2010 NLCS Giants-Phillies Game 5: Roy Halladay Slays Giants Despite Groin Injury

The “if necessaries” have evolved and have become absolutely necessary; they couldn’t be more necessary if you deliberately tried to make them be so much. 

It was absolutely imperative on Thursday night that the San Francisco Giants finished off the Philadelphia Phillies. Silently, a loss in Game 5 seems harmless. The urgency hides behind, “Oh, it’s OK, just get back out there and get the win in Game 6.”

It can happen, yes. But here is what has been surrendered by the San Francisco loss on Thursday night:

 

They’ve Lost Home Field Advantage

Not that this really mattered too-too much, as they used the first two San Francisco games as efficiently as possible. But a loss last night forces them to finish this series in the rowdy Citizens Bank Park. No doubt the ball park will be at an all-time high of loudness and emotional fans.

I’d put my money, if I were a betting man, on another incident or two that the media will blow up (as if this stuff happens NOWHERE else).

 

They’ve Left the Window Open

A general, well-known proverb of life is: “If you play with fire, you will get burned.”

The Philadelphia Phillies aren’t called the “Fightin’s” for no reason. They’re called the “Fightin’s” because playing with their backs against the wall is when they are at their best.

If you give the Phillies anything to work with, it almost always will come back to haunt you. Now, with home field advantage back, you’ve restored their poise and shook the top of the mountain, allowing some snow to begin sliding.

What the Giants need to focus on in Game 6 is jumping on the Phillies early because that bit of snow trickling down the top of the mountain is bound to escalate into an avalanche if you allow them to continue this momentum.

 

They’ve Put Themselves in a Mini-Must-Win Situation

The only way the Giants would get full credit for handling the Phillies is if they were in the situation they were in Thursday morning.

Turning a 3-1 advantage into a 3-2 advantage resurfaces any slight doubt that may exist. Lord only knows the havoc this would wreak should the Giants lose Game 6, forcing a Game 7 in Philadelphia at Citizens Bank Park.

Philly.com’s Sam Donnellon indirectly highlights the Phillies innate ability to not squander the opportunities:

 

Break No. 1.

Carlos Ruiz, who reached base when he was hit by an inside pitch, followed to second on the sacrifice. Shane Victorino then ripped a shot to the right side that careened off first baseman Aubrey Huff’s glove/leg and into no-man’s land in right- center field. Both runners scored and Victorino raced to second as three infielders chased after the ball.

Break No. 2.

“We did a lot of little things,” Halladay said.

Placido Polanco drove in Victorino with a single to left-center. Utley followed with a hit, but Giants starter Tim Lincecum struck out Ryan Howard and Werth flew out to left.

Lincecum retired the Phillies in order in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, although Victorino put a scare in the crowd of 43,713 in the fifth with a towering fly that pushed Ross to the base of the right field wall. But the Giants’ two-time Cy Young winner had thrown 67 pitches by the end of the fourth, and was up to 89 pitches after the sixth.

He left after seven innings, 104 pitches. If an argument can be made that Halladay outpitched Lincecum in losing Game 1, the same could be said about last night in reverse.

“It won’t go down as it, but this may have been the most impressive outing he’s had,” Brad Lidge, who pitched a perfect ninth for the save, said of Halladay. “He gutted it out with a lot less than 100 percent out there.”

Halladay struck out Juan Uribe with two runners on to end the sixth. Jose Contreras and J.C. Romero worked a scoreless seventh. Ryan Madson struck out the heart of the Giants’ order in the eighth, as impressive a performance in power pitching as Halladay was with his guile.

Halladay has now thrown 272 2/3innings this season, and that’s a ton for even him.

The groin?

‘I was able to keep pitching and it didn’t get worse,” he said. “I’ve got some time to rest, so, hopefully . . . ‘

How’s that for size? Lincecum out duels Halladay Game 1, but gets out dueled against a Roy Halladay with a groin injury. Who knows what this all means?

What we do know is that there is another game to be played and it’s on Saturday in Philadelphia a 3:57 PM EDT.

