World Series 2010: San Francisco Giants Prevail On a Scary, Tense Night

It really is a mesmerizing ballclub, not because the wildest crowd in San Francisco swings orange towels to erupt in a crazed frenzy, and not because the Giants closer Brian Wilson wears a beard to initiate a catchy mantra that has fans chanting “FEAR THE BEARD,” but they are an amazing ballclub because the Giants comprise of all the components to produce an epic classic.

Even in this culture where baseball is seen as an uneventful sport, the Giants captivated our attention with postseason dominance and a glamorous cast. With all the star power in these playoffs, the Giants clinched the National Championship Series, defeating the Philadelphia Phillies 3-2 in a compelling, dramatic masterpiece at Citizens Bank Park.

In the end, as elated as the Giants were, the guys darted into the clubhouse and celebrated a remarkable win. It was a mammoth celebration inside the clubhouse, as the players popped the corks and were drenched with champagne to rejoice in triumph. The storyline eventually emerged as a miracle, and the Giants managed to outweigh the Phillies and accomplished the improbable, one nobody expected this postseason.

Once it all ended, the Giants gathered collectively in the infield, hugging and celebrating wildly over winning the pennant. Instantly, a nerve-racking, horror night turned into a mournful night at the ballpark where an enthusiastic crowd went silent. Never mind the nightmarish scene in the bottom of the third from Jonathan Sanchez. Never mind that the benches emptied and heads exploded when the left-hander had no outs in the third, and unintentionally hit Phillies second baseman Chase Utley on an errant pitch.

From there, the Giants rushed to the mound as well as the Phillies to provoke an altercation in the infield. Even though Sanchez lost composure and yelled at Utley, the Giants somehow avoided a nightmare when manager Bruce Bochy yanked Sanchez only two batters into the third inning as the game rapidly started to unravel. With the score tied 2-2, Jeremy Affeldt was summoned and cleaned up a disastrous episode.

It was the smartest transition to call on the bullpen, successful in rescuing the Giants from a jammed inning when Affeldt fanned two Phillies in two perfect innings of relief. It wasn’t long before Bochy summoned another reliever to keep the contest within scoring distance, and decided to call Madison Bumgarner to the mound, putting tremendous pressure on the 21-year-old left-hander who escaped with two scoreless innings.

Much of the night, Bochy gambled and juggled with his bullpen and even brought in his starter Tim Lincecum. It was a reckless move, given that he had thrown 104 pitches two nights before. In the closing moments, Wilson, the most underrated closer in the game, ended the Phillies season. This time, he viciously stared at Ryan Howard and struck out the Phillies star looking on a fastball. These days, however, Howard’s inability to drive in runs remains obscure.

“I wanted it to be like that,” Wilson said. “I want to face their best hitter and (be) one pitch from possibly losing.”

But either way, the credit still goes to the Giants.

It wasn’t pretty, but they still prevailed. It wasn’t expected, but it was possible. And it happened.

In clarity, the Phillies produced 97 wins in the regular season for the most wins in baseball, and the Giants defeated arguably the best team in baseball. The Phillies won the National League pennant last season, and the Giants delayed a charming moment. In this series, the power vanished, the home runs descended, the vulnerability increased and the Phillies stumbled. It happened instantly in the eighth inning for the Giants, a moment they witnessed glory when Juan Uribe belted a home run to take a 3-2 lead.

“I feel good when I hit the ball,” Uribe said. “I know the ball go [when hit to right field].” 

It wasn’t a chaotic dispute that took place, but a moment of solidarity and no one exchanged punches.

Fairly, the Giants are no longer tortured, but near-invincible after Saturday night. They are now the National League champs, winning their first pennant since 2002. There will be thousands waiting at the beautiful ballpark in San Francisco, to embrace a refreshing moment for a franchise that has channeled emotion and assurance.

Who ever thought the Giants would reach such a climax, after having to play for a playoff berth on the last day of the season. What they have overcome is truly unbelievable, considering that the Giants almost missed out on all the excitement and fun this postseason.

