Tempers flare as Phils rough up Sanchez, Giants

Giants starter appeared frustrated after Shane Victorino's solo homerun started a four-run 4th inning. Sanchez didn't even make it past the 5th inning as the Giants lost, 9-2. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

This has become a very heated rivalry in baseball despite the two teams playing on opposite sides of the country.

It all started last October in Game 3. The two culprits were Chase Utley and Giants pitcher Jonathan Sanchez. Now let’s fast forward tonight.

It was the first time the Phils saw Sanchez since Game 3 of the NLCS. It was also the first time Utley has seen him since he tossed the baseball to Sanchez very sarcastically after being plunked in that game.

It was going to go either two ways: Sanchez bounces back after missing almost 50 days due to injury to shut down the Phils or he and the Giants get roughed up and frustrated in a Phillies laugher.

It started out in Sanchez’s favor, not allowing a hit until Vance Worley’s two-out single in the 3rd. But it was all down hill from there on as the Phils clobbered Sanchez and beat the Giants, 9-2.

Uribe Leads Giants to World Series

It’s always a tough pill to swallow. Brad Lidge knows it and now Ryan Madson knows it.

This is the swing that ended the Phillies season. Juan Uribe's solo homer in the eighth inning gave the Giants the 3-2 lead and eventual win in game six, sending them to the World Series. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Juan Uribe took Madson deep with two outs in the eighth inning to make it a 3-2 game. Then San Francisco’s bull pen held the lead to give the Giants their first trip to the Fall Classic since 2002 when they lost to the then Anaheim Angels in seven games.

It was the end to a weird season for the Phillies, who battled injuries and an ugly offensive slump and rode a ridiculous September to earn a fourth straight NL East title and the best record in baseball.

The Giants went to game one and five starter, Tim Lincecum, as the set-up man for closer Brian Wilson. But after striking out Werth, Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez hit back-to-back singles to chase Lincecum and force Wilson to have to make a five-out save.

After two pitches to Carlos Ruiz, Wilson got him to line out to Aubrey Huff, who flipped to second to get Victorino to end the scoring threat.

Ross Gload led-off the top of the ninth with a ground out. Rollins then worked a full count walk to bring up Placido Polanco with one out. Polanco then hit a grounder to Uribe who flipped to second but couldn’t get the double play turned.

It all came down to Chase Utley. Wilson pitched around him to get to Ryan Howard, who had not driven in a run the entire post season after having 17 last year.

With the count full, Howard looked at a pitch at the knees for strike three to end the Phillies season.

Roy Oswalt pitched an admirable game, allowing two runs, one earned, on nine hits and five strike outs in six innings of work.

The Phillies chased Jonathan Sanchez after two-plus innings. Sanchez was rattled early, giving up two runs in the first and putting batters on again in the third.

In the first, the Phils got runs from a Utley RBI double and a sacrifice fly from Werth to give them an early 2-0 lead. But the Giants got those runs back in the top of third thanks to some small hits and a Polanco error.

After walking Polanco to lead off the third, Sanchez hit Utley with a pitch. As Utley was jogging down the first base line, he picked up the ball and flipped it back to Sanchez. Sanchez didn’t like it, starting yelling at Utley and both teams’ benches cleared.

The Giants pulled Sanchez after that and let their bull pen pitch six scoreless innings to earn them the win as they represent the NL in the World Series.

2B: Utley (1), Ibanez (1).

WP: J. Lopez. LP: Madson. S: Wilson.

Boxscore.

Rally Time 2.0

It’s Rally Time!

The Phillies are continuing on their come back in the NLCS. Down, 3-2, in the series, the Phillies will have Roy Oswalt on the mound tonight to face San Francisco’s left-hander Jonathan Sanchez. Game time was moved to 7:30 PM and is still on FOX.

One game at a time, folks!

Stayin’ Alive

And the Phillies are going back home to. With the mantra, “one game at a time,” the Phils took game five and made it a 3-2 NLCS with a huge win Thursday night, 4-2.

Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum did battle again. But it was the three-run third inning for the Phils that put Lincecum behind and gave Halladay the lead to work with.

Doc went six innings, allowing two runs on six hits with a rare two-walk game while striking out five. Lincecum went seven, giving up three runs, two earned, on four hits and walk with seven strike outs.

The Phillies got a little cushion from Jayson Werth, whose solo home run in the top of the ninth made it a 4-2 game. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Jayson Werth went yard in the ninth inning, his 13th career in the NL playoffs which is tied for the most all time with Albert Pujols, Chipper Jones, and Jim Edmonds. The solo shot that landed just over the right field wall made it a 4-2 game, giving Brad Lidge the cushion he needed for the save.

