Aftermath of Game 4 loss
News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.
Aftermath of Game 4 loss
Paul Hagen
Some key talking points from Daily News baseball writer Paul Hagen, who breaks down last night's Game 4 loss to the Giants.
Looking for a hat trick. Last night’s 6-5 loss means the Phillies are down, three games to one in the best-of-seven NLCS and have no margin for error remaining if they hope to advance to the World Series for the third straight year. In case you were wondering, the Phillies had winning streaks of 3 or more games 14 times this year.
Whatever it takes. The Phillies didn’t bring Roy Halladay back on short rest last night in part because they didn’t want to look like they were panicking. But when it was all on the line in the ninth inning last night, it became clear how much importance they placed on not falling behind three games to one. With the score tied in the bottom of the ninth, starter Roy Oswalt came out of the bullpen. He was used in that unfamiliar role even though he had thrown on the side before the game as a tune-up for a possible Game 6 start on Saturday and even though Brad Lidge, J.C. Romero and Kyle Kendrick were still available in the bullpen. It didn’t work. The Giants scored and Oswalt took the loss.
The rematch: Remember all the hype about probable 2010 Cy Young Award winner Roy Halladay facing 2008 and 2009 Cy Young winner Tim Lincecum in Game 1? Two of the National League’s best starters will go at it again tonight, and the stakes will be even higher.
Will Doc be on? In his last start against the Giants, Game 1 of the National League Championship Series, Roy Halladay allowed 4 earned runs and the Phillies lost. They obviously need their ace to be better than that in Game 5 tonight. And if his track record this season is any indication, he probably will be. Halladay allowed 4 or more earned runs in a game 8 times during the regular season. Six times he pitched at least 8 innings in his next start. Once he gave up 4 runs. Twice he allowed 3. Once he gave up one ... and 4 times he shut out the opponent, including his perfect game against the Marlins. His earned run average in those starts: 1.53.
Home cooking. The Giants have won 4 straight and 9 of their last 10 NLCS games at home.
Comments (42)
Right now there is a certain Rangers pitcher that is thanking his lucky stars he got traded away from this disaster.— n62- ...and two guys named Roy that wish they went elsewhere.— n62
- Halladay would have won that game EASILY, and the series would now be tied 2-2...period.......Most baseball experts agreed Halladay should have started LAST NIGHT to get the crucial win and tie the series
2-2.................But DUMB Manuel and Dubee instead start Blanton who had not pitched in nearly a month, and he then threw 2 wild pitches and hit a batter in the first inning, and only pitched 4 innings which depleted the bull-pen..............Manuel and Dubee blew the game and the series...period— Bill20 - Well, I don't remember all of the follow-up games, but the perfect game in Florida was a win due to an unearned run off Josh Johnson. Halladay could have still been perfect but could have been forced to go extra innings if not for the erroe. It wasn't as though the Phils offense provided great support and as I recall, Johnson was pretty good this year. The Phils offense will face a tough test in Lincecum tonight, let's hope they don't overlook that fact and count on another perfect game.— kmon
- Bringing Oswalt into pitch 9th inning relief - that's a panic.
Oswalt getting bounced with the game 4 loss is huge for the Giants if the series goes back to Philly.
Halladay has looked tired and the Giants team is showing that playing hard is the difference between winning or losing.— NorthBeachSF - I don't care about shoulda coulda woulda. I just wish things were even up. All the calls, breaks and bad bounces go the Giants way. Now the bounces can't be predicted. The breaks can't be predicted. But the bad umpiring.....that can be changed. Umps have no problem calling strike 3 on the Phils, but Giants with 2 strikes never seem to get punched out. Even when it happened last night Aaron Rowand on a pitch right down the middle of the plate, turned and said something because they don't think that they can get called out. Now the Phillies, Victorino at the beginning of the game. Ross Gload in the ninth. Even Joe Buck thought he was safe.
— skolman - The Phillies will be singing with Tony Bennett, "I left my heart in San Francisco"!— sonnybuoy01
- Hammels is the reason Blanton started game 4 and not Halliday.
