The 2010 San Francisco Giants have been labeled more times than a re-gifted toaster. Called “misfits” and “castoffs”; their manager even refers to them as “the dirty dozen.” One Philadelphia writer called them a bunch of “rodeo clowns” but their most enduring title will surely be National League Champions.

The Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies to win the NLCS and they only needed six games to do it. This battle ended with an epic 3-2 win in Philly. In the end, a series dominated by starting pitching, was decided by the bullpens and one clutch hit.

Juan Uribe waved his magic wand again, this time in the 8^th inning when he drilled a Ryan Madson slider just over the right-field wall at Citizen’s Bank Park to momentarily silence the raucous Philly faithful.

The Giants relied on their strength, pitching, that included relief appearances by Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner to hold the Phillies’ potent offense to eight hits and strand 11 runners.

None were more critical than the pair left on when Brian Wilson painted a knee-high strike past one of the game’s best run producers, Phillies first baseman Ryan Howard, on a 3-2 pitch to end the series. That pitch muted one of MLB’s most hostile venues as the Giants stormed the field, celebrating the franchises’ fourth NL Pennant since moving west.

“I knew I was going to throw everything at them,” said Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “This is a huge game. To go into a Game 7, you knew the momentum would be on their side. We were going to do all we could to win.”

Uribe, a journeyman infielder who was just 3-for-27 in the postseason, was the hero for the second time in three games.

Getting off to a shaky start, Giants’ starter Jonathan Sanchez gave up two runs in the first then after a game-tying rally in the third, the lefty again struggled. After a meeting from pitching coach Dave Righetti, Sanchez hit Chase Utely with a pitch in the back. After the two exchanged words, the benches cleared. Bochy then elected to remove the over-hyped Sanchez, and Jeremy Affeldt put out the fire just minutes after the altercation.

The Giants who were 7 ½ games out of first place early in July, whose GM has been fired millions of times by sports-talk callers and bloggers, and whose collection of “castoffs” weren’t good enough for anyone else, found a way to dispatch of the two-time reining NL champion Phillies, grab the pennant and hoist the Warren C. Giles trophy.

Another cast-off, Cody Ross stood soaked in champagne, holding his NLCS MVP Trophy after the game, “I could never imagine being in a situation like this,” said Ross. “I’m just going to cherish it. This is a special time for me. I felt like a 10-year-old kid. I was screaming, running and jumping as high as I could.”

Going into the World Series match-up against the Texas Rangers, these Giants have a legitimate chance to jump to that final rung on the ladder.

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

During the San Francisco Giants 6-5 comeback victory in Game 4 on Wednesday, which takes a commanding 3-1 lead over the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLCS, the team again proved they will fight to the final bell.

In the game, the Giants struck first before giving away two different leads then out came the knockout punch in the form of a Juan Uribe walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the ninth. With the long-haired kid called the “Franchise” on the mound for Game 5, the Giants are one win away from the fourth World Series.

In the win, the slumping Buster Posey, a favored pick for NL Rookie of the Year, had a four-hit night that was supported by a bullpen that bent but never broke.

“We saw something special tonight,” said Andres Torres. “We never give up. We always come back. This team, we believe.”

Oswalt, who silenced the Giants bats and put the Phillies’ team back on its axis with the Game 2 equalizer on Sunday, took the mound in the ninth. Freddy Sanchez greeted him with a laser that was caught by right fielder Jason Werth. After giving up back-to-back singles to Huff and Posey, who broke a 1-for-11 slump with four hits and two RBIs, Uribe sent a soaring fly ball to left to ice the win.

“One of the biggest games I’ve ever been a part of,” said closer Brian Wilson, who earned the win with a perfect ninth inning.

The fight continues Thursday in a match-up of Game 1 starters Tim Lincecum and Roy Halladay. In that game, Lincecum responded to fans waving “Hippy Trash” and “Fix Your Teeth” signs by delivering a 4-3 win in Philly. Just one victory from the World Series, the Giants are looking to deliver the knockout blow few were bold enough to imagine before this series started.

“We don’t want to go on a six-hour flight (Friday),” said Huff, who had three hits Wednesday and scored the winning run. “We’re going to come out and play aggressive, the way we always play.”