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NLCS 2010 Report Card: Doc Halladay Finds Cure, Philadelphia Phillies Stay Alive

In a game steeped in desperation, the Philadelphia Phillies came alive to send Game 6 of the 2010 NLCS back to Philadelphia, and the good doctor provided the cure for the woeful Phillies at just the right time.

But for the Phillies, the importance was in HOW they won this game.

Miscues in the field, lack of power, nearly zero base stealing: All of these things have plagued the Phillies and prevented them from either closing out a winnable game, or stopping the Giants.

Let’s take a look at how Philadelphia fared this time around, as we get ready for Saturday.

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NLCS Heads Back To Philadelphia: Giants Allow Phillies Up Off the Mat in Game 5

A terrific NLCS between the Phillies and Giants will continue Saturday in Philadelphia. Notes from Game 5 are below:

• Buster Posey was a vacuum behind the plate. He wouldn’t allow a pitch to get away from him no matter the location, giving Tim Lincecum the confidence to consistently bury his changeup low. 
• The Phillies clearly had a different approach against Posey, consistently attacking him on the inner half of the plate. The strategy worked as the young star catcher went hitless a night after dominating the Phils’ pitching staff with four hits.
• Ryan Howard has given the Phillies nothing so far this series.
• If Charlie Manuel doesn’t want to hit Placido Polanco between Chase Utley and Ryan Howard consistently, why not use Jayson Werth to break up the left-handed combination? Is there a downside to this?
• Howard made a nice play on a sharp liner by Aubrey Huff in the first inning with two on and no outs. After that however, The Big Piece (probably my least favorite nickname for an athlete ever) misplayed two ground balls. One was ruled an error while the other, incorrectly, was not.
• Freddy Sanchez scares me. The guy is a perfect No. 2 hitter and the hit and run Bochy called for in the first inning was executed perfectly.
• Chase Utley continues to look shaky in the field as well as at the plate. Every time he slips into a slump, local media is quick to play the ‘injury card’ but hey, maybe the guy isn’t otherworldly anymore and falls into rough patches like the rest of the Major League population.
• While Jimmy Rollins has continued his poor approach at the plate, his defense has been sparkling. 
• Despite the Phillies mini-rally in the top of the *third inning, they continue to lack the ability to sustain innings without help from poor pitching or poor defense. The team isn’t maximizing its chances and while home runs are often referred to as “rally killers” what better way to maximize a big inning than a two- or three-run blast? Jayson Werth stroked an opposite-field home run to right field in the top of the ninth for an insurance run, but aside from his Game 1 two-run bomb against Lincecum, the Phillies’ vaunted power has been shut down by the Giants.
• Cody Ross isn’t as good as he’s playing right now. Hitting is such a mental aspect of baseball and Ross simply believes he’s better than he is, if that makes sense. And I’m not taking a shot at the guy; his confidence is off the charts as he continues to lock in on each and every at-bat. Ross is locked in and reacting to, not guessing at pitches.
• As good as Ross has been, it was beautiful to watch Werth hose him in the bottom of the fourth. Ross committed the cardinal sin of baseball: making the third out at third base and it took a perfect strike by Starfox to get the job done.
• I find it strange that there are benches on the playing field in San Francisco. I can only assume this is an old-school style tradition? Either way, it’s a bit odd to me.
• The Giants really made Halladay work forcing him to go deep in counts batter after batter. Even when Doc got ahead of the Giants, he often lacked the ability to put them away immediately, most likely due to his injured groin.
• My wife found it funny that several Giants players were “itching their armpits with their bats” during the bottom of the sixth. I kindly explained that this tactic was used to keep their bats dry in the rain.
• Posey led off with a walk in the bottom of the sixth after two close pitches called for balls on 2-2 and 3-2 counts. As a Phillies fan I wanted those pitches, but I was impressed by Home Plate umpire Jeff Nelson. A lesser man would have been easily intimidated by Roy Halladay, but Nelson stuck to his guns.
• It was a great sign to see Rollins steal both second and third base in the top of the seventh inning. A great at-bat by Chooch put runners on first and third and I thought Bruce Bochy made a huge mistake leaving Lincecum in to pitch to pinch-hitter Ross Gload. Gload smashed the first pitch he saw, which was caught by Huff and turned into a double play.
• I’ve never been to San Francisco, but I can’t imagine a better representation of the difference between the two cities than the lady who came out to sing ‘God Bless America’ during the seventh inning stretch.
• I’d like a few less closeups from Fox of those hideous black playoff beards sported by Sergio Romo and Brian Wilson. I think I dislike Romo’s more, but it’s a tough call. 
• I did enjoy the shots of the San Fran crowd. They were into the game from the first pitch and showed an excited, expectant attitude throughout. They believe in their bunch, and now it’s time for Philadelphians to help fuel their team.
• The Phillies bullpen came up huge. JC Romero hadn’t pitched since Game 2 of the NLDS but got an important out, and Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge dominated. Lidge relied heavily on throwing his slider as a strike, not to get hitters to chase, which is often his plan. The Big Truck, Jose Contreras, came up big yet again as well.
• Madson mowed down the most dangerous section of the Giants lineup, striking out the trio of Posey, Burrell and Ross in the eighth.
• Jayson Werth, like Ryan Howard, is at his best when he’s going the opposite way. Maybe Howard took notes on Werth’s opposite-field insurance bomb and will keep his front shoulder from flying out in Game 6, a key, particularly against the left-handed Jonathan Sanchez.
• I thought Bochy made another bad call when he brought in the left-handed Jeremy Affeldt to pitch to Shane Victorino. Vic looked bad at the plate and hit nearly 90 points higher from the right side on the year. Like the Lincecum vs. Gload move, this one didn’t backfire, but why turn a struggling lefty around?
• White towels > Orange Pom-poms

