Phillies Seek Bats to Slay Giants

"The Phillies are the best national league team we've seen in decades," said ESPN's Aaron Boone.

At 52-15 since 7/21 and 30-8 in their last 38 games, they're making a strong case for Boone's sanity.

The Phillies have to be happy with their performance in the NLDS -- and so must their 3 remaining playoff peers. The Phils starting pitchers, Halladay and Hamels ("H2") proved MVP of the series. However, the 7 earned runs the Phillies tallied accumulatively in the 3 games must look good if you're an opposing pitching staff, such as the Yankees' future Hall-of-Famers Sabathia and Pettite or the Giants dynamic trio of Lincecum, Cain and Sanchez.

When the Phillies' bats disappear, as they did in this year's NLDS, they do it the same way they show up: spectacularly and with gusto.

In game 1, the Phils scored 4 earned runs. In game 2, they mustered only 2 and in the closeout game 3 they posted a paltry 1. That's an average of 2.33 earned runs per game against the weakest starting rotation in the playoffs this year.

The hitters will have to do better to win a World Series title in 2010. The injured Jimmy Rollins and Placido Polanco were a combined 2-20 (.100 Ave.) Jayson Werth and Shane Victorino are 5-25 (.200) and the team combined for only 1 HR, a solo shot by Utley, in the 3 games. The team NLDS batting average was .212.

There is no doubt about it, the bats are going to have to get hot-- and they're going to have to do it against the best pitching team in baseball, whose 3.36 ERA and .236 BAA both ranked 1st.


"Going forward . . . it would be nice if we start hitting the ball more consistent," manager Charlie Manuel said. "We've got the talent to be an offensive team, which we've been for the last 4 or 5 years," Manuel said. "This definitely has been a down year, and the numbers kind of speak for it. But at the same time, we're very capable in games of busting games open and putting up more offense. I expect us to score more runs."

"Who doesn't want to get 10 or 15 hits a game, and put up a lot more runs, but it's about the timeliness of the hits," Victorino said. "It's not about how many, but about when."

Manuel: "Do I want us to score some more runs? Of course. And we're definitely very capable of it. I'm always positive. When we start [hitting], somebody is in trouble. That's how I look at it. We're going to start sooner or later and when we start getting 'em, we'll take care of things."

Ibanez: "The name of the game is scoring runs and finding a way to get it done... the character in the clubhouse, you know you've got a bunch of guys, I always say it's 25 gamers. And that's what it is. You've got 25 guys in there that are determined to be successful and determined to win and when you have that collective effort that everybody is going to do everything they can, everything in their power to make that happen, a lot of good things can happen."

Roy Halladay has said that he isn't enjoying waiting a week between starts. Welcome to the postseason. After his 1st-ever postseason start resulted in the 2nd-ever postseason no-hitter, Halladay is not only the talk-of-the-town, but of the sports world at-large. Ever the professional, a spokesman for his sport, Halladay credited catcher Carlos Ruiz for his own achievement. In post-game comments, he credited Ruiz more than himself and offered a team-unifying embrace:

"You want to share things like this with family and friends," Halladay said. "My family's here, and I feel like my friends are on the team. So it makes it special for me."

Tim Lincecum, the 26 year-old reigning '08 and '09 Cy Young champ awaits Halladay in a high noon on the mound. Lincecum, known for his dazzling pitching exploits and pot posession bust is called "The Freak" by adoring S.F. fans. He has twice as many Cy Young Awards and has equal division trophies as Halladay and is 7 years his junior. You'd think his back-to-back crown as baseball's best would be enough for Lincecum's confidence. However, when he struggled mightily and uncharacteristically in August, he developed a new pitch for the fall, an unhittable slider, and managed to strike out 14 Braves with it in his postseason debut in game 1 of the NLDS. The baseball world is salivating in preparation for the Halladay-Lincecum square-off Saturday in what is being billed as one of the best matchups in playoff baseball history. Lincecum is 6-1 since August and has struck out 66 while walking only 9.

Pat Burrell hopes to give this intimate wave "hello" to the Phillies' front office, who tried to send him packing when he played for them, which he blocked with his no-trade clause, before they were finally rid of him after he accomplished his mission with the '08 World Series Title. 18 home runs in 289 at-bats later, Pat Burrell has been a soaring success this season as a S.F. Giant, where he plays alongside his college pal Aubrey Huff, the Giants' star First Baseman. Most people are laughing the Giants off, expecting this to go 5, maybe 6 games. A molehill for the ascending Phillies. In fact, ESPN reports that 72% of the 117,000 polled say the Phils will win easy. It should be no surprise to readers that I have higher regard for the Giants than most. In my post,

"Phillies Eye 3rd Straight World Series" (2/23/10), I forecast the Giants would win their division and compete for the NL title. I was alone then, but here they are, 1 of 2 remaining in their league.

Meanwhile, Cliff Lee hopes to come back on the Phils like a bad burrito if he can beat the Yankees like it was 2009, when he went undefeated against them in the World Series as the lone competent starter for the losing Phils. This year, of course, the Phils have 3 starters who are fairly competent, by all accounts. Lee set a baseball record by striking-out 21 and walking nobody in the NLDS this year. In the clinching game, he threw 120 pitches for a 9-inning clincher and 90 of his pitches were strikes. Lee now has 29 S.O. and 0 walks in his last 3 starts. With their awesome starting staff and the impressive hitting display in their NLDS upset of the Rays, the Rangers are poised to disturb the now expected rematch between the Yanks and Phils (sorry Kruker) in this year's World Series.

"We know what it feels like to be on both sides, of winning a World Series and losing a World Series. So right now, everybody in here is pretty determined and pretty focused.” --Ryan Howard

The greatest Phillie of all-time, Mike Schmidt, said this team is "a unique group" that has already "surpassed our accomplishments." If they win the NLCS and return to the World Series, he feels this team will "officially be the best team in Phillies history, bar none."