“I can imagine the streets of San Francisco,” Wilson said.

Yes sir, the streets are wild near the shores of the bay.

Amazingly, the Giants are seeking to win their first World Series since 1954.

It’s possible.  

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NLCS 2010: An Underdog Story Tells Us Why We Play The Games

Last night the season of the beloved Phillies came to an end when the San Francisco Giants defeated the favored Phillies in Game 6 of the NLCS.

Already fans are complaining, “The Phillies should be in the World Series! or The Giants got lucky! This isn’t fair!”

My response is that it is fair.

Don’t get me wrong, being a huge Phillies fan I’m very disappointed that they lost.

However, I’m not going to say that the Giants don’t deserve to be there.

We all know that the Phillies are the better team on paper, but in reality, it doesn’t mean anything.

We play the games for a reason.

If the best team on paper made the World Series every year, there would be no point for the regular season or the postseason.

That’s not baseball.

Philadelphia fans should know this since they experienced a similar story when the Phillies won in 2008.

This year’s 2008 Phillies were the Giants. 

Halfway through the season, the Giants were just a game above .500 (41-40).

Down the stretch, they turned around and stunned everyone by outlasting the San Diego Padres and winning the NL West.

Suddenly, they shock the entire nation by defeating the reigning National League champions.

Who knew that waiver pickup Cody Ross, and the rookie Buster Posey would be great?

As a respectful baseball fan I won’t talk down on the Giants, but instead tip my hat off saying, “Hey, you were the better team and deserve to be in the World Series.”

As Philadelphia fans, we can’t look at this in a negative way, even though it’s hard.

We have to say, “We’ll get them next year!”

In baseball, we witness miraculous triumphs and unbelievable underdog stories that are unpredictable.

It’s the beauty of the sport.

We have seen these events happen before when the 2004 Boston Red Sox overcame the curse that no one ever thought would be broken, or when the Phillies won the World Series in 2008.

This is what baseball really is.

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Bullpen’s Effort, Juan Uribe’s Blast Send Giants into the World Series

Games like this make baseball the greatest sport there is. Playoff baseball at its best, with one team trying to reach the World Series for the first time since the Barry Bonds era and the other attempting to keep their season alive. Philadelphia was packed full of fans not ready to say goodbye to 2010, while the San Francisco Giants blocked out the enthusiasts in their effort to end the National League Championship Series here and now.

The sixth game didn’t begin as they would have liked, as starting pitcher Jonathan Sanchez was off from the start. He has been terrific for the Giants, posting a 3.07 ERA during the season and an ERA much lower this postseason, but if there is one negative it’s his tendency to be wild. He certainly was against the Phillies on this night; his start was auspicious, and his exit was soon thereafter.

Two runs crossed for Philadelphia in the first, as the young left-hander issued a walk and allowed three hits in the frame to put his team behind. He struggled with his control in the second but helped his cause in the top of the third.

Roy Oswalt, who took the loss in relief in Game 4, made quick work of the Giants in the first two innings but ran into trouble in the third, as Sanchez greeted him coldly. The pitcher made solid contact and rapped a single up the middle. With that, noise was made and a busy inning had begun. The suddenly hot Andres Torres singled him to second, then Freddy Sanchez did his job in bunting the two over for Aubrey Huff. San Francisco’s slugger delivered, scoring Sanchez with a single.

Torres wasn’t as fortunate, as the speedster was gunned out at home on a strong throw by Shane Victorino.

Usually rallies are killed by such plays, but heads up base-running by Huff made all the difference in keeping the inning alive. He went to second as the throw from Victorino went home, and the decision paid dividends, as first baseman Ryan Howard was unable to scoop Buster Posey’s ensuing grounder in an attempt to record the final out. Huff was on the move as soon as contact was made and kept running as Howard struggled to coral the dribbler. As he crossed home plate without a throw, the Giants tied the game. It would remain 2-2 for a long time.