*The top of the third inning turned the tide. The Phillies looked helpless and harmless against Lincecum through the first two frames. Raul Ibanez’s punched a leadoff single into no-man’s land and after the Giants ace hit Carlos Ruiz in the arm, the inning got strange.

Roy Halladay is a very poor bunter. I’d be surprised if there were five other starting pitchers in the National League who failed more consistently at laying down a solid bunt than Doc. (Maybe the MLB should organize an off-season “Bunt Off” competition between pitchers similar to the Home-Run Derby? I’d watch!)

But anyway, Halladay had a chance to advance two runners into scoring position with just one out. And somehow, someway, he got the job done. It was a crazy play and Pablo Sandoval certainly handed the Phillies a break when he failed to be in position to get the force at third.

After Halladay’s fair/foul bunt The Struggling Shane Victorino stepped to the plate. Victorino hit the ball hard, but right at Aubrey Huff. It wasn’t a difficult play for the first baseman, but he managed to make it look so as he booted the ball into shallow right field. Two runs scored and Victorino, in contrast to Game 4, alertly moved into scoring position.

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Philadelphia Phillies Stay Alive in NLCS Thanks To a Third Inning Full of Gifts

To force a Game 6, the Philadelphia Phillies offense needed to figure out San Francisco Giants ace Tim Lincecum. They did not, but, helped by an umpire’s blindness, a bad hop, and a hit-by-pitch, enough runs were scored against the the unorthodox right-hander to send the NLCS back to Philly.

How they pushed them across makes the season-prolonging trip to Philadelphia far from deserving. Lincecum sent the first six down and, considering how well he was mixing his pitches and how fooled the Phillies were, he appeared to be well on his way to another dominating start.

Then came the third, a nightmarish inning for the Giants and their fans. Raul Ibañez led off with a blistering single to right and absurdity ensued. Ahead 0-2 on a completely overwhelmed Carlos Ruiz, Lincecum’s change-up missed its spot and drifted inside. It headed towards Ruiz, but its pace was slow, meaning Ruiz had plenty of time to react and move out of the way.

Did he? No. He just took the pitch right in the side without a flinch. Umpires can nullify a hit-by-pitch if they feel the hitter doesn’t make an effort to get out of the way. This was certainly a time for that rule to go into effect, but umpire Jeff Nelson pointed to first. With that, a rally was formed, and with what followed, Nelson made some more enemies in the crowd, in the Giants dugout, and on the field.