BOX SCORE on MLB.com

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

For the San Francisco Giants to win the NL West title, it took a historic run of dominant pitching and the entirety of 162 regular season games. Moving on to the NLDS against the Atlanta Braves the  Giants’ starting pitching staff took a dramatic step from outstanding to superlative in their domination in that series and suddenly find themselves in the NLCS against the Philadelphia Phillies.

Looking ahead, in order to get past last year’s National League Champion Phillies, the pitching will need to be as good or even better than it was during the 3-games-to-1 NLDS series win over the Braves.

Here is the Giants expected lineup in charge of taking on the H2O squad of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels:

1. Andres Torres, CF
2. Freddy Sanchez, 2B
3. Aubrey Huff, 1B
4. Buster Posey, C
5. Pat Burrell, LF
6. Juan Uribe, SS
7. Mike Fontenot, 3B
8. Cody Ross, RF

That Giants starting lineup includes only two players whose name were written on the Opening Day lineup; Huff — who was hitting third and playing first, and Uribe who started at second base due to an injury to Freddy Sanchez.

Ironically, the Giants’ three highest-paid hitters, Aaron Rowand ($13.6 million), Edgar Renteria ($10 million) and Jose Guillen may find themselves on the outside looking in when it comes time to cast the 25-man roster.

Looking at the one-through-eight hitters in the line-up, the Giants are a collection of aggressive, outhouse-or-castle hitters who sometimes make the opposing pitchers job a little easier.

Here are hitters to watch in this upcoming series:

• Pat Burrell — Motivated to take on his former team, Burrell smashed 18 homers, many of those in clutch situations.
• Juan Uribe — His 23 homers and 85 RBIs set new career highs and were second on the team. In a slump and getting only one hit in the NLDS, the Giants need Uribe to return to being the hitter he was for much of the regular season..
• Buster Posey — Posey is one of the game’s best young hitters. He was 6-for-16 with a .444 OBP and scored three runs during the NLDS against the Braves.

Now look at the Giants pitching staff. They set a modern-day record with 18 consecutive games allowing three are fewer runs and allowed more than three runs just three times in the final 26 games. During the NLDS, the staff allowed just 9 earned runs in the four playoff games, five that came in Atlanta’s lone win in Game 2.

Here’s the Giants expected starting rotation:

• Game 1: Tim Lincecum
• Game 2: Jonathan Sanchez
• Game 3: Matt Cain
• Game 4: Madison Bumgarner

Game 1 should be epic with Lincecum facing Halladay in the most anticipated matchup in recent playoff history. Each hurler stepped into October baseball with a bang with Halladay no-hitting the Reds in Game 1 and Lincecum allowing just two hits while fanning 14 Braves in a complete game shut out in his Game 1 start. If this series goes to 7 games, we may see this matchup three times.

As great as Lincecum has been, the rest of the Giants’ starting staff has performed nearly as well. During the NLDS they recorded an ERA of just 1.66, a WHIP of 0.82, struck out 46 hitters, walked just seven and gave up just 24 hits in the 38 innings pitched.

Looking at the Giants bullpen, they weren’t as sharp but will need to be if they want to take down a Phillies’ roster stacked with talent.

Here’s a look at the Phillies starting rotation:

1. Roy Halladay: 21-10, 2.44 ERA, 250.2 IP
2. Cole Hamels: 12-11, 3.09 ERA, 206.2 IP
3. Roy Oswalt: 13-13, 2.73 ERA, 211.2 IP
4. Joe Blanton: 9-6, 4.82 ERA, 175.2 IP
5. Kyle Kendrick: 11-10, 4.73 ERA, 180.2 IP

Prediction:

I see the Phillies winning in six. Although the Giants have played well, they are a team of rag-tag parts with the most expensive pieces expected to be on the bench for the majority of the NLCS.

The Giant pitching has done gotten the job done but to manage the Phillies potent lineup four times in seven tries may be asking too much. It should be a close series and a nail-biter for both teams with few lopsided victories.

Used with permission of the author.

Theo is a staff reporter and feature writer for the Marin Independent Journal where he covers local prep and college sports. As an Associate Production Manager for ESPN, he helped produce Sunday Night Baseball among other national ESPN and ABC Sports telecasts. In addition to his contributions to Sports Climax, he is a columnist for Examiner.com and is the play-by-play voice for Sonoma State University baseball and softball.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC