Giants Prevail at C.B. Corral

Like a Western, the California baseball gang from the North, with their long hair and hairy faces, rode to town for high noon at Citizen Bank and won 2 out of 3 duels behind gunslingers Lincecum, Cain and Wilson, who have had the Phils' number since the two last squared off in these parts, partner.

The Phils were left looking like the same team whose season ended in October very much like their series did Thursday night: losing because of an inability to convert runs against a stellar S.F. Giants pitching staff.

Jimmy Rollins went 1-for-12 with 0 runs scored in the mid-week series, calling to mind his ineptitude of October '10, which was highlighted by an 0-for-4 3 S.O. NLCS Game 1 against Lincecum and Wilson on 10/16/10. Rollins final S.O. ended the game (pictured below) vs. Wilson and inspired a new plateau of verbal poetry from the mouth of ever-eloquent Phillies manager Charlie Manuel:

“I want Jimmy Rollins to hit, of course. I mean, you know, I’m very concerned about him hitting. I want him to hit. But I also think that we have to get him hitting, too. We need to try to get him hitting.”

[Picture, left: 'Oh don't forsake me, oh my Jimmy Rollins...']

On Wednesday, Cole Hamels went 7 2/3, S.O. 6 and walked just 1 -- yet lost, 2-1, because his team failed to give him run support.

The answer seemed to be staring the Phils in the face, literally, except he was wearing the wrong uniform: Carlos Beltran.

Beltran, freshly acquired from the Mets, looked pretty bad striking out against Kyle Kendrick to start the 4th and 6th innings, but he may yet be the White Knight who guides the Giants to their 2nd straight World Series appearance. Why not? The Phils did it in '08 & '09.

This season? The Phils are now an uninspiring 16-19 against teams with a winning record.

At the end of the Giants' series win over Philadelphia, a repeat of their NLCS triumph over the Fightin', Giants manager Bruce Bochy looked like a strategic genius. While there is no way he could have had control over Tim Lincecum's flu or the team's acquisition of outfielder Carlos Beltran this week, each event seemed to come together at the exact right time for maximum impact.

Much has been made, of course, of Bochy's use of both Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee while he managed them for the NL in the All-Star Game on July 12th.

Phillies pitching coach Rich Dubee had been outspoken about his upset. Whether it was intentional or not, Bochy forced both Halladay and Lee out of the '10 NLCS rematch that the Giants won Thursday, 2-games-to-1.

In the absence of the dynamic duo, Philly pitching was imperfect, but should have been enough.

Tuesday, Worley was dominant in game 1, which the Phils won 7-2.

Wednesday, Hamels failed to beat the Giants and is now winless against them in his last 4 games. (He hasn't beaten the Giants since '09).

Thursday, Kendrick pitched very well, but then an errant thrown by Michael Martinez opened the door for what led to a poor line, somewhat unfairly to Kendrick, who had terrific movement on his fastball and who was dominant through several stretches of the game.

Ultimately, it was the Phils' errant hitting that cost them the series.

The summary of events seemed to fuel inject S.F. past the Phils in the all-important 2nd-half of the season category: momentum.

Thanks to Bochy's All-Star managerial moves, Halladay and Lee were knocked out. Thanks to Lincecum's flu, he was in line to finish off the series with a game 3 win, since he'd missed his regular slot game 1 start. Thanks to roster moves by front office management, Beltran became a Giant during the series with the Phils, so that his 1st game as a Giant was the deciding game between the 2 NL powerhouse teams, who mirror each other in many key ways.

Both are pitching teams. Both approached the July 31st trade deadline seeking a power-hitting right-hander. Both teams pursued Carlos Beltran. The Giants got him. They also got the series win.

Their ace finished it off on the mound, while the Phils' #1 and #2 pitchers sat idle and the defending NL and World Series champion Giants rode off into the sunset with this year's top free agent prize, Carlos Beltran, wearing their World Series rings and leaving a disappointed sold-out Philly crowd in the dust. Saddle up and back to California.

Closer Brian Wilson continued his dominance of the Phils with a 2 S.O. 9th for his 33rd MLB-leading save, and the Giants seemed to say, 'We still got your number, chumps.'

The Phils will have a chance to get it back during a 4-game series in S.F. on August 4th-7th.

Who knows? Maybe they'll have their own right-handed trade deadline acquisition in outfield by then. It's likely the price will be steep, regardless of who remains available.

Asked about that prospect, baseball's best pitcher, the Phils' Roy Halladay, said: "Knowing I'm only here for a certain amount of years, yeah, I'd sell the farm."