That’s because of Oswalt’s superb outing and the remarkable performance put together by San Francisco’s bullpen. Sanchez was pulled after allowing the first two to reach in the bottom of the third and after his jawing match with Chase Utley in a mild, benches-clearing fracas. His mind was all out of sorts, which was especially sad considering how dominant he was in his previous start against Philadelphia. But Jeremy Affeldt had his back, retiring the dangerous 4-5-6 hitters in the Phillies lineup without relinquishing a run. One of those who fanned was Ryan Howard, who remained RBI-less in the postseason by grounding out.

Affeldt began the effectiveness out of the pen, and Game 4 starter Madison Bumgarner and lefty specialist Javier Lopez followed suit. The trio combined to pitch five innings of three-hit ball, and, as a result, the eighth inning began with the score stuck at two apiece.

Ryan Madson, who had relieved Oswalt to pitch a scoreless seventh, took the mound for the eighth, hoping to have another uneventful inning under his belt. The first two Giants went down harmlessly, but then Juan Uribe stepped to the plate.

Uribe, who had the game-winning sacrifice fly in Game 4, was looking to put San Francisco ahead once more. A stout six-footer, the nine-year veteran with a constantly aggressive mentality went after Madson’s first pitch, a slider, and made sure he wouldn’t get it back. A level, almighty swing produced a high fly-ball to right field. Uribe sprinted out of the box, not counting on it drifting into the seats. Then, as he approached first base, the ball snuck over the wall by no more than a foot. Citizen’s Bank Park went silent. All that could be heard was Uribe’s feet and the cheers from the Giants dugout. It was music to the ears of every fan of San Francisco.

Holding a 3-2 lead, Tim Lincecum of all pitchers entered. Their ace who started just two nights earlier had been warming in the pen at the time of Uribe’s liftoff, and, just making the second relief appearance of his career, he was unsurprisingly shaky. Two singles were allowed with one out by the unorthodox right-hander, which led to his exit and closer Brian Wilson’s entrance.

Life was pumped back into the stadium, but it was soon taken away, as Carlos Ruiz lined a fastball from Wilson right into Huff’s glove at first, starting a demoralizing inning-ending double play. Uneasiness consumed the crowd, and the silence returned. Their team was now possibly three outs away from vacating amidst severe depression.

Philadelphia wouldn’t go down without a fight, but they would indeed go down. Two walks were issued by the quirky, black-bearded Wilson, the second coming with two out, but Howard did what Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees had done just the night before. He stood there, bat on shoulder, and watched the seventh pitch of the appearance, a hard slider, hit the outside corner for strike three. The call was made, Howard stood dejected, and Posey jumped out of his crouch and rushed towards Wilson. His teammates did the same, and the celebration began.

With that, the suspense culminating in one memorable strikeout, San Francisco is heading to the World Series for the first time since 2002, trying to attain their first title since 1954.

Three years before their last championship, Bobby Thomson hit the “Shot Heard ‘Round the World” to win the NL Pennant. The Giants, then of New York, lost the World Series to the Yankees. Uribe’s blast wasn’t as dramatic, nor does it come close to comparing to Thomson’s incredible moment, but it could do something his did not. The homer to right could help the Giants to a World Series championship. Now, the Texas Rangers stand in their way.

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NLCS 2010: Juan Uribe, Bullpen Lead SF Giants to 3-2 Win Over Phils; Advance to Series

Juan Uribe‘s solo homer with two outs in the eighth inning and seven innings of shutout relief by their bullpen led the San Francisco Giants to a 3-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies, advancing the Cinderella team to the World Series.

The box score will reflect that Ryan Howard, the RBI machine of so many past big games, looked at a 3-2 offering by Giants closer Brian Wilson with two men on and two outs in the ninth to close the 2010 NLCS.  As Howard looked on in stunned disbelief, so did the sellout crowd, all of Phillies Nation and most of the baseball world.

