Weird third inning provided Phils with margin of victory

SAN FRANCISCO - The way Game 5's top of the third inning unfolded before a big San Francisco crowd wearing bright colors Thursday afternoon, you half-expected to hear the public address announcer issue a warning about the brown acid.

As it turned out, the psychedelic Phillies' inning, which featured more oddities than those that reside in the Giants' clubhouse, would end up being a bummer for San Francisco.

The three Philadelphia runs that inning, scored in blow-your-mind fashion, were enough to keep the Phillies' 2010 season alive, their 4-2 victory sending the NL Championship Series back to Philadelphia for Saturday's Game 6.

"That was a strange inning, pretty much from start to finish," said Shane Victorino. "But we hustled and we hung in there and we made something happen."

It all began innocently and unusually enough with Raul Ibanez's first hit in 12 NLCS at-bats, a flare that fluttered in between second-baseman Freddy Sanchez and the finally mortal Cody Ross in right.

Next, a change-up from The Freak, Tim Lincecum, mystically avoided Carlos Ruiz's bat and his front left arm and, traveling through a tiny tunnel of space, struck him in his right arm.

With runners at first and second, no outs and his team trailing, 1-0, Roy Halladay, who had tweaked his groin an inning earlier, was called on to sacrifice.

The pitcher's bunt was not a good one. It shot down toward his feet, spun off home plate and trickled to the right, clearly in the foul territory of the batter's box. But as catcher Buster Posey pounced on it, home plate umpire Jeff Nelson signaled that the ball was fair.

"When I first hit it, I just didn't think I got very much," Halladay said. "It stayed in front of the plate, but I was thinking it was going to go backward."

Posey had little time to ponder the potential path of the ball.

"It was spinning right there near home plate," said Victorino, in the on-deck circle. "Posey, I think he was trying to figure out what it was going to do, whether it was going to go foul or stay fair."

Posey scooped it up fired to third, the throw appearing to beat the onrushing Ibanez. But Pablo Sandoval, who had been charging on the play, was about to experience a bad trip.

He had not yet returned to the base when he caught the ball a few feet in front of the bag. As he tap-danced awkwardly in search of it, tumbling to the ground, Ibanez slid in safely.

"[Posey] tried the best he could to make that play at third, but that was good hustle by Raul," said Victorino. "That's what this game is all about. He was able to get to third and be safe, and I was able to put the ball in play and we manufactured some runs."

And yet a quick post-play survey of the bases revealed they were not full of Phillies. Instead, Halladay, thinking - correctly, as the replays would show - that his bunt was foul, hadn't begun to run.

Sandoval, seeing the pitcher just starting to move tentatively toward first as he picked his sizable self off the ground, easily threw Halladay out.

"You know, I really knew I didn't get it very good," Halladay said of the bunt. "But it happened so quick. He picked it up and made the throw to third. I really didn't have much time to analyze it after that."

So, despite all that had transpired, the result of the magical mystery tour of a play somehow was exactly what had been originally intended - a successful sacrifice bunt.

Next up was leadoff hitter Victorino, who laced a bouncer to Aubrey Huff. Perhaps the good-luck thong Huff has been wearing for more than a month bothered him, because the ball ricocheted off the first baseman's glove.

As Huff hung his head, the ball bounded toward the grass behind an unprotected second base. Ibanez and Ruiz scored as Sanchez ran it down and Victorino made it all the way to second, the Huff error leaving the suddenly offensively challenged Phils with a 2-1 lead.

"It was hit hard, but it's a play I should have made," said Huff.

Lincecum, perhaps as upset as he was puzzled, responded by buzzing the head of the next hitter, Placido Polanco. Aroused or angry, perhaps both, the Phils' third baseman then laced a single to center that scored Victorino.

Chase Utley would follow with a single and a steal of second. But the bizarre inning ended routinely enough on the second of three Ryan Howard strikeouts and Jayson Werth's fly ball to center.

"It was a weird inning but we did a lot of things right," said Ibanez. "Now we're still alive, and we're going home."

Far out.