Hammels would not pitch on short rest.— Bob65S - Charlie Manuel did the same dump decision last year on world series not allowing Clif Lee to pitch own short rest and we lost it. He did same thing this time again, the same result. Yankees did the right thing with Sabathia they own the World series. This is pure arogance.— man9999
- Bob65S; you don't know a damn thing that Hamels did or didn't say! Losers like you should root for the Mets!— JBinPA
- It's just time to show what the phil's are made of. The horses are lined up with their playoff lives on the line. The goal tonigh is get this thing back to philly! One game a time come on Phil's I Believe!!— Phillyphan26
- Why did you trade for Halladay if you were not goig to use him in a crucial Game 4. If you were up 2-1, then pitch Blanton. Donw 2-1, go Halladay. But bottom line: the Phillies were tied 5-5 and they did not come through offensively.— 76er
- Bob, Hamels was on the record saying he'd pitch on short rest. This is on the manager.— 76er
- I've never seen a team come to our beautiful City by the Bay,a team that seemed to ba able to field a decent line up all year, and just fall to pieces to a much superior team. I knew we would whip these has beens, but even some Giants fans thought the hillbillies still had some punch. Timmy will have them on their knee's tonight. Oh, @wvblilltz and his inuendo's about San Francisco,who's Gay now big boy,you guys suck !!Ha !— tallcal101
- I have no problem with Blanton pitching last night. He pitched fine, and had the lead when he left. If we win, everybody would be ecstatic that we have Halladay tonight. Put the debate about Halladay to rest already, its over. We had to chance to win last night and didn't. We made some mistakes on the field, got some bad calls and Charlie made some suspect pitching moves with the bullpen. I also don't have a problem going with Oswalt in the 9th. He said he could go, would you have wanted Kendrick or Romero out there?!?! win tonight and come back home for Game 6, that's all. Oh and n62 Cliff Lee hasn't clinched anything yet so I wouldn't speak so soon, and I doubt Oswalt or Halladay would rather be playing golf in Houston or Toronto right now than pitching the most meaningful games of their careers— Billingham
- Supposedly Charlie did not want to start Halliday because he didn't want to look like he was panicing, as Charlie believes palying loose is what is important. Putting Oswaldt in last night sure seemed like a panic move, did he expect that the game was going to drag on so long that he would need to use the three relievers he had left?? Why not use them before using Roy Os? When Blanton went out so early why not bring in some one who was a long inning pitcher. like Kendrick? The Phaintin' Phils played last night like they have all season, like the Hare expecting they can still win while the Tortouise is almost across the finish line. Phils now believe the hype about their 'dynasty' whereas stats show they are a dying offensive team. No playoffs next year with the Braves and Marlins coming up with hot young players, while the Phils seem to be losing their offensive skills, especially after the sign stealing epsiode, unless there are some player changes and the dead bats traded off.— atp2007
- Ladies don't worry the Phils will win...they just have to walk the hot hitter. The Giants are a horrible team playing a great team playing horrible. We should have been up 3-0 Utley & Ibanez have had unbelievable lapses in the field which will be unforgiveable if they don't win the next 3. Dom Brown should start in Right tonight & Worth in Left or vice-versa we need actual ARMS in all 3 positions in this big ballpark.— Bubbaduke
- atp2007- moves will be made. RAJ knows that he can't stand pat with this team. Werth will be gone, and I am sure RAJ will try to do everything he can to get rid of Ibanez. Not sure who else can be moved from the core group only ones I can think of are Rollins, Polanco or Vic, and I don't see them trading Rollins or Victorino. Will bolster the bench (hopefully) and the bullpen. Hopefully also make some more moves down the stretch of the season ala Giants this year the Cody Ross's, Javier Lopez's, Mike Fontinio's are available every year. This season we focused so much on getting another starter (Oswalt) that our secondary moves are pretty insignificant (Mike Sweeney...)— Billingham
- Bill20. Then what? Blanton goes out tonight against Lincecum and we go back to Philly down 3-2. If Halladay delivers, that's right where we are. Or, were you suggesting all three of our starters should be expected to pitch effectively on short rest. Just curious, how many other teams used their fourth starter this series? Oh, that's right... all of them.— NJguy
- I love it when a losing team from a loser city suddenly gets hot and is on the verge....suddenly they show up at the ball park and wave "Rally Rags" and will cheer for anything even a druggy ex-slugger! You guys may just pull this off and the sound heard cross the country will be the click of fans turning off Fox in favor of Dancing with the Stars re-runs!— PhiEagleII
- I agree with Billingham...Chollie did the right thing with Oswalt and now in game 7 he has someone who hasn't lost a game at the bank as Hamels will get game 6. The other thing is...think of how exciting it must be for Halladay to be pitching in a significant game with no margin for error. Tonight we light up the Freak he will be gone in 4-5 innings and then we beat them like the losers they are...for goodness sake they have a rookie batting 4th...are you kidding me? throw at him everytime up and he likes high fastballs but hits breaking pitches so throw him high fastballs...really not complicated Ruiz is just overthinking too much. Pitchh selection an placement has been very unlike the phillies this year almost like they are trying to let them hit it.— Bubbaduke
- You go Halliday, Blanton, Oswalt and Hamels. The matchup was the key thing...Halliday vs. no name (and 4 runs) or Halliday vs. Lincecum. And why wasn't JRo bunting in the 8th?!!!— bmoney17
- And for the record... pretty sure Lee would've pitched Game 2 (instead of Oswalt). So, I don't see how having him would've made any difference at all. (At least so far.)— NJguy
- I'd be very curious to see how many people who post on this board actually ever played a sport.