The Giants were not supposed to be in the playoffs; they did not get the memo.

They certainly were not supposed to advance to the NLCS; they never got around to reading that memo.

Once in the NLCS, they were not supposed to take a 3-1 lead over the prohibitively favored Phillies; they chose to ignore that as well.

And when the Phillies forced a Game 6 and presumably a Game 7 in front of their raucous hometown fans, the Giants were supposed to roll over.  The “Left Coast” upstarts also disregarded that nugget of conventional wisdom.

When history reviews the 2010 NLCS, they may see the Bay Area bunch as one of destiny’s darlings.  Or, history may see the series as a case of the Phillies team being overconfident. 

Perhaps in hindsight, manager Bruce Bochy will get credit for leading a team of has-beens, retreads and  (supposedly) not quite ready-for-prime-time players (including a great young catcher in the making in Buster Posey) past a Phillies team that was well positioned to win it all.

Indeed Bochy, in the jubilant visitors’ clubhouse, was quoted as saying, “We had such a diversity of contributions from everybody. Not bad for a bunch of castoffs and misfits.”

One of those castoffs was shortstop/third baseman Juan Uribe, who compiled only a .214 batting average in the series but hit the walkoff sacrifice fly to win Game 4.  Uribe ambled to the plate in the top of the eight with two outs, facing Phils reliever Ryan Madson, who had been absolutely dominant in the postseason.

Uribe promptly took an outside pitch to the opposite field, driving it just over the right field fence.  The drive broke the 2-2 deadlock and stood up as the final margin of victory.

The Uribe homer would send a team featuring players such as Cody “Babe” Ross (awarded the NLCS MVP), and Brian Wilson, a reliever who dyes his beard black and makes quirky seem uptight, into the World Series to face the Yankees.  Actually, make that the Texas Rangers, who will be making their first appearance in the Fall Classic.  The Giants?  They’ll be trying to win their first title since 1954, when they played in the Polo Grounds of New York City.

There will be plenty of time to preview a World Series matchup that Fox-TV did not want to see.  And there will be plenty of time in the days and weeks to come for the Phillies to analyze what went wrong, and what to do about certain roster spots (and salary decisions) that they will soon be facing.

As for the game itself, it appeared to all that the Phillies might be ready to put a whooping on the Giants, who brought a talented but shaky lefty Jonathan Sanchez to the mound.  The Phillies promptly rode a walk, three hits and a sacrifice fly to take a 2-0 lead in the first. In retrospect, it could have been more, but a 2-0 lead with Roy Oswalt on the mound and a crazed crowd imploring it to the finish line seemed like it would be enough at the time.

After SF tied the game in the top of the third, the Phillies had ample opportunity to take the lead back in the bottom of the inning.  Sanchez gave Placido Polanco a free pass before plunking Utley in the upper back to put the first two runners on.  What followed immediately after was a mixture of the bizarre and the all-too-familiar for Phillies fans.

Utley, on his way to first, scooped up the offending baseball that had bounced off his back, and gave it an underhand lob in the general vicinity of a frustrated Sanchez, who was nearing an implosion.  Words were exchanged by the two, and sooner or later there was a bench-clearing something or other that featured the usual posturing.

When order was restored, Bochy turned to his bullpen, which turned out to be a masterful move.  In came lefty reliever Jeremy Affeldt who promptly fanned Ryan Howard, induced Jayson Werth to hit a can of corn to center, and  retired Victorino on a weak grounder to first. Momentum shift back to the Giants.

On the other side of the hill, starter Roy Oswalt was not as dynamic as he had been in Game 2, but yielded only two runs (just one was earned) on nine hits and no walks in his six innings of solid work.  Usually, that would be enough to earn a victory with his new team, a team that boasted one of the best offenses in baseball the last several years.