Opposing pitcher Roy Halladay was up with one goal in mind: to bunt the runners to second and third. In essence, he did, but, if Nelson was competent, he wouldn’t have. The ball was bunted off home-plate, but it trickled foul. Nelson signaled fair.

Halladay didn’t run, thinking it was called foul. He was thrown out at first by third baseman Pablo Sandoval, who received Buster Posey’s throw in time to get Ibañez at third but, with Sandoval well off the bag, Halladay’s goal was attained.

Shane Victorino capitalized, but needed a favorable hop to indeed deliver. He laced a fastball from Lincecum to Aubrey Huff, a ball the first baseman should have been able to snag but instead watched ricochet off his glove and hit hard off his knee.

The ball struck his left knee so hard the ball shot into the center-field grass on a couple of bounds. Both runners scored with ease. Two gaffes by the umpire and an error; the Giants lead was lost. Adding insult to injury, Placido Polanco followed by driving in the third Phillies run with a single.

But, as in Game 1, Halladay wasn’t at his best atop the mound, as the fourth inning indicated. San Francisco needed to put the disastrous third behind them, and then did, as Pat Burrell and the continuously clutch Cody Ross hit back-to-back one out doubles to trim the margin in half.

Yet, though Halladay had his hiccups from time to time, he wasn’t that hittable. No more production came San Francisco’s way in the fourth, nor in the following five innings.

Halladay pitched six, and the bullpen did the rest. Jose Contreras, once a fairly good starting pitcher, then a mediocre starting pitcher, and now a valuable reliever, retired two in the seventh and J.C. Romero put the finishing touches on the frame. The Giants were six outs away from having to go back to Philadelphia, an unenviable situation despite their series advantage.

Ryan Madson dominated in the eighth, striking out the dangerous trip of Posey, Burrell, and Ross primarily using a cut-fastball with devastating late break down. He used his changeup, seen as his best pitch, only once. Closer Brad Lidge, who hadn’t pitched since struggling in Game 1, sent down San Francisco in order as well.

As the Giants were unable to clinch a World Series berth with their best pitcher on the mound, they now must win one of the next two games in hostile territory. Their offensive struggles are worrisome, but if the umpires can regain their competence and eye-sight in Game 6 and if the Giants possess the ability to field well, San Francisco will be World Series bound. It will just happen a couple days later than they had hoped.

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Philadelphia Phillies in Perfect Spot for Incredible NLCS Comeback

Believe it or not, the Phillies could actually have the upper hand in their latest quest to be crowned champions of the National League.

After falling behind to the San Francisco Giants three games to one, the Phillies pulled out a very close win in Game 5 by a score of 4-2. But even though they got the win, it wasn’t pretty. Roy Halladay was off his game, the Phillies’ offense continued to look incompetent, and the Giants’ home crowd was at a roar for most of the game.

But thanks to some great pitching out of the bullpen by Jose Contreras, Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge (who closed out the game), the Phillies are down one game to the Giants and must win the remaining two games if they want to make it to their third straight World Series.

So how, exactly, does that give them the upper hand?

For starters, they still have the remaining two of the Big Three. Halladay, even though he wasn’t his usual dominant self, did enough to get the job done. Now, the Phillies will turn to Roy Oswalt in Game 6 and, hopefully, Cole Hamels for Game 7.

Of course, none of that matters if the offense continues its funk. The numbers have been tossed around enough and, quite honestly, are difficult to repeat. But anyone who has paid attention knows how awful the bats have been not only in this series, but throughout the postseason.

Chase Utley, Ryan Howard and Raul Ibanez have been especially disappointing as of late. They are counted on to be run-producers, and so far they haven’t played their roles.

But at least Ibanez and Howard (for the most part) haven’t been liabilities in the field. Utley, on the other hand, has been messing up every time the ball heads his direction.

Most recently, in Game 5, Utley could have ended the first inning on a very easy double-play ball, but he didn’t scoop the ball into his glove before attempting to make a tag and allowed a run to cross because of it.

Had the Phils dropped this game by one run, the mostly-popular Utley likely would have needed extra security to go anywhere in Philadelphia.