A defensive lapse for San Francisco led to the offensive surge in the third. Raul Ibanez led-off with a single, his first of a two-hit night. Carlos Ruiz followed up with getting in the way of a pitch to put two on.

After a sacrifice bunt by Halladay, Shane Victorino reached on an error by Aubrey Huff to score two and give the Phils the lead. Placido Polanco followed up with an RBI single to make it a 3-1 game.

San Francisco got a run back in the fourth when Pat Burrell and Cody Ross hit back-to-back doubles to make it 3-2. But that was as close as the Giants were going to get this game.

With the series heading back to Philadelphia, the Phillies will have Roy Oswalt on the hill to face Jonathan Sanchez, a rematch of game two. Sanchez got hit around a bit while Oswalt pitched eight spectacular innings. A repeat performance will force a game seven.

HR: Werth (2).

WP: Halladay. LP: Lincecum. S: Lidge.

Boxscore.

NLCS Preview: Phillies vs. Giants

Phillies 97-65; 1st in NL East                      Giants: 92-70; 1st in NL West

Pitching Probables – (Likely to change).
Game 1: Tim Lincecum (16-10, 3.43) @ Roy Halladay (21-10, 2.44)
Game 2: Jonathan Sanchez (13-9, 3.07) @ Roy Oswalt (13-13, 2.76)
Game 3: Cole Hamels (12-11, 3.06) @ Matt Cain (13-11, 3.14)
Game 4: TBA
Game 5*: TBA
Game 6*: TBA
Game 7*: TBA

Broadcast
Game 1: Oct. 16, FOX – 7:30 PM
Game 2: Oct. 17, FOX – 8:00 PM
Game 3: Oct. 19, FOX – 4:00 PM
Game 4: Oct. 20, FOX – 7:30 PM
Game 5*: Oct. 21, FOX – 7:30 PM
Game 6*: Oct. 23, FOX – 3:30 PM
Game 7*: Oct. 24, FOX – 7:30 PM

Three Phillies to Watch

Phillies slugger Ryan Howard waits during batting practice, Tuesday. Howard hit just .273 in the NLDS while striking out five times. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Roy Halladay: Once again, he will be the Phillies game one starter, going up against the Giants’ ace, Lincecum. With one career post season start under his belt, a no-hitter last Wednesday, Halladay will look to continue to be the dominate, big-game pitcher the Phils acquired him to be. The Giants offense isn’t very potent and Halladay should have no problem dominating again.

Jayson Werth: Werth was a part of their biggest problem last series, going 2-for-12 in the three-game series with five K’s. As one of Philadelphia’s best hitters, for both power and average, Werth needs to have the typical post season he enjoyed the last two seasons.

Ryan Howard: Howard is another hitter who should be dominating in this time of the season. But like Werth, Howard didn’t do too much in the NLDS, going 3-for-11 and striking out five times. Jonathan Sanchez is a tough on left-handers and with the possibility of seeing Madison Bumgarner as well, Howard could have a tough time against the Giants if he doesn’t figure out Lincecum and Cain either.

Three Giants to Watch
Tim Lincecum: He’s the Freak. He’s the best young pitcher in baseball. Arguably pitching the best performance of the NLDS (yes even better than Halladay’s no-no) with a two-hit, 14-strike out effort in game one, Lincecum can decimate any offense. But against the Phillies in Philadelphia, he has been solid at best in his career.

-June 3, 2007 — 6.2 IP, 7 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 1 BB, 6 K (ND)
-May 4, 2008 — 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K (ND)
-September 3, 2009 — 7 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 B, 11 K (L)

It will be interesting to see how he does in his first career postseason. The Phillies offense is not anything that resembles the Braves.

Matt Cain: Cain is the jelly to Lincecum’s peanut butter (and you know how much stoners love PB&J). Cain had a very similar season to his Cy Young-candidate performance last season, posting a 13-11 year with a 3.14 ERA while striking out 177 batters. Cain is a very tough pitcher who is hard on both lefties and righties (opponents batted .211 right-handed and .225 left-handed this season against Cain).

Giants catcher Buster Posey celebrates with Giants closer Brad Wilson after beating the Padres to get into the playoffs. (MSN FOX)

Buster Posey: Posey should be the NL Rookie of the Year. He batted .305 with 18 homers and drove in 67 RBIs. The catcher, who is drawing comparison’s to Joe Mauer, is considered San Francisco’s best offensive weapon, which is honestly not saying much. He’s the only one really producing at a high level but his numbers alone cannot support a weak-hitting line up. The Phils could pitch around him, or even through him, and get away with it.

