2010 Chachi #65 NLCS Game 1/Raul Ibañez & Ryan Howard

Giants 4, Phillies 3
NLCS Game 1 - Saturday Night, October 16th in Philadelphia

Crap.

Cody Ross, Tim Lincecum and Pat Burrell defeated the Phillies last night in Game 1 of the NLCS, 4-3.  It was a gorgeous night for October baseball, and Jenna and I enjoyed viewed the game from Section 210 down the first base line.  All seemed well through the first two innings, as Roy Halladay cruised through the first seven batters in the Giants' line-up.  And then Cody Ross (ex-Marlin, Phillie-killer Cody Ross) homered to left.  Carlos "Choochtober" Ruiz matched Ross' solo shot with one of his own in the bottom of the third.  But in the fifth, Ross once agin sent another solo home run into the left field bleachers, to seemingly the same exact spot.

The game was still in reach for the Phillies, but Lincecum was easily shutting down the line-up.  When it was all done, he had out duelled Halladay, pitching seven strong innings while allowing three runs on six hits while striking out eight.  Halladay coughed up another two runs in the sixth.  Our old friend Pat the Bat did us in when he hit a "double" to the man who replaced him, Raul Ibañez.  (Burrell should have been called out on strikes on the pitch before his double, but Halladay didn't get the call.)  Ibañez, who should have been able to catch the ball, jumped when he didn't need to jump and the ball squirted away allowing the Giants' to score their third run.  Juan Uribe singled to bring home pinch-runner Nate Schierholtz one batter later, and it was 4-1 Giants.

Jayson Werth's two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth provided some momentary excitement at the ballpark, but the Phils would fall one run short of tying it up.  They just weren't able to put anything together against the bullpen duo of Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson.  Wilson, he of the bizarre, dyed-black lumberjack beard, recorded his four-out save with four strikeouts of the punchless Phils.  (I was hoping for a repeat of Wilson's performance in the April 28th game.)  In total, the Phils struck out 13 times - led by Ryan Howard's and Jimmy Rollins' three strikeouts a piece.

Nice program, small scorecard



The loss was the Phillies' first Game 1 loss in a Postseason series since they lost to the Rockies in the 2007 NLDS.  I'm hoping the outcome of this series is much better than the outcome of that series.  I'm not going to spout back the depressing NLCS records of teams that lost Game 1 or recount the "odds" of the Phillies coming back to take this series.  I'll be repeating the following in my head throughout the day today:  It's one game.  It's a best of seven series.  The Phils need to win tonight.  Go Phils!

No Score:  I wanted to keep score last night, but I was daunted by the super small scorecard provided as an insert to the NLCS program.  I'll bring my own next time.

Cat Calls:  Cat calls broke out in the stands whenever Lincecum came to the plate.  It started as one guy near our section and it soon went viral, as you could hear the whistles echoing throughout the stadium throughout his at-bats.  It was a moment of much needed levity during an otherwise angst-ridden game.

Best Sign:  A group of fans in left field unfurled this sign in the bottom of the first inning - "Pat . . . Elvis Roots for the Phillies."  Elvis, of course, is Burrell's bulldog who rode with Burrell during the 2008 World Series parade down Broad Street.  Elvis was a frequent visitor to the Phillies' locker room during Burrell's tenure as a Phillie.