For those who have been watching the Phillies all year, they observed that their team, despite scoring the second most runs in the league, had an erratic lineup that left lots of runners in scoring position.a single run at all after the first inning, despite:

• runners on first and second, no outs in the third
• bases loaded, two outs in the fifth
• man on third, one out in the sixth
• first and second, one out in the eighth

A lot of the focus for the loss will naturally be trained on Howard, who is literally and figuratively a big target.  Howard, the top RBI in baseball the last five years, somehow did not drive in a single run in his nine-game postseason and only scored one.

Some of this was bad luck as Howard hit a team-high .318 in the series.  The counter point to that was that the Big Piece struck out 12 times in the six game series. Ouch!

Game 6 was a microcosm of Howard’s postseason.  He singled with the speedy Utley on second in the first, although with one out, Utley could not get a good jump on the ball (not his fault) that fell just in front of left fielder Pat Burrell.

In the fifth, Howard doubled to the left-center gap, with Rollins on first and two outs.  A fortuitous carom to center fielder Andres Torres, who played it perfectly with a quick relay throw to shortstop Edgar Renteria, kept the normally speedy Rollins chained to third base.

After whiffing again in the seventh, Howard had a chance to redeem himself in the bottom of the ninth with two men on and his team down by just one run.  The same man who had uttered the famous “Just get me to the plate, boys” just last year before delivering a huge extra-base hit to carry the Phils to a come-from-behind Game 4 win in Colorado did not have the same magic this evening.

Working the count to 3-2, the still-imposing slugger looked at the 3-2 low-and-away cut fastball from Wilson and pleaded to the baseball gods (and home plate umpire Tom Hallion) for it to be ball four. It appeared to catch the corner, and no such magic or luck was rendered.

As a stunned Citizens Bank Park crowd along with millions of other Phillies fans can now attest, Howard’s plea (and with it, the Fightins entry to its third consecutive World Series) was denied.

Silence, just stunned silence strangled Phillies Nation, as that mostly no-name underdog team from the Left Coast started a wild party on their home turf of South Philly.

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NLCS 2010: San Francisco Slay the “Giants” and Are World Series Bound

It’s the law of gravity. Something that must be very delicately handled and respected. The question remained are we going up? Or is this the law of science forcing us to accept, there is no other way to go?

What goes up, must come down.

After too many years without a championship in Philadelphia, 2008 brought the end of a drought. 2009 assured us that we had something special on our hands.

Sure Shane Victorino doesn’t make too good of mistakes sometimes but, they’ll make it through—they always do. Yeah, Chase Utley slumps but someone will come through. Yeah Ryan Howard strikes out but he always seems to hit one when we need it.

It’s ok to have faith, but, at some point, you’ve got to look at everything and decide, something needs to be fixed.

Shane Victorino’s over-eager base running did us no favors in the bottom of the eighth, Utley’s careless mistakes cost us  this time. And Ryan Howard—those strikeouts, really, really did cost us this time.

It’s not something Phillies fans should look at as a terrible thing, though. The Phillies now know, they are not wizards. They need to work on that stuff.

Granted, injuries, clearly, have plagued this team from the first week of the season on. This was the first game the Phillies played all season as their true line-up. It all looked good, to begin, but after the Giants played, as they have all series and battled it out.

Taking advantage of the opportunities was key, and it’s something the Phillies have become known to do. It just wasn’t working for them—this whole postseason to be honest.

The Phillies left 11 men on base. They were 2-for-11 with runners in scoring position, no at-bat more painful than when Howard was struck out looking to end the 2010 season.
 
Matt Gelb, of Philly.com reports that some of the Phillies remained at the top step of the home dugout as many fans didn’t move from their seats.

Everyone was stone cold. It was like watching your father get beat up by a neighbor… yeah, that was exactly the feel.

Nails bitten, hair pulled, kids crying…but really, it’s not that bad. Your fightin’ Phils will be back next year. Until then—thanks.

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2010 NLCS: Opportunity Knocks for Philadelphia Phillies To Prove Greatness

A mark of a great team is its ability to overcome adversity to achieve success. The 2010 Philadelphia Phillies have surely faced an ample portion of challenges this season with a disabled list transaction report that reads like an MLB “Who’s Who” list. 