Starters

Phillies second baseman Chase Utley circles the bases after hitting a solo homer in the fifth inning of game three, Sunday night. (AP Photo/Al Behrman)

Phillies: Mike Sweeney, Halladay, and Wilson Valdez have the three highest post season batting averages so far. That says a lot on how much the Phillies bats struggled in the NLDS. San Francisco poses much better pitching than Cincy (arguably the best staff in the majors) and could easily shut down the Phils offense if the dry spell continues.

The Phillies 3-4-5 of Chase Utley, Howard, and Werth went a combined 8-for-34 (.235 average) in the NLDS, striking out 12 times. Utley drove in four of the trio’s five runs and hit the team’s lone home run of the series.

No batter in the starting eight had more than three hits while the offense as a whole scored 13 runs but six of those runs came off of Reds errors. Another power outage like that could force the Phils into a pitcher’s duel with the Giants and that could be a very scary scenario.

Giants: The Giants offense struggled in the NLDS too. Twice they were challenged by the Braves to come back and they did so, taking games three and four in Atlanta to close out the series.

Posey is the best offensive threat this team has and that’s just about it. Pat Burrell will be the Scott Rolen of this series. He did really well in the regular season back in Philadelphia, mashing a pair of homers. If the crowd cheers him at all, they’re nuts.

The rest of their line up is filled with misfits and castaways from other teams such as Aubry Huff, Cody Ross, Juan Uribe, and Freddy Sanchez. Pablo Sandoval has had a terrible year this season but can still pose a threat.

Giants ace Tim Lincecum is the future of the Giants success.

Rotation
Phillies: What the Giants have in talent, the Phillies matched in experience. Halladay is still considered the best pitcher in baseball by many. Hamels is pitching the best season of his career, even better than his NLCS/WS MVP 2008 season. Roy Oswalt’s acquisition put this rotation over the top, giving the Phils that extra push needed to be a World Series favorite. Joe Blanton has been either great or bad for the Phils. Game 4 could swing heavily in SF’s favor because of this.

Giants: With Lincecum, Cain, Sanchez and Madison Bumgarner, the Giants absolutely silenced the Braves offense. Lincecum is arguably the best young pitcher in the game and is pitching the best he has in 2010. Cain and Sanchez are also high up in the talks for young pitchers. If San Francisco can keep this trio intact long-term, Bobby Cox’s trio of Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, and John Smoltz in the 1990’s could be challenged for the greatest rotation of the last 25 years.

Bullpen
Phillies: The pen only pitched four innings this postseason so far thanks to complete games by Halladay and Hamels. Jose Contreras and J.C. Romero are their right-handed and left-handed specialists respectively. Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge form a lights-out 8th/9th inning tandem.

Giants: Brian Wilson has a silly mohawk/terrorist beard combo going. But don’t let the silly get-up fool you as he’s been very good thus far in the post season closing out games. He did blow a save though but hadn’t allowed an earned run in four innings of work. The pen also has Sergio Romo and Santiago Casilla, who also enjoyed great seasons pitching in the Giants pen.

Hamels Struggles Early

The stage was set for another good Cole Hamels outing with no run support.  Once again he didn’t receive any run support.  But Hamels also had a very rough outing.  Hamels was rocked for three runs in the first inning on the way to a 5-2 loss at the hands of the San Francisco Giants.

Hamels has been pitching spectactular as of late.  He unfortunately hit a bump in the road tonight.  Hamels gave up five runs on seven hits in five innings with two walks and seven strikeouts.  In the first inning, he gave up RBI hits to Buster Posey, Jose Guillen, and Juan Uribe.  Hamels struggled from the very beginning, but it was his first rocky outing in quite some time.

Hamels received little offensive support once again.  The Phillies were shut down by lefty Jonathan Sanchez who at one point retired 15 consecutive batters.  They only could muster four hits in the entire ballgame with two of those coming in the ninth inning.  Shane Victorino started off the inning with a single and Chase Utley hit a one out single.  Mike Sweeney knocked in both runners with an RBI double to left.  The Phillies started to put a rally together but the Giants brought in Brian Wilson to close out the game.  Wilson got Raul Ibanez to fly out to end the game.

The Phillies took two out of three games from the San Francisco Giants.  They currently hold a one game lead in the National League Wild Card.  The Atlanta Braves lost to the Washington Nationals today which keeps the Phillies two and a half games back in the National League East.  The Phillies will send Roy Halladay to the mound to begin a weekend series against the Nationals.  A sweep would be huge for the Phillies but they need to just keep playing their game and put this bad loss behind them.

2B: Sweeney (1)

WP: Sanchez (9-8) LP: Hamels (7-10)  S: Wilson (34).