But, fortunately for him, the offense was able to muster one big inning and an insurance home run by Jayson Werth in the top of the ninth.

Alright, enough of the digression into a rant about the offense. We’re talking about why the Phillies could be in good position to pull the comeback. We’ve already discussed the starters they have lined up, so what else could be in their favor?

They’re coming home. The final two games—both of which are must-win for the Phils—will be played at Citizen’s Bank Park.

Hopefully being at home will make the offense more comfortable and the entire team can feed off the crowd as they always seem to do. The fact that CBP is a hitter’s park also doesn’t hurt a team that relies mostly on the long ball to put runs on the board.

Having to win the final two games to cap an incredible comeback is certainly not an ideal situation, but if it’s a situation a team finds themselves in, they would definitely want to have two aces lined up to pitch at home.

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NLCS Game 4: San Francisco Giants Push Philadelphia Phillies to the Brink

The Philadelphia Phillies have nobody to blame for their Game 4 loss to the San Francisco Giants but themselves.

The Phillies made a series of coaching mistakes and mental mistakes and lost to the Giants 6-5 in Game 4 and now face a 3-1 series hole as they head into Game 4 and a rematch of Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay.

Let’s take a look at the Phillies’ mistakes in this game.It started for the Phillies in the fifth inning. With runners on second and third and one out, Shane Victorino singled up the middle. Ben Francisco scored and Carlos Ruiz was thrown at home.

 

There is absolutely no way Sam Perlozzo can send Ruiz in that spot. The ball that Victorino hit was a sharp groundball up the middle. It wasn’t a 30-hopper that just barely made it through.

Perlozzo has to be 100 percent sure that Ruiz is going to score. Runs have been too precious in this series to be careless in that situation. Instead of having runners on first and third with one out, the Phillies had just a runner on first with two outs.

Something that was overlooked on that play—how is Victorino not on second? There was no chance of the throw from Aaron Rowand being cut off. Victorino had to be on second.

It didn’t end up hurting the Phillies that Victorino wasn’t on second because of Placido Polanco‘s double, but it’s plays or lack thereof that have made me scratch my head in this series.

Then in the eighth, how does Manuel not bunt with Jimmy Rollins at the plate and Jayson Werth on second with nobody out? I thought Charlie Manuel said before the game his team was going to play “small ball?”

That was a must-bunt situation for Manuel. Rollins hasn’t done much and Manuel had to believe that Francisco and Ruiz could have gotten the run home with less than two outs.

Now, people will say it didn’t matter because Francisco and Ruiz struck out after Rollins popped up. Having a runner on third completely changes the dynamic of the inning and perhaps the pitch selection to both batters.

The biggest decision by Manuel in this game was his decision to bring in Roy Oswalt to start the ninth. At the time, I didn’t have a problem with it. Then I found out he threw a bullpen session earlier in the day and I almost fell off my chair.

Manuel was going to make a guy throw a bullpen session in the afternoon and then come out in the ninth in a tie game later that night on two days’ rest? No thanks.

Oswalt wasn’t sharp and gave up the game-winning run when Juan Uribe hit a deep flyball to left that scored Aubrey Huff. Speaking of that Uribe at-bat, it was another mental mistake by the Phillies.

Uribe has a bad wrist and couldn’t catch up to Oswalt’s fastball in the AB. Why on Earth would Ruiz call a change-up and Oswalt agree to throw it? The only thing they are doing is helping Uribe out. Terrible.

Here are some other observations from Game 4…

Joe Blanton threw two wild pitches in 175.2 regular season innings and threw two wild pitches in the first inning of Game 4.

Despite his less than stellar performance (three runs in 4.2 IP), I still believe it was the right decision to start Blanton over Halladay.

The Tampa Bay Rays took SS Tim Beckham with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 Draft when they needed a catcher. Fail.

Home plate umpire Wally Bell was all over the place.

Can the Phillies come back from this 3-1 deficit? Absolutely. With Halladay, Oswalt, and Cole Hamels in the next three games, they have a very good chance of coming back.

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

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Philadelphia Phillies vs. San Francisco Giants: Game 5 Live Blog

Hey there, baseball fans! Welcome to Game Five of the NLCS between the visiting Philadelphia Phillies and the San Francisco Giants.

Amateur baseball historian Evan Adrian here, guiding you through what could be the final game of this series.

The Giants won a classic October contest last night, beating the Phillies 6-5 on a ninth inning sac fly courtesy of Juan Uribe. They now stand just one game away from closing this thing out and punching their ticket to the 2010 World Series.

In a pitching rematch of Game One, the Phillies trot out their ace Roy Halladay to face the Giants’ ace Tim Lincecum. Philly is hoping Halladay can conjure up some of his no-hit NLDS magic and take this series back home. San Fran is hoping to close this one out in front of their raucous home crowd.

Keep it locked right here to follow the action every step of the way!

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NLCS 2010 Game 5 Preview: Will Doc Halladay Find a Cure for What Ails Philadelphia?

Philadelphia enters Game 5 of the 2010 NLCS looking for a cure, and they’ll turn to the good doctor Roy Halladay to find it as the Phillies get set to square off against the San Francisco Giants.

This game could be the last for the Phillies, so it’s “do or die” time, and that means several things for dem Phightin’ Phils if they want to bring this series back to the City of Brotherly Love.

In their first go-around, the Giants hit Halladay better than expected, as the doctor failed to treat the gaping wound caused by eight hits, two homers and four earned runs.

As the series has progressed, the Phillies’ bats have ominously gone quiet; with men on, they have failed to capitalize by not running the bases enough, and even their impenetrable defense has broken down a few times in the worst possible way.

So now what?

Well, it’s simple. The Phillies must get back to what has worked for them all year long: hitting, stealing bases, consistent defense and solid pitching.

Which leads us to Halladay.

Halladay rarely makes the same mistake twice, and tonight’s game is a perfect opportunity for some redemption as he gets set for his rematch against The Freak, Tim Lincecum.

That redemption can also be the fuel and guiding light for a team seemingly awestruck by the Giants, who have methodically picked them apart, and when your ace leads the way, winning just gets a whole lot easier.

Tonight the Phillies look to erase last week and rewrite the ending to another stellar chapter in their history, rather than close the book on a story with no sequel.

And it all starts with the good doctor.

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2010 NLCS: 10 Things To Think About During Game 5

The San Francisco Giants are now one game away from winning the 2010 NLCS and advancing to the World Series for the first time since 2002.

Everyone in Philadelphia is thinking the same thing today: if we’re going to come back from down 3-1, at least we’ve got Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels with whom to try to pull it off.

Here’s some other thoughts as the Phillies face the brink of elimination, and perhaps the downside of a dynasty.

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NLCS 2010: Bad Decisions Could Cost the Philadelphia Phillies a Championship

There is no doubt that the Philadelphia Phillies have struggled to hit this postseason. And, the San Francisco Giants deserve a lot of credit for their strong pitching and overall 25-man team play. 

Those truths cannot be denied, but ultimately some bad decisions could prove to be the Phillies downfall this season. High hopes —justified high hopes at that —for another World Series championship may have been lost in the rubble of the Giants Game 4 walk-off win. 

The decisions in question occurred both pre-game and in-game.  The Phillies showed some life by battling back a couple times, but ultimately the most regrettable decision came back to haunt them. 

After the game, Game 4 starting pitcher Joe Blanton described it this way, “We didn’t really lose. We just ran out of innings.”

Perhaps it was this same convoluted math and reasoning that led Manuel to trust the start to a rusty Blanton with his team down 2-1 in the NLCS and arguably baseball’s best pitcher ready to take the ball. 

Although Blanton had been listed as the tentative Game 4 starter, the Phillies probably never attached much likelihood of finding themselves in this position. Confidence ran high that “The Big Three” would provide the upper hand after three games. 

Unfortunately, someone failed to provide the script to Cody Ross and company. 

After the Giants greeted the Phillies in San Francisco with a three-hit shutout on Tuesday, it was time to rethink the original plan. Considering that the Giants ranked first in pitching during the regular season and possessed a 2.11 ERA in the postseason, it was reasonable to assume that the Phillies would need to out-duel them to win. 

The Phillies acquired Roy Halladay to be the team’s stopper and provide an indomitable force at the top of the rotation. The organization’s sights have clearly been on winning another championship, and Halladay was the perfect workhorse to lead that effort.  

The Phillies series deficit with two more games in the city and stadium by the bay against a Giants team growing in confidence called for a revised plan. 

It was time to call on Halladay to pitch Game 4 and Game 7, if necessary. It was also time to call on the other two H2O hurlers to demonstrate its “Big Three” moniker in crunch time.

All three have had a great deal of extra rest over the past three weeks. And, perhaps more importantly, they have all winter to rest.  

The Phillies could ill afford to back themselves into a corner that would require Halladay, Oswalt and Hamels to win out against three talented Giants pitchers. They also could ill afford to further feed the Giants belief that they could pull off a big NLCS upset. 

Unfortunately, that’s today’s reality. 

Manuel stuck with Blanton, who battled for 4 2/3 innings with what appeared to be batting practice stuff. After a 20-day layoff, the burly right-hander had little juice on his fastball and little precision on his curve ball. 

He gave the Giants a run in the first by repeatedly bouncing balls in the dirt. He committed a cardinal sin of pitching by walking a badly slumping Andres Torres to lead off the fifth after the Phillies had rallied in the top half to give him a 4-2 lead —who, of course, scored. 

Blanton’s fastball was generally being clocked at 87-88 mph, but dipped to 86 mph in the fifth. With very little movement and little else to fool hitters, it seemed a matter of time before Giants hitters really squared some balls up. 

Blanton is a competitor and has a history of solid pitching after the year hits the mid-point. But to paraphrase a famous political quotation —I know Roy Halladay, and he is no Roy Halladay.  

We will never truly know, but the likelihood of the Phillies sitting even at 2-2 today had Halladay pitched seem pretty high. And, even pitching on short rest, the odds of “The Big Three” taking two of three would still seem to be in the Phillies favor. 

Once the game started yesterday, the Phillies compounded the problem with some smaller decisions that proved regrettable.     

With acknowledgement of the club’s offensive anemia, it was still a poor decision to send Carlos Ruiz home in the Phillies fifth with Chase Utley on deck. Center fielder Aaron Rowand got to Shane Victorino’s single quickly and was in shallow center. 

In the Giants sixth, Ross keyed a rally by hitting yet another middle-in fastball that the Phillies continue to feed him. As broadcaster Joe Buck commented, the definition of insanity is to continue doing the same thing and expect a different result. 

Then, Pablo Sandoval roped a two-run double off a pitch that should have never been called. Letter-high 89 mph fastballs tend to land in the seats or bounce off a wall.  

And, most painfully, the decision to call for a Roy Oswalt change-up after pumping fastballs past injured Juan Uribe was a decision that ended in “sudden death” in the contest. Uribe was able to get around on the off-speed pitch enough to lift a walk-off sacrifice fly to left.  

The decisions have been made and there is no going back. The Giants have a 3-1 series lead and can close things out tonight within the friendly surroundings of AT&T Park. 

The series is still not over until one team wins four games and this Phillies team will not quit, especially with “The Big Three” lined up to do battle. Even so, the odds are now against them, particularly since the Giants will trot out their own “Big Three” to oppose them. 

The Phillies and their fans cannot revise history, so the only viable approach is to latch onto the cliches and conventional wisdom such as “taking one game at a time.” But still, unless the Phillies can beat the odds, the gnawing feeling will persist for many years to come that it didn’t have to turn out this way.

Manuel has been a great choice to lead this club and has been a big part of the current era success. It seems that he missed the mark here, though.  

This Phillies team was positioned better than any team in its long history to win a championship. A decision not to ride the team’s biggest strength, though —its trio of aces —could haunt its stakeholders for a long, long time.  

Right now, the team and its fanbase are left to hope that Charlie’s math and logic prevails. The Phillies simply need to win four games to advance to the World Series — and it does not matter which ones.

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