Phillies manage three hits, go down
Phillies manage three hits, go down
Sam Donnellon, Daily News Sports Columnist
SAN FRANCISCO -- In professing his faith in Jimmy Rollins the other night, Charlie Manuel said ``I'll go down with you."
Down two games to one to the San Francisco Giants in the National League Championship Series after a 3-0 loss in Game 2, Manuel now faces another test of faith: Rather than utilize Roy Halladay's willingness and ability to pitch on short rest, he will give the ball to the well-rested but statistically less impressive Joe Blanton, as he planned to before the game.
``I've thrown Game Fours before, so it's nothing new," Blanton said before yesterday's loss squeezed the Phillies margin for error in this series.
Oh, yes it is. Blanton's Game 4 starts have come with the Phillies ahead in the series, not behind.
Whole different animal.
Oh, and the Phillies have never won a postseason series after dropping the first game.
One stat that is in Blanton' favor: Blanton finished the season with 13 consecutive starts without a loss, compiling a 6-0 record with a 3.24 earned run average.
Blanton will be opposed by San Francisco Giants 21-year-old lefthanded rookie Madison Baumgarner, who won the clinching game of the Giants National League Division Series against the Braves, allowing two earned runs in over six innings of work. Baumgarner was 7-6 during the regular season, but like Blanton, his best work came at the end.
As did that of Cole Hamels, who took a no-hitter into the fourth inning yesterday despite rarely getting his first pitch in for a strike. Giants starter Matt Cain routinely found the zone with his first pitch, but the Phillies had two baserunners on in both the third inning and fourth inning and produced nothing.
The Phillies were five-for-25 with runners in scoring position in their three-game sweep over the Reds. They were 0-for-18 before Placido Polanco singled in Roy Oswalt in the four-run seventh inning Sunday night. Rollins followed with a bases clearing double.
Today they were 0-for-5 over the six innings Hamels pitched, forcing the lefthander to try and be as untouchable as he was nine days ago against the Cincinnati Reds.
He wasn't. The Giants nicked away at Hamels in the fourth, as his control became a bigger issue. Edgar Renteria, like Cody Ross a career gnat to the Phillies, sliced a single to rightfield to begin the fourth. Freddy Sanchez sacrificed him to second. Buster Posey struck out on a 3-2 fastball up in the zone, but Hamels walked Burrell on five pitches, then fell behind Ross 2-1. Ross turned on the next pitch for s single down the leftfield line, Aubrey Huff found another hole between second and first to drive in Burrell and the Giants had a 2-0 lead.
Suddenly it felt like 2009 again.
Aaron Rowand, making his first postseason start, ripped a double to left to start the fifth, but Hamels retired the next two batters and appeared out fo further trouble when Freddy Sanchez shot a ball towards Utley at second. Utley never quite got in front of it, the ball hopped high and off his shoulder, and Rowand raced home with the Giants third run.
Utley was charged with an error that was later changed to a hit.
It seemed like a big run at the time. It wasn't, not with the way Cain was pitching, or the Phillies were hitting. They had three hits all game.
The Phillies were the team to beat this postseason because of their three marque starters and an offense that seemed to be awakening as the season ended. Those starters have been outpitched in two of the first three games, and that offense, save Jimmy Rollins' double the other night, has shown little signs of life.
Phils are not being outpitched, they are being outhit. Four runs allowed in Game 1 and three in Game 3 should be enough to pick up a win in one of them.— venus4- THE MORAL: A PHILLIES FAN CAN NEVER BE TOO....PESSIMISTIC!— Edae
- Let this be a lesson to all you idiot bandwagon jumpers out there. All this World Series talk and looking beyond the Giants has offended the baseball gods. When you don't respect your opponent you get beat. Plain and simple. Phillies are finding that out the hard way. Yeah they might expect to win, but the Giants WANT to win. Big difference. Its a shame the season will end in this fashion.— UncleEddie
- Jet lag is no excuse. The Giants made the same flight to SF from Philly.— Manor2009
- Take out Polanco and replace with Wilson Valdez— jfloydb555
- If we win Game 4 tomorrow and that's a big if considering we wouldn't be able to hit the ball if it was the size of a beach ball, I'll take my chances with winning 2 out of 3 with Halladay, Oswalt, and Hamels starting, 2 of them at home.— eagles4lf
Cain pitched a really good game, but the Phils offense had their opportunities and didn't even really threaten to take advantage of them...thought they had snapped out of their slump, but it's not looking good for the offense. The SP has got to be HUGE for the rest of the series...- MORAL:---A PHILLIES FAN IS NEVER TOO....PESSIMISTIC— Edae
- You can stuff Cliff Lee where the sun don't shine...— Russ
- You can stuff Cliff Lee where the sun don't shine...— Russ
- I am glad none of you guys would ever have to cover me in a foxhole. The Phillies are not hitting. It's that simple. But, the team that one 100 games this year is the same team that now can't hit. It happens. It's baseball. But, there are four games left. The Phillies have home field advantage and it won't matter who is on the mound if they don't hit, hit, hit.— Fritz and Alice
Agree that Phils should use Halladay in Game 4. Got to tie it up going into Game 5. Don't want to be in an elimination situation in Game 5 against Lincecum. Of course the flip side of that is if Halladay were to lose Game 4 then it's Blanton in Game 5 against Lincecum facing elimination. Would rather take my chances with Halladay in Game 4 though.- You can stuff Cliff Lee where the sun don't shine...— Russ
- Put Wilson Valdez in the next game!— jfloydb555
- What's sad is I turned the game off after 5th inning. All I missed was one more hit. I could tell by how BAD they looked that it wasn't going to turn around. Extremely frustrated right now.— phillyjhawk
Reach Sam at donnels@phillynews.com.
