2010 Chachi #66 NLCS Game 2/Roy Oswalt & Jimmy Rollins

Phillies 6, Giants 1
NLCS Game 2 - Sunday Night, October 17th in Philadelphia

Roy Oswalt pitched a gem in Game 2, and Jimmy Rollins found his swing (temporarily) as the Phillies tied up the NLCS at one game a piece.  Sunday night's game is already old news following the deflating loss in Game 3 this afternoon, so I'll keep the summary simple.  Three things stood out for me in Game 2:

1.  Oswalt is awesome.  He pitched eight dominant innings, limiting the Giants to three hits and a run while striking out nine.  (Damn you, Cody Ross.)  With the Phillies holding a slim 2-1 lead, he led off the seventh with a single.   He was sacrificed over to second by Shane Victorino and he came around to score on a Placido Polanco base hit when he blew past third base coach Sam Perlozzo's stop sign and slid safely home.  It was a play that could have gone so very wrong, but it went right for the Phils and the gutsy play energized the home crowd.  And it woke me up a little.

2.  The Phillies got lucky in the first and manufactured a run in the fifth.  They scored their first run in the first inning without the benefit of a hit off Giants' starter Jonathan Sanchez - walk, error, walk, walk.  In the fifth, Victorino reached on a lead-off double, moved to third on Chase Utley's sacrifice fly and came home on Polanco's sacrifice fly.  This run turned out to be the winning run in the ballgame.

3.  I got one of my wishes, and Rollins hit a ball out of the infield, batting from his much weaker left side no less.  Rollins' clutch, two-out, bases-loaded double in the seventh cleared the bases and made the game comfortable for the Phils.

And there you have it.  The series was tied up at 1-1, both teams boarded flights to San Francisco and all was right with the world.  Until they started playing again on Tuesday afternoon . . .