Oswalt, Rollins come through

Phil on the Phils is in the press box at Citizens Bank Park for Game 2 of the NLCS between the Phillies and San Francisco Giants. Here's the lowdown:

Final: Phillies 6, Giants 1

The Giants are happy.

The Phillies are happy.

Neither team would admit as much – this here is major league baseball, and nobody admits anything – but they both left Citizens Bank Park Sunday night with a positive feeling about the rest of the National League Championship Series.

The Giants got a split, which is what they wanted in Philadelphia.

The Phillies re-established order with an imposing 6-1 victory in Game 2.

These were the Phillies who were the best team in baseball in September and through the division series, with dominant starting pitching, solid defense, good base-running and some quality at-bats.

It felt like old times in the old ballyard – you know, way back in the Cincinnati series.

Roy Oswalt was terrific. Placido Polanco drove in two runs. Ryan Howard and Shane Victorino each had two hits. Jimmy Rollins delivered a three-run double that broke the game open in the seventh.

All good for the Phillies.

But not so bad for the Giants, either.

They got their victory in Game 1. They know Jonathan Sanchez can throw more efficiently than he did in Game 2. They probably feel pretty good with Matt Cain, fire-balling left-hander Madison Bumgarner and ace Tim Lincecum lined up for Games 3-4-5 in San Francisco.

The Phillies feel pretty good, too.

The vibe was familiar in the ballpark.

Both teams are happy.

Just don't ask anybody to admit it.

It might have been the biggest ovation Charlie Manuel ever received for doing nothing.

Manuel went to the mound to talk with Roy Oswalt after the Giants put runners on first and second with two out in the eighth. Usually, a Manuel appearance means the end of the night for the starting pitcher.

But Manuel didn't make a move. He said a few words, and ran back to the dugout.

To thunderous cheers.

Oswalt retired Aubrey Huff to end the inning. Through eight innings, he has a three-hitter with nine strikeouts.

No wonder the crowd wants him in the game.

Jimmy Rollins wasn't due.

He was overdue.

He was late. The Phillies and their fans were waiting the entire post-season - actually, most of the second half of the season, thanks to a nagging hamstring injury – for the shortstop who generates so much of their energy to return to form.

With one swing, Rollins was back.

His three-run double in the seventh turned a taut game into a 6-1 laugher.

More than that, though, it raised the possibility that maybe, just maybe, the Phillies' spark plug will be back to his old ways.

And that would likely mean a return to the World Series.

Yeah, he's that important.

Yeah, that how much that hit could turn out to mean in the final analysis of the 2010 season.

Or maybe it just was a tack-it-on hit off a reliever who didn't want to throw another ball on a 2-0 count with the bases loaded.

We'll know in a week.

But when much of the crowd in CBP started chanting, "J-Roll . . . J-Roll," you know how they expect this thing to play out.

He pitches.

He hits.

He runs through stop signs.

He scores.

Roy Oswalt does all that for the Phillies.

Oswalt was working on a two-hitter on the mound when he left off the seventh with a single to center. That chased Giants' starter Jonathan Sanchez.

Oswalt took second on a bunt by Shane Victorino.

Then the Phillies' pitcher raced into local legend – well, as legendary as scoring a key run in Game 2 of the NLCS can be – by blowing past third-base coach Sam Perlozzo's stop sign and sliding home just ahead of Buster Posey's tag after Placido Polanco's single.

He was wearing his warm-up jacket the whole time.

He even managed to look a little sheepish on his way to the dugout, like he knew he dodged a bullet when the Giants' relay was a tick too slow to nail him at the plate. His run made it 3-1.

It's Oswalt's night – on the mound, at the plate, and even on his reckless, feckless way around the bases.

Game 2 has been Game 1.

Game 2 has been the pitcher's duel. The Phillies' Roy Oswalt and the Giants' Jonathan Sanchez have been the story through six innings.

Oswald has allowed just two hits and one run. Sanchez has labored a bit with his command, and he's allowed two runs (one earned) and four hits.

But both guys have nasty stuff. Both had seven strikeouts through six innings.

Oswalt looks like he can go 9.

Sanchez has thrown more pitches, worked out of more trouble. He might not work past the seventh.

But it's been the duel that Game 1 was supposed to be between Roy Halladay and Tim Lincecum.

But those last nine outs always are the toughest.

Sometimes, it's not that tough to score a run.

Double.

Fly ball.

Fly ball.

Run.

Phillies lead, 2-1.

The key was Shane Victorino's leadoff double, of course. He had been hitting the ball well in the first two games of this series, with nothing to show for it.

He hit a shot in the first in Game 1, but Cody Ross tracked it down. He also hit a sharp grounder that the Giants turned into a double play. And he hit a hard liner to left in the second inning in Game 2.

He finally caught a break in the fifth, when his sharp grounder hugged the left-field line and he raced to second with a double.

Chase Utley's fly out to right moved Victorino to third.

Placido Polanco's fly out to center scored him.

OK, so it really wasn't easy as pie, 1-2-3, against a pitcher as nasty as the Giants' Jonathan Sanchez.

But sometimes it looks pretty easy.

And 2-1 looks pretty big, too.

