Halladay human, but Phils need to hit
Halladay human, but Phils need to hit
Sam Donnellon, Daily News Sports Columnist
The good news: The Phillies offense showed signs of life against an excellent pitcher.
The bad news: Roy Halladay is human. Especially against the San Francisco Giants.
Tagged with the loss after allowing all the runs in last night’s 4-3 Game 1 loss in the National League Championship Series, Halladay is now 0-3 in four starts against San Francisco, with an earned run average of just under seven runs per game.
"I never expected it to be easy," Halladay said afterwards. "If you can’t handle failure at this point you’re in the wrong business."
The anticipated duel between last year’s Cy Young Award winner and the likely winner this year fizzled quickly via long pitch counts. Neither ace appeared to have the command that punctuated their first forays into the postseason last week, but home plate umpire Derryl Cousins tight strike zone had something to do with that.
Halladay flinched first, surrendering a no-doubt home run to Cody Ross with one out in the third inning. Halladay struck out Lincecum and Torres to end the inning, but the immediate thought was: Would this be enough?
Carlos Ruiz answered that on Lincecum’s second pitch in the bottom of the third, punching a high outside fastball over the rightfield wall to tie the score at 1.
Lincecum spent the rest of the inning battling his control and glaring at Cousins, necessitating a trip to the mound by Giants manager Bruce Bochy after Lincecum fell behind Ryan Howard with two runners in scoring position.
"I could see that he was showing a little frustration," said Bochy. "I just wanted to calm him down. And I mean, he's really hyped up a little bit in this big game. And he was in a jam there. So I just wanted to make sure he calmed down and kept his poise out there and came back, made some good pitches there on Howard. But I could see a little frustration on his part. That's why I went out there."
It was the most pivotal at-bat of the game. After Ruiz’s home run tied the game, Placido Polanco hit a 2-0 pitch for a double into the leftfield corner and Chase Utley walked. Lincecum fell behind Howard 2-0, who had doubled against Lincecum in the first inning hitting the ball to the opposite field.
This time he swung hard at three consecutive pitches out of the strike zone to end the threat. One of those pitches missed the target so badly that it sailed past catcher Buster Posey, moving both runners into scoring position. Regardless, the Giants kept the shift on, providing a huge hole on the left to punch a ball through.
The Phillies had four extra base hits in three games against the Reds. They had three extra-base hits in the first three innings last night, but just two singles from that point on.
And for the third game in a row, they could not muster consecutive hits.
"I’m concerned,’’ said Phillies manager Charlie Manuel. "We need to hit better."
Cousins strike zone played big in the Giants sixth, when they rallied for three runs with two outs and no one on. With Buster Posey on first, Halladay thought he struck out Burrell on a 1-2 cutter. "Yeah, I did," he said. "But there were calls they wanted too. If you don’t make a pitch, you have to make the next one."
Instead Burrell ripped the following pitch for a double, the ball glancing off Raul Ibanez’s glove at the base of the wall. Uncharacteristically irked, Halladay had words with Cousins after backing up the play. He then surrendered an RBi single up the middle to Juan Uribe and the Giants led 4-1.
Jayson Werth recovered two runs in the bottom of the sixth, launching a 2-2 fastball over the rightfield wall with Chase Utley aboard to make it 4-3.
It stayed that way the rest of the way, although not without drama and missed opportunities.
With a lineup full of other team’s castoffs, the Giants finished well behind the Cincinnati Reds in virtually every important offensive category this season. But they are a team of hackers, and against Halladay, on a night when the strike zone for both he and Giants ace Tim Lincecum shrunk considerably from their first postseason starts, it was a perfect formula.
Halladay lost for the first time since Aug. 30. "You’re always surprised when Roy gets hit," said Brad Lidge. "It’s once in a blue moon."
"But I’m excited to see him pitch the next time out."
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Man, I was really psyched after Cliff Lee's Game 1 win at Yankee Stadium last year...— 5280philly- The Giants will prove to be a very tough opponent mentally in close games. The Phillies have to win a game or two by scoring a lot of runs. This will take some pressure off the Phillies starting and relief pitchers because the Giants can't score runs with the Phillies. The Phillies need to win game 2, and players such as Victorino, Polanco, Utley, Howard and Rollins need to start hitting. I think Werth and Ruiz have carried this team too much lately. It's time for the other guys to wake up, or they'll be watching the World Series at home on their couches.— RunningTheBases
- This could be a problem... The team needs to consistently hit. They let both Lincecum and Wilson off the hook in key situations. The bullpen did their job giving the Phils O a chance to pull it out. The bats have to respond when necessary or this series will go south in a hurry. You can see the Giants are very hungry and that gives them an edge.— eagle_z
- Howard should be embarrassed that he swung at a pitch that went into the stands. He hit a double to lead off a inning but then he struck out the next 3 times when it mattered— Joey0210
- The Phillies are going to let Werth go to another team this winter but keep the three year slumper Jimmy Rollins on their roster . He has lost the ability to hit and it is never coming back.— publius sempronius tuditanus
- Halladay pads his stats and can win cy young but is really just mediocre in clutch games (Yanks, Twins, redsox, cubs, 2 giants games, first reds game, etc) -- Phils best pitcher is Cole (how things change) --they can win game 3 but really don't have favorable matchups in other games (and have never lost a game like this --down by only one run after 6th inning and then never even getting a running in scoring position -- in past 2 year post-season run).. so all the bad karma from the whole season is coming back to doom this team --should have kept Burrell and Lee...— warbiscuit
- And so the numerous man-crushes with Lee begin again...— BrianNJ
Comment removed.- If Ibanez catches that somewhat routine flyball, we'd all be celebrating a Halladay.— retzlaff
- Three runs versus Lincecum should be enough to win.— Freedom Fries
- Cliff Lee > Roy Choke-A-Day any day of the week!!! Halladay can handle the pee in their pants Reds lineup...but when the pressure is turned up and the lights are on, he falls to pieces against Cody Ross??? That was not a big time pitching performance tonight. The ball hit to Ibanez was a sieve off the bat of Pat the Bat. Halladay flat out stunk tonight and if this was Cole Hamels you guys would by frying him. FRYING HIM!!!— jeffmacnow1234
- SF faced a hot Chi-Cubs pitching staff(made them suffer-Giants), Then the Padres Pitching staff-even more filthY!!!!!!, Then the Braves staff(notice the reacuring theme) -The GIANTS staff is used to grinding!!!! Get used to it- be ready for a down and dirty fight!!
— griff-one 
Just one game, folks. We've won the NLCS 5 times since 1980 and we've never swept an opponent.— wylies99- Comment removed.
- Ryan Howard couldn't have come up smaller, and jimmy rollins is finished folks...— Conshy04
Reach Sam at donnels@phillynews.com.