The fact is, Joe Blanton did his job. He did what hes done for years now... give you a chance to win the game. We are spoiled in this city all of a sudden, we think every outing should be a 1 or 2 hit game. Fact is... it doesnt go that way.
The lack of Roy Halladay being on the mound didnt lose the game, poor execution and lack of small ball did.
Why didnt Rollins bunt? why did Victorino hesitate throwing to home? Why did we pitch Ross inside AGAIN!? Why is Howard constantly trying to pull the ball? Why arent our hitters moving runners over?
You can ask all of these questions... fact is, the answers dont matter... just do the job and win the small battles.
Enough with the Halladay talk already... So who pitches tonight against lincecum? Oswalt? he looked great on short rest last night.— inkd0874 - To me, the bottom line is this: THE GIANTS ARE PLAYING AS IF THEY WANT IT MORE. STRAIGHT UP! Because Lord knows they are not the better team. Better so far? Definitely. Better team, period? Um, no. So you have to give them props, which I do.— 5NOT4
- To further explain the game of baseball to those who have no idea... A 21yr old kid was on the mound last night, if we cant shake him up and get some runs early, you think this lineup would against lincecum?? Blanton was the right move, it was the only right move in the entire game.
Charlie Manuel has gotten lucky with a very talented team... fact is, hes a poor situational manager. Its been ongoing since he got here.
You cant win this time of year making small mistakes. You cant win when youre going up to the plate just to survive. This team needs to execute what the situation calls for.
They came in expecting to walk through teams... It shows, pitching alone does not win a game... ask Cole Hammels.— inkd0874 - WIN TODAY BOYS! I really, really want to see if the Giants can win a game in Philly, with all the pressure, etc. Because, there is now less pressure on the Phils, as crazy as that may sound. I don't believe anyone expects us to win the series at this point. As I said, win today, and then, let's see what the Giants are made of.— 5NOT4
n62 might be the biggest fair weather fan in the history of sports.— gho_matt- Some of you people give the most idiotic responses, I swear. The Giants want it more????? Are you kidding me? That has nothing to do with it. You can want it all you want. But if you don't execute with runners in scoring position, make the plays that need to be made at key times (polanco, rollins' botched DP's) or hit your spot against a hot hitter, you won't win...END OF STORY. Things started to come together for this bunch last night, but Cholly, Dubee and the Pen imploded like the Vet. If Halladay guides us to a win tonight, momentum will be on our side folks. The Flyers did it, WHY NOT US? HIGH HOPES!!!!— Omorales510
- oswalt stepped up and took the ball in the ninth.
where was cole?— Bob65S - Omorales510 - CLUELESS. Tell you what, genius, let's put it out to our Philly bretheren: Who else in here feels strongly that the Giants appear hungrier than our Phillies?!. I sense a smugness and touch or arrogance with our boys. They appear to think they can turn it on whenever they wish, and it has blown up in their faces! So yes, Morales, the Giants are the hungrier team.— 5NOT4
- There is absolutely no reason that Halladay couldn't have started last night, and Blanton pitch tonight. There's that smugness again! Dubee appeared supremely confident that, were we to lose last night - Check! - we will win 3 straight, beginning tonight...— 5NOT4
- My issues with last night go well beyond not starting Halladay which absolutely should have been the call. 1)Why is Durbin left in the game so long when he is clearly throwing slop. 2) Why is Rollns not bunting with Werth on 2nd, no outs and Francisco coming up who always hits fly balls 3)Keep Contreras in the game! He's our best relief pitcher right now and should have come in for a 2nd inning (and I don't care if he needed to bat- we were running out of pitchers). It was the right move throwing Oswalt in the 9th but shouldn't have gotten to that point. No doubt in my mind we would have won that game if Doc started.— ajrobbin
- Blanton did his job? Are you serious? In a must win game he put the team behind out of the gate by allowing a first inning run. Then when we needed a shut down inning with the lead he walked the struggling Andres Torres (.167 BA, .216 OBP after the walk and a hit yesterday) to start the inning. Then he allowed a RBI single to Huff, but I would have replaced him with Bastardo and then bring KK if Bochy countered with Cantu.— EL Zorro
- Phils haven't hit since binocular-gate— lefty1117
- No question Halladay should have started and would have won that game.
We would have been 2-2 and assured to go back to Philly.
The manager on this team made a fatal decision which I truly believe was made because they all baby Hammels and just cant imagine wimpy Cole pitching on short rest in game 6 even if he may have said it in passing.— Bob65S - Yes, thats exactly right. Blanton did his job and im very serious. You are a classic example of someone posting on a board about a sport you obviously know nothing about.
Blanton left with the lead and gave his team a chance to win. He did exactly what he does almost every outing and exactly whats expected of him.
And pitch Blanton tonight against Lincecum????? Thats real smart, pitch the same guy you people are bashing against a cy young winner??? and you think youll have a chance to win that game?
You people make no sense and have no idea what youre talking about.
It makes sense to pitch everyone on short rest to avoid a Blanton against a 21yr old kid????? idiots— inkd0874 - 5Not4---I totally agree!!! We are the better team...we are an amazing team...but SF wants it waaaay more. You can see it! WAKE UP PHILLIES!!!!!!!!!!— Alvin12
- If Halliday pitches last night and wins, we have 2 options tonight: Oswalt on short rest (how'd that work out last night), or Blanton vs Lincecum. Either way, the Giants have a clear advantage in game 5. We still go back to Philly down 3-2. At least this way, we have Oswalt and Cole pitching at home on normal rest.
The people screaming for Halliday last night are not looking at the bigger picture. While we would have won last night, we are not in as strong a position to win any of the remaining games.— pingpong - Ummm I have no flames toward individual comments but I see a lot of ppl talking "must win". I ask you...isn't EVERY GAME in the NLCS/World Series a must-win? I dont care if it's Game 1 u need to win that m-fer that way u have all the more cusion (not to mention field advantages) Could've pitched Halladay last nite Oswalt tonite and Blanton next game to rest baby Hamels. Now Halladay, coming off a bad game is in an intense pressure situation as will the rest of our pitchers for the rest of the NLCS. Now Oswalt is around 10 pitches behind and his arm didnt fully rest...and he took the loss and gave away some insight to Giants bats. How do u think he will do next? Charlie and company may be watching the WS from his couch this year.— hankusdankus
- Since when a pitcher with an ERA of almost 6 (Blanton's last night) is doing his job. You're as clueless as the man making the decisions. And who said Blanton was going to pitch today against Lincecum? If Charlie was smart enough he would have pitch Halladay follow by the rest of the 3 headed monsters with 3 day rest. By pitching Blanton and making boneheaded moves he had to use Oswalt who already threw a bullpen before the game. Now he could be in no shape to pitch a crucial game if we need him.— EL Zorro
- Since when a pitcher with an ERA of almost 6 (Blanton's last night) is doing his job. You're as clueless as the man making the decisions. And who said Blanton was going to pitch today against Lincecum? If Charlie was smart enough he would have pitch Halladay follow by the rest of the 3 headed monsters with 3 day rest. By pitching Blanton and making boneheaded moves he had to use Oswalt who already threw a bullpen before the game. Now he could be in no shape to pitch a crucial game if we need him.— EL Zorro
1
Popular Posts
About this blog
High Cheese is your place for the best Phillies coverage from the Daily News.
David Murphy
Daily News Staff Writer
Ryan Lawrence
Daily News Staff Writer
Search this blog:
Classifieds:
Site Services:
Partners:
Powered By:
