Game 1 Thoughts

My Fellow Phans,

Let’s face it. Yesterday was a pain loss to take. The long awaited, historic battle between two defending Cy Young winners turned out to be a match between two ace pitchers, whom were both way off their games.

In the end, the Phillies couldn’t get the job done and lost the game 4-3. It wasn’t like they had chances. Lincecum was far from unhittable last night; in fact I will go on the record to say that I think Halladay outpitched Lincecum. 

When judging how well a pitcher is pitching, the state of the opposing offense should not be taken into consideration.  We all know that the Phillies’ offense is sputtering right now and when this happens, any pitcher can be made to look like Cy Young. However, Lincecum didn’t capitalize on the Phillies weakness, he was knocked around at times and the Phillies constantly had threats against him. They worked the counts, got on base and then just lacked the ability to knock runners in.

Halladay got spurned on a pair of back to back pitches; a two-strike pitch to Burrell that was considerably close to being strike 3 that wasn’t called and then when Burrell drove the ball out to left field, Raul Ibanez dropped the ball allowing the third Giants’ run to score.  Yes he made his mistakes, but they weren’t as numerous as Lincecum.

I know people will argue with me all day and night simply because of the final score, but I will say again, you cannot take the score and the outcome into consideration when looking at the pitchers overall. The Phillies let Lincecum wriggle off the hook numerous times in this one. If our offense was actually hitting the ball, I can safely safe that we would have knocked Timmy around on this night. However, as it stands, our offense faltered against a struggling pitcher and we wind up on the losing end.

The Phillies’ struggling offense timed with a lack of timely hitting and inability to catch a fly ball, which was very catchable I will add, lost this game.  The Giants’ starter only played a small bit into the final equation. A good Phillies offense would have knocked Lincecum around, but as it stands, we are struggling at the plate and need to get it switched around in a hurry. I also hope that if Wilson pitches in game 2, we actually put the ball in play against him. The guy throws one pitch and he’s not named Rivera, I don’t see why we can’t do more against him.

I will give credit to Cody Ross for his efforts. The man is the hottest hitter in the postseason and I honestly do not know why he is still hitting 8^th in this lineup with the way he is playing. Hitting him behind Mike Fontenot is pretty bad. The guy has earned a spot higher up in the lineup.

I will also give credit to the Giants for taking advantage of the Phillies’ miscues, something that the Phillies failed to do, Pat Burrell was technically out twice in that 6^th inning at bat against Roy Halladay, but he mustered a key RBI double and the Giants’ shortstop, Juan Uribe, who unlike our SS can actually do something offensively, knocked in the next run on a clutch single to plate the 4^th run of the game for the Giants.

I will give Jayson Werth credit for that bomb he hit off of Lincecum last night. It was a classic, opposite field Werth homer and was a positive to see.

Of course, we can’t forget Chooch! The man showed some serious power rocketing the high fastball out to the opposite field. I knew this guy had home run power, but that was impressive. Kudos to you Chooch for that impressive hit.

Does this mean that the Phillies are looking at a must-win game 2? Although, one could argue that every game in the postseason is a must win, but looking at it from a literal standpoint, I would have to say that it is.

And it doesn’t get any easier against Sanchez tonight. This was the guy that I was worried about most on their staff. Not only is he a star pitcher, but he is a left hander. The Phillies can’t hit subpar lefties like Zack Duke or Tom Gorzelanny, how in the world are they going to hit a quality left hander in Sanchez.  Although Sanchez does have one ailment and it’s that he is prone to walk a number of hitters on a given night. Remember Oliver Perez anyone? This guy has the tendency to be wild in the strike zone at times just like our old buddy from the Muts. 

The Phillies have to be patient and not jump at this guy’s junk pitches. Which is hard to do, but the Phillies have beaten Perez and can beat Sanchez. Now, I will say that Sanchez is a set above Perez’s stuff, but he is the best analogy I could find for this post. The Phillies need to be patient and hope that Sanchez is not on his game or we could be in serious trouble. We can’t lose 2 games in a row at home with 3 straight coming in San Fran.

I eagerly await Charlie’s lineup for this one with the fear that it may look identical to last night’s. I still wonder if Rollins continues to struggle, how long he will be left in the lineup when Valdez has proven time and time again to be a valuable replacement. If Jimmy is in the lineup, maybe move him down in the order at least after Ibanez so Werth has more protection.   I also wonder, with the strong lefty starting for the Giants, if he will try to get some more right handed fire power in there, Francisco maybe?

Again, I don’t expect any changes to be made, but I was just throwing out those possibilities out there for consideration.

Until we meet again Phillies fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!