&#8217;re down 2-0; can you go on three days&#8217; rest?&#8217;</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve known all along this was going to be the scenario.&#8221;</p><p>Lowe, 35, was 14-11 this season with a 3.24 ERA in 34 starts. He beat the Cubs in the first game of the previous round and is playoff tested: This will be his 21st postseason appearance in his 11th playoff series.</p><p>Philadelphia will start Joe Blanton, who worked six innings last Sunday in the clinching victory against Milwaukee in the division series.</p><p>Torre withheld public confirmation on plans to start Lowe because he wanted to watch the first two games to see whether &#8220;there was something there that I was uncomfortable with.&#8221; There wasn&#8217;t.</p><p>&#8220;We were pretty much planning to do this,&#8221; he said. &#8220;The only (other) one I think I would have considered starting would have been Kershaw.&#8221;</p><p>But Torre wants to keep Kershaw, a lefty, in the bullpen to counter the Phillies&#8217; left-handed punch when needed, especially since Hong-Chih Kuo is an uncertain quality after battling elbow problems in the season&#8217;s final weeks.</p><p>Lowe is the acknowledged horse of the Dodgers&#8217; rotation after working a club-high 211 innings in the regular season. And he stymied the Phillies through five innings in Thursday&#8217;s opener before an error and two home runs produced three runs in a 3-2 loss.</p><p>&#8220;I think the short rest will not bother him at all,&#8221; Philadelphia manager Charlie Manuel said. &#8220;He&#8217;s a veteran who loves to take the ball. I&#8217;ve seen him start and come in two days later in relief.</p><p>&#8220;I think he&#8217;ll be the same pitcher who you saw the other day.&#8221;</p><p>But Lowe pitched just once over the last five regular seasons with less than four days rest between starts: May 18 this season against the Angels in Anaheim, Calif.</p><p>He gave up seven runs and 10 hits in five innings of a 10-2 loss.</p><p>Even so, Lowe sees no problem in the quicker-than-usual turnaround.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s easy this time of year,&#8221; he said, &#8220;because you pretty much cut back a lot of your workload anyway as far as the conditioning and lifting weights. You&#8217;re not really missing anything as far as that goes.</p><p>&#8220;I pretty much told (Torre) there&#8217;s no problem, I&#8217;ll pitch whenever.&#8221;</p><p>There could even be a benefit.</p><p>Sinkerball pitchers, like Lowe, are often more effective on short rest because the fatigue can create even greater drop on the ball for the simple reason that it&#8217;s not thrown as hard.</p><p>Also, Lowe produced perhaps the most memorable start in his 12-year career while pitching on two days of rest.</p><p>That was Oct. 20, 2004, at Yankee Stadium, when he allowed just one run and one hit in six innings as the Boston Red Sox completed their comeback from a 3-0 deficit in the American League Championship Series with a 10-3 victory in the decisive seventh game.</p><p>Torre was in the other dugout for that one.</p><p>His decision, if successful, will put the Dodgers&#8217; rotation in good shape for the rest of the best-of-seven series. Chad Billingsley, Hiroki Kuroda and Lowe would each have the usual four days of rest going into the fifth, sixth and seventh games.</p><p>If the series lasts that long.