It's fun to watch batting practice. You can follow the high, soaring trajectory of so many balls that sail into the leftfield seats.

Or you can watch Cody Ross bat against live Phillies pitching.

What's with this guy? He acknowledged after Game 1 - when he cracked two homers off Roy Halladay - that he wanted to be a rodeo clown when he was a kid.

I'm thinking he made a better career choice.

Ross has four homers in the postseason for the Giants. He has three in 14 innings against the Phillies.

He broke up Halladay's 12-inning no-hit streak with a tracer into left-field seats on Saturday night. Then he did it again two innings later.

Now he's done the same thing to Roy Oswalt's no-hitter.

Ross delivered the Giants first hit in the same way in Game 2 - a blast into the left-field seats in the top of the fifth.

Suddenly, it was 1-1 and the Phillies were kicking themselves a little harder for letting Giants' pitcher Jonathan Sanchez off the hook earlier in the game.

That's a line drive in the scorebook.

Jimmy Rollins popped up on the first pitch in the fourth. Rollins was 1-for-18 in the postseason, although his walk in the first forced in the game's first run.

But he popped up and chucked his bat and put his head down and trotted to first.

Next thing he knew, he was on first base with a single.

The ball was coming down just in front of the mound. San Francisco pitcher Jonathan Sanchez, catcher Buster Posey and third baseman Mike Fontenot converged on the play.

It was Fontenot's ball. He seemed to call for it.

Posey and Sanchez backed off.

Then Fontenot backed off at the last minute and the ball plopped on the infield grass like an Alka Selzer tablet in a glass of water.

It was Fontenot's second miscue of the early evening. His error in the first inning led to the game's first run.

If this keeps up, he's got a chance to be this series' version of the Reds' Jay Bruce.

Roy Oswalt is dealing.

The Phillies' right hander was talking before Game 1, saying he wasn't sure how he would react to such a long layoff between starts.

Like all starters, Oswalt is a creature of habit. He's used to his routine.

Oswalt hadn't thrown since Oct. 8 against Cincinnati. That's nine days. That's a long time.

But through three innings, the guy is locked in. He's faced just 10 batters. He's allowed one baserunner on a walk. He's struck out four, including Giants leadoff hitter Andres Torres twice.

Oswalt closed out the third by striking out Torres on a 93 m.p.h. heater on the black.

Oswalt downplayed the notion that he was extra motivated because his performance in the division series against Cincinnati was inferior to those masterpieces by fellow starters Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels.

But he sure looks like he's got a little something extra.

Maybe it just more fuel in the tank from those days off.

Not a good start for home plate umpire Dan Iassogna.

Not that the Phillies and their fans are complaining.

Jayson Werth wasn't happy when Iassogna rang up him on a curve ball that looked a little high and outside in a big spot in the first.

But then Iassogna made amends - to the Phillies, anyway - by calling Ball Four on a pretty good-looking pitch to the next batter, Jimmy Rollins.

That forced in the game's first run.

In the top of the second, Iassogna called strike three on the Giants' Mike Fontenot on a Roy Oswalt pitch that looked low and inside.

Hey, those guys are human, too.

But three questionable calls in three half-innings?

At this rate, Iassogna will have both dugouts yelling at him before the seventh-inning stretch.

The Phillies scored all their runs in Game 1 on home runs.

They scored their first one in Game 2 without a hit.

That's a good sign.

It's early but things are looking up for the Phillies. Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez is struggling with his command, and that usually means trouble against a lineup with as much plate discipline as the Phillies (well, most of the Phillies, anyway) usually display.

Sanchez is looking at a long night. And with closer Brian Wilson having worked a tough inning and a third in Game 1, the Giants' bullpen could be vulnerable as well.

I thought home plate umpire Dan Iassogna blew the call on the third strike to Jayson Werth. That curveball looked high, and maybe outside.

But that 3-1 pitch to Jimmy Rollins looked like a strike, and Iassogna called it Ball Four to force in a run.

Things tend to even out in this here game. But it usually takes two batters.

Can positive energy make the trip along 11th Street and across Pattison Avenue?

Can it transfer from Lincoln Financial Field to Citizens Bank Park?

Quite a few fans were working a day-night doubleheader. They made the trip from the Eagles' impressive 31-17 victory over Atlanta earlier Sunday in the Linc to Game 2 of the NLCS in CBP.

The whole sports complex was humming with good vibrations late Sunday afternoon and early Sunday night.

Maybe it was the weather, the buzz from a big Eagles' win and the buzz from some other intoxicating things.

Maybe that's a good omen for the Phillies. Or maybe there's nothing to that stuff.

Remember Nov. 1, 2009? The Eagles hammered the Giants that afternoon by a 40-17 score, setting the stage for a double dose of Philadelphia-over-New York.

It seemed to work, too, as the Phillies were right there with the Yankees in Game 4 of the World Series.

Then Johnny Damon worked a walk, stole second and ran to an unguard third, Alex Rodriguez delivered a big hit and the Yankees scored three times in the top of the ninth off Brad Lidge.

What good were the Eagles, their green-clad fans and all that positive energy that night?

Phillies fans better hope for more traditional means of victory: A strong outing from Roy Oswalt and lineup that figures out a way to get to San Francisco starter Jonathan Sanchez.