The team has already proved to be tremendously resilient by turning a 48-46 midseason record into the best record in baseball (97-65) with a remarkable 49-19 finish.

While many were contemplating writing off the season as a year of bad fortune, the entire Phillies organization remained resolute in their capabilities and optimistic for a successful outcome. No one panicked, no one baled. 

After trailing the Atlanta Braves by seven games just a couple months earlier, the Phillies won the NL Eastern Division going away. Their season ending tally of 97 wins and a rare as Halley’s Comet NL All-Star game victory gave them home field advantage throughout the postseason.  

With the “Big Three” anchoring perhaps the best lineup in baseball, oddsmakers pegged them as the favorites to win it all heading into the October tourney that spills into November for each league’s best team.

Although they looked a little rusty in spots, the Phillies quickly dispensed the Cincinnati Reds 3-0 in the NLDS. As further validation to the oddsmakers, the “Big Three” produced a historic no-hitter in the opener and a brilliant five-hit shutout in the series clincher. 

The team’s next destination was a third consecutive trip to the NLCS, this time to face the upstart San Francisco Giants. 

Somewhat surprisingly, that trip found them in a 3-1 hole after four games and facing the possibility of a winter of wondering what could have been. The Phillies were on the brink of elimination.  

It has turned into a potential microcosm of their whole season.  Of course, for that to happen, the Phillies would need to battle back to win the NLCS.  

On Thursday night, the Phillies took one large step in that direction. A 4-2 victory over two-time defending Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum in enemy territory kept them alive and restored home field advantage. 

Somewhat fitting to their seasonal journey, the Phillies’ ace of aces, Roy Halladay suffered a groin pull early in the contest and clearly did not display his typical dominating stuff. Also, fittingly, he battled his way through to maintain a narrow 3-2 lead after six innings.

And, perhaps keeping with the script, Jimmy Rollins finally seemed to shake off a lingering hamstring injury that has compromised his running ability through the playoffs. In the seventh inning, seeing J Roll steal second and third base had to hearten his teammates and Phillies fans alike. 

The bullpen came up big with some of its best work all season over the final three innings. Additionally, Jayson Werth provided a huge insurance run with an opposite field homer in the ninth. 

Earlier in the game, Werth gunned down Phillies nemesis Cody Ross at third with a Dave Parkeresque frozen rope from right. Besides helping Halladay escape a jam, the play may have taken a little edge off Cody’s magic over the Phillies.  

Of course, two more large challenges remain if the Phillies want to be the first National League team in 66 years to appear in three consecutive World Series. 

Tonight, Roy Oswalt takes the hill in hope of advancing the team to Game 7. A revved-up Citizen’s Bank Park crowd will be there to offer ample encouragement. 

Should the Phillies win, 2008 postseason hero Cole Hamels is waiting in the wings for Sunday. By then, the electricity at “The Bank” might be enough to power the entire tri-state area.

Meanwhile, Cliff Lee and the Texas Rangers will be looking on, awaiting their 2010 World Series opponent. 

The stage is set.  Opportunity knocks for the Phillies to show their true greatness. 

After fighting their way through adversity all season, a similar course in the postseason would provide further evidence that this is truly a great team. Coming back from a 3-1 NLCS deficit to prevail would only serve to enhance the argument. 

It won’t be easy facing a Giants team with its own talented pitching staff and a seemingly unending arsenal of interchangeable parts. Importantly, they also possess a belief that they can win.  

With due respect to the Giants, the Phillies also possess that same belief. This Phillies team is, in fact, a truly special club—and this weekend could go a long way towards demonstrating that further.

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Ryan Howard Has Been Silent for the Phillies This October

Ryan Howard‘s biggest contributions to the Phillies so far this postseason have been his celebratory high-fives to his teammates after they get driven in by Placido Polanco . 

On the brink of elimination, Philadelphia needs first basemen Ryan Howard to wake up from his eight-game slumber and re-energize a dormant Phillies’ offense. 

Since the postseason began, Howard (.276, 31 HRs, 108 RBIs) has accounted for only one of the Phillies’ 29 postseason runs, a number that must change if Charlie Manuel’s club wants to become just the eleventh team in MLB history to overcome a 3-1 series deficit.

Hobbled by an ankle injury that kept him sidelined for most of August, Howard came back strong in September for the Phillies displaying the power (seven HRs) and patience (.405 OBP, his highest of any month in ’10) that we were accustomed to. 

Despite coming into October on a hot streak, the former National League MVP  hasn’t driven in a single run during the playoffs and is hampering the Philadelphia offense because of his inability to come through at the plate with runners on base. In his 30 at-bats this postseason, Howard has struck out an inexcusable 14 times and left 12 runners stranded on the base paths in that time, despite a decent .286 average.  

Contrary to his recent slump, the 2009 NLCS MVP is usually a reliable run-producer come playoff time, notching seven home runs and 27 RBIs in just 32 postseason games before this year.

Devoid of their main power threat, the Phillies have had to rely on small-ball strategy (10 steals and six sacrifices in October thus far) and power pitching for success. 

Facing a rested and ready Jonathan Sanchez on Saturday, Howard will be counted on to pick up the pace at home against the Giants. Although he is only 3-for-14 lifetime facing Sanchez, Howard did have two hits and a walk against him in Game 2, inspiring confidence in his ability to get good wood off the lefty flame-thrower.  

The Phillies remain a veteran team, who will not go quietly this October, despite teetering on the edge of eradication.

Desperate for a win, and a World Series rematch with the Yankees, the fate of the Phillies rests in hands of Ryan Howard to pull out a Game 6 victory in Philadelphia.    

 

Jesse Paguaga is a regular contributor to Baseball Digest. He writes as an intern on the Bleacher Report website. Jesse writes for Gotham Baseball, along with Gotham Hoops and Gotham Gridiron. He can be reached at Paguaga@usc.edu and can be found on Facebook and on Twitter http://twitter.com/#!/@jpags77

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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.

You can follow The Ghost of Moonlight Graham on Twitter @ theghostofmlg

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Roy Halladay: Gutting It Out

I don’t know a lot, or really anything about cars, so I rarely if ever give my input regarding them. I don’t follow basketball and probably couldn’t name the “star” player on every team in the league, so I won’t stick my nose into a discussion about basketball. Football, ditto. European soccer, same thing. When someone with a background in politics raises a point regarding politics, I typically concede to that person, assuming they know what they are talking about.

Why then, can’t radio personalities do the same?

(Maybe the greater question is why I continue to go to the sources I do for entertainment).

I have, in my short time of writing, made mistakes, lots to be certain. I even mistakenly called right-handed pitcher Clay Buchholz a lefty, and at the time, that was much of the reason I liked him as a prospect. I even started a second, yet short-lived blog about my favorite OHLer, Andrew Shaw, because I felt as though he deserved to be drafted—didn’t happen.

On the radio this afternoon I heard Jim Rome (guh!) give a monologue about how Roy “Doc” Halladay had one of the gutsiest performances in recently history. Rome even asserted that this performance may have overshadowed the performance of Curt Schilling a couple years back. Rome attempted to make it out as if Halladay’s performance was the fuel to ignite the fire that was the Phillies win. You can bet that if the Phillies take this series, Rome will talk about how Halladay went out there on “one leg.”

Here’s the scoop if you missed out on it.

Halladay claimed to have pulled his groin sometime in the second inning. And according to Rotoworld, “might explain why his stuff looked so shaky throughout the night.”

Of course, his second inning groin pull had to do with how poorly he pitched in the first inning. It was entirely owed to the fact that Giants hitters were hammering the ball all night!

I’m sorry, maybe I’m beginning to sound like a Doc hater, but this is going too far! The guy is a fantastic pitcher who has had a memorable season and is probably destined for the Hall of Fame. It’s tough to say negative things about him.

However, this wasn’t a gutsy performance. What we saw was a pitcher who simply didn’t have his best stuff and happened to pull his groin after 30 or so pitches.

Pitches…Pitcher…Throwing pitches. Wait, this gives me an idea.

Tom Verducci has the “rule of 30,” where he asserts a pitcher under the age of 25 who increases his workload by more than 30 is vulnerable to injury. Entering last night’s ball game, Halladay had tossed 266.1 innings during the 2010 season (including the All-Star Game and postseason). This falls just 3.2 innings short of eclipsing the magic 30. Maybe we have something here?

We also see that Halladay has thrown 150 more pitches during 2010 than he did during his career-high season in 2003. The following year resulted in Halladay missing a significant amount of time.

I’m not saying this is an open-and-shut case, but could throwing a career high in innings and pitches result in Halladay running out of gas? If he were 25, almost everyone would be convinced this is true, so why not for a 33-year-old? A 33-year-old who year after year has been among the league leaders in pitches thrown and innings pitched.

Baseball Prospectus has a stat called “Pitcher Abuse Points.” It hasn’t been used to link many injuries recently, and I’ll be the first to admit the premise isn’t ironclad. In fact, this stat was created over a decade ago and not much work has been done to further it. Even BP’s ex-injury expert Will Carrol wasn’t found utilizing this stat.

In any event, PAP is created using the following formula, as per BP:

These points are cumulative: a 115-pitch outing gets you 20 PAP’s—one for each pitch from 101-110 (10 total), and two for each pitch from 111-115 (10 total). A 120-pitch outing is worth 30 PAP’s, while a 140-pitch outing is worth 100 PAP’s—more than three times as much. This seems fair; a pitcher doesn’t get tired all at once, but fatigue sets on gradually, and with each pitch the danger of continuing to pitch grows.

Further, BP breaks the pitch tallies into a chart as follows:

Pitcher Abuse Points
Situation	PAP/Pitch
Pitches 1-100	0
Pitches 101-110	1
Pitches 111-120	2
Pitches 121-130	3
Pitches 131-140	4
Pitches 141-150	5
Pitches 151+	6

This is all a lead up to stating that Roy Halladay has finished in the top five in PAP for the last five seasons, possibly pointing to a breakdown in the pitcher. Maybe pitching into October has caused the otherwise indestructible Halladay to fall apart?

I need to again state that this isn’t me hating on Roy Halladay. Two years ago I fought tooth and nail to convince the writers at Baseball Daily Digest to use some critical thinking in making their selections.

What I am doing here is proposing the idea that Halladay’s “gutting it out” was possibly due to him being worn down due to overuse, something he displayed in the first inning. His “gutting it out” was not due to pulling his groin in the second inning, as his performance did not tail off after that point—he was arguably a better pitcher after the second inning.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

2010 ALCS & NLCS: The Phillies Have a Better Chance To Comeback Than The Yankees

The New York Yankees and Philadelphia Phillies avoided elimination by winning Game 5, as both teams trailed 3-1 in their respective series. 

The New York Yankees down travel down south to play the Texas Rangers in Game 6 of ALCS Friday night.  If the Yankees can stay alive, Game 7 will take place on Saturday night. 

The San Francisco Giants must head back east to play the Philadelphia Phillies in Citizens Bank Park in Game 6 of the NLCS.  The game will either be played on Saturday afternoon or night, depending on the outcome of Game 6 of the ALCS. 

In order for there to be a rematch of the 2009 World Series, New York and Philadelphia must win three games in a row (two now).  Both teams have a pretty good shot to force a Game 7, but the Phillies have a better chance of advancing to the 2010 World Series. 

Here are five reasons why the Philadelphia Phillies are more likely than the New York Yankees to comeback and advance to the World Series.  

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