Philadelphia ties up NLCS, series now shifts to San Francisco
After lighting up Roy Halliday for four runs and a 4-3 victory in Game 1 of the National League Championship Series (NLCS), the San Francisco Giants’ bats went cold against the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 2.
The Phillies tied the series up with a 6-1 victory at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia, and will now head to San Francisco for Games 3, 4, and 5.
"You come into a place like this, when you first start the series, your goal is to go 1-1," said Giants first baseman Aubrey Huff. "But when you get that first one, you want to come out and get this one."
Roy Oswalt went 8 innings for the Phillies, allowing just one run on three hits, and striking out nine. The only run for San Francisco came from a fifth inning Cody Ross Home run. Ross has now hit home runs in three consecutive games. Ryan Madson pitched
the ninth inning for the Phillies in a non-save situation.
Oswalt didn’t just pitch the Giants into submission; he scored an insurance run for himself in the seventh. With Oswalt on second base, Placido Polanco hit a single up the middle. Pitchers aren’t considered the best base runners, so it was surprising to
see Oswalt blow past third-base coach, Sam Perlozzo’s, stop sign. He was safe at home, but barely.
"When I got halfway, I saw the stop sign," Oswalt said. "I said, 'It's too late now, no turning back.'"
Jimmy Rollins hit a three–run double of the wall three batters later with the bases loaded to give Philadelphia a five run lead.
The first run of the game set the tone for the Phillies. With one out, Phillies second baseman, Chase Utley, earned a walk, and stole second shortly after. Polanco reached base on a throwing error by Mike Fontenot, which also moved Utley to third. Ryan Howard
earned a walk to load the bases with two outs, and then Jimmy Rollins walked to score Utley. 1-0 Phillies.
Not only did Philadelphia show patience, but they forced Giants starter, Jonathan Sanchez to throw 35 first-inning pitches.
"You could tell that was the game plan," Giants catcher Buster Posey said. "[Shane] Victorino took a called strike three pitches in a row. You could tell they were trying to be patient."
Ross hit his home run in the fifth to tie the game up, but the Phillies countered in the bottom half of the inning. Victorino doubled, and advanced to third on an Utley fly ball. Then he scored the eventual game winner on another fly ball, this time off
the bat of Polanco.
You could say it was a must win for the Philles, who now have to play three straight games in San Francisco.
"If you're down 2-0, you're in a rough spot," said Phillies right fielder Jayson Werth. "We'd rather be up 2-0 going to San Fran, but we'll take the split. We'll try to win two out of three there, if not three out of three and win this series. Whatever we
need to do to win this series, we're going to do it."
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