Phillies-Giants: Philadelphia’s Bullpen Dominates NLCS Game 5

Even the great ones need a hand sometimes.

Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum were supposed to be the stars in Game 5 Thursday night, but it was the Philadelphia Phillies’ bullpen that lent Halladay a hand and stole the show Thursday night as the Phillies staved off elimination and beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2.

The Giants now lead the best-of-seven NLCS 3-2.

This game was very similar to Game 1 in which both Lincecum and Halladay were good, but neither was great. I would venture to say Lincecum out-pitched Halladay, but it was one inning that did him in.

Lincecum gave up three runs in the third thanks to a bloop single by Raul Ibanez, a hit batter, a bunt that was foul, but was called fair and then a big error by first baseman Aubrey Huff.

The big play of the inning was the Halladay bunt that was foul, but was called fair by home plate umpire Jeff Nelson. The bunt was not even a foot in front of Nelson, so I am not sure how he missed it.

Buster Posey picked up the ball and tried to get Ibanez at third, but Pablo Sandoval couldn’t get to the bag in time and Ibanez was safe. Carlos Ruiz advanced to second and now the Phillies were set up with second and third and one out.

Interesting note about this play. Halladay didn’t run to first right away. Eventually he just jogged to first.

At the time, I thought to myself, how could he not run to first and try to help himself out? The reason he didn’t run was because, as Charlie Manuel later revealed in his press conference, Halladay pulled his groin the inning before.

The next batter was Shane Victorino, and he grounded sharply to first. The ball hit off Huff’s glove and knee and ricocheted out into right field.

Keith Hernandez Huff is not.

The Phillies added an all important third run in the inning and took a 3-1 lead.

From there, Halladay took over. Well, sort of.

Halladay was by no means great in this game. When Halladay walked Andres Torres to lead off the game, you just knew Doc wasn’t on top of his game.

Halladay went six innings mainly because the Giants did a good job of running up his pitch count. Halladay gave up six hits, two runs, two walks and struck out five. Not a classic Halladay performance, but it was good enough.

After Halladay departed, the bullpen did the rest.

Jose Contreras, J.C. Romero, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge were the hot knives and the Giants batters were butter. The foursome combined to pitch three innings of one-hit, no-run baseball, while striking out five.

Madson was the most impressive of the bunch. I thought he would be tired after throwing 37 pitches the night before, but he went through Buster Posey, Pat Burrell and Cody Ross with no problem. He struck them out on just 13 pitches.

Overall, this might have been the best game the Phillies have played from top to bottom this series. Now they head home and it wouldn’t shock me or anyone else if they come back to win this series.

Game 4 will be Saturday.

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