Sloppy game 5 sends giants back to Philadelphia

PHILLIES 4 - GIANTS 2

On a wet and sloppy night, the San Francisco Giants played a wet and sloppy game.  The game came down to two crucial plays, Roy Halladay's bunt that wasn't foul and Aubrey Huff's 2 run error.  The Giants' inability to take advantage of scoring opportunities was another part of problem last night.

It's amazing to me how the Giants, for probably the 50th time this season, can knock a pitcher around (they had at least 10 baserunners against Halladay) yet can fail to score more than 2 runs.  You can't credit Halladay, he was not very good last night. It's also not as if we haven't seen this kind of offensive performance before from the Giants.

Timmy was pretty good last night.  He allowed 3 runs, two of which were earned, on 4 hits and a walk.Huff's error led to all three Phillie runs and, other than a solo homer in the top of the ninth from Jayson Werth, would account for all of the Phillie's offense.

Cody Ross did contribute his nightly RBI.

The Giants have shown a knack for bouncing back from games like this all season.  the series goes back to Philadelphia with the Giants leading 3 games to 2.  I predicted that the Giants would win in 6 and with Jonathan Sanchez on the hill that looks like a pretty good bet right now.

This off day comes at a good time.  I really need it!  I don't think I can take another game like the ones we have been seeing lately so I think I'm gonna go totally baseball free today.

Cody Ross powers Giants to a 1-0 series lead

GIANTS 4 - PHILLIES3                                                               

Well the big pitcher's duel that was promised didn't exactly materialize.  Both starters pitched OK but neither of them even came close to matching the epic performances they put up in the NLDS.  In the end, Tim Lincecum was just a little bit better than Roy Halladay and that's all the Giants really care about.

The Giants were involved in their fifth consecutive 1 run game in the postseason.  Their record in those games is 4-1.  During the regular season they were only 28-24 in one run games so they have been finding ways to get the wins that they weren't finding during the regular season.  of course the fact that they aren't playing the Padres who probably beat them by one run 27 times probably has something to do with it.

Cody Ross was the player of the game and rightfully so.  I think any time you hit 2 homeruns in one game off of Roy Halladay you ought to be named the player of the game.   Ross is quite possibly the player of the postseason for the Giants since he has 3 of their 4 homeruns and was the difference maker in game 4 of the NLDS and was the same difference maker tonight.  Not bad for a guy who the Giants allegedly claimed off of waivers just to keep him away from the Padres.

It could also be argued that Bruce Bochy was the difference maker.  His decision to pinch run for Pat Burrell with Nate Schierholtz in the 6th inning.  If Burrell is still running in that situation there is no way he scores on Juan Uribe's single.  I seriously doubt that Burrell even gets sent from third.  But he did put Nate in and Nate did score what was ultimately the deciding run of the game.  Bochy has been crucified on this blog and in many other places so it's only fair to point out when he makes a good decision.

The Phillies are already in a tough situation in game 2.  Never mind the fact that 15 out of the last 18 NLCS game one winners have gone on to the World Series.  But, the Giants already know that they can beat Roy Oswalt.  Plus the Phillies know that they can't hit Jonathan Sanchez.  That puts the Phillies in panic mode.  If they get put in a position where they need to start Halladay in game 4 do they?  He has faced the Giants twice and they have been able to get at least 8 hits off them in each of those contests.  Of course they will start Halladay in a do or die game.  After all, who would you rather have representing you in a do or die game?  Roy Halladay or the Family Guy look-alike Joe Blanton?

I feel the need to comment on the Philadelphia fans.  I always knew they were pretty bad fans, but tonight they really showed that they are low class.   From signs that said "fix your teeth" and "Hippy trash" to whistling at Lincecum as if he was a girl the Phillies fans did everything they could to show they are idiots.  Really, how does a dude whistling at a dude make anybody but the guy doing the whistling look bad? 

It doesn't really matter I guess because for all their crap, they still went home losers after watching their ace go down in defeat. 

Best tweet of the Night: Bay Area Sports Guy:

"Cody Ross stayed at a Halladay Inn last night. And he trashed the room like a goddamned rock star. #sfgiants"