Boxscore

Rollins Does It His Way

Short stop Jimmy Rollins dives into third after this triple in the third inning. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

It’s the kind of game that won Jimmy Rollins an MVP a few years ago. It’s also the kind of game the Phillies expect from their short stop every time when they put him in the lead-off slot.

Rollins fell just a double shy of the cycle as he led the Phillies to an 8-2 win over the Giants. The win gave them a two-game lead in the wild card over San Francisco and kept pace in the division with another Braves victory.

Rollins went 3-for-5 with two runs scored and three RBIs. The short stop led-off the bottom of the first with a single, tripled to lead-off the third, and ripped a three-run homer in the fourth.

Rollins’ home run was the first Phillies home run since last Tuesday, a span that is shocking for a team known to hit the long ball.

Chase Utley, Jayson Werth, and Carlos Ruiz all had two-hit games for the Phillies. Domonic Brown hit a solo blast into the second deck in right field in the bottom of the eighth, his second career shot.

Rollins, Raul Ibanez, and Ruiz all tripled in tonight’s game. It was the first time since September 7, 2006 that the Phillies had three different hitters to triple in a single game.

Joe Blanton was very good in his spot on the hill. The heavy-weight allowed only two runs in 6 1/3 innings pitched on eight hits while striking out seven. His only two mistakes were the solo home runs to Andres Torres to lead off the game and to Pat Burrell in the sixth.

The Phillies are officially rolling as they have won four straight and six of their last seven. They send Cole Hamels to the hill tomorrow to face Jonathan Sanchez and go for the sweep. It will also be the Phillies’ 100th straight sell-out.

2B: Utley (14), Werth (40). 3B: Rollins (1), Ruiz (3), Ibanez (4). HR: Rollins (5), D. Brown (2).

WP: Blanton (5-6) LP: Cain (9-10)

Boxscore.

A Giant Step Backwards

July was a phenomenal month for the Phillies as they went 20-7. But now comes August and it seems as it the Phillies finally cooled down. Cliff Lee’s amazing debut saved the Phillies from getting swept as they couldn’t figure out the Giants starting pitching, losing three of the four-game series. This was their first series loss since the beginning of July.

Thursday – Giants won 7-2: Rodrigo Lopez got hammered in the fourth as he gave up a total of seven runs, three earned, in his short outing. Pablo Sandoval hit a homer and had four RBI’s and Eugenio Velez drove in three. The Phillies offense could only muster five hits on Jonathon Sanchez.

Friday – Phillies won 5-1: Lee made his debut and pitched a complete game, allowing a run on four hits and two walks, striking out six. He also had a pair of hits including one off the wall in left-center. Lee got support from Jayson Werth’s two hits, including his solo homer in the second, and three RBI’s.

Saturday – Giants won 2-0: Tim Lincecum pitched another stellar game as he out matched Joe Blanton. Aaron Rowand scored on a Juan Uribe sacrifice fly in the fifth to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

Sunday – Giants won 7-3: Cole Hamels officially has been the Phillies worst starter of the season. After a great start, he fell apart in the fifth and sixth, allowing seven runs, six earned. Jimmy Rollins and Ben Francisco had a pair of hits including Rollins’ solo shot in the fourth.

Series MVP’s:

Cliff Lee – CG, 1 ER, 4 H, 1 BB, 6K; batting: 2-4, double

Tim Lincecum – 8 IP, 0 ER, 7 H, 1 BB, 8 K; batting: 1-2

Eugenio Velez – 7-17, 3 R, double, 5 RBI

Next Series: Colorado Rockies (58-47; 31-26 on road) @ Philadelphia Phillies (59-44; 27-25 at home)

The Phillies lead the series 2-1 (last played in April). Despite a crappy road trip where the Phillies went 3-7 (lost four of last five), the Phillies will come back home where they have seemed to have found their groove.

The Rockies have been playing tremendous baseball as of late and are riding a four-game win streak. Their offense is second in the NL in runs scored only behind the Phillies. The Rockies pitching is sixth while the Phillies are twelfth.

It can’t be said what kind of Phillies team you’ll see in Philly versus Colorado. The offense could be working the count and the pitching could be good but at the same time, you could see Jamie Moyer give up a ton of runs and the offense look just as terrible in the past seven games. The Phillies will get a needed day off and hope to rebound.

Pitching Probables:

Tuesday: COL: Hammel (5-6, 4.66), PHI: Moyer (10-7, 5.32)
Wednesday: COL: De La Rosa, J (9-7, 4.68), PHI: Happ (7-2, 2.97)

Thursday: COL: Cook (10-3, 3.88), PHI: Lee, Cl (8-9, 3.02)