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

This week’s Bitch-Slap-of-the-Week goes to the St. Louis Cardinals, Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox who were all swept right out of the MLB Playoffs.

Many sports fans believe the MLB season is too long so what better way to shorten the season than eliminating almost every team the first week of the playoffs.

The Cards bitch-slap was delivered compliments of the L.A. Dodgers.

After just three games of a five game NL playoff series, the Cards were sent home, tail between their legs, swept by the Dodgers with the final game being a 5-1 loss in front of a sold out silenced crowd at Busch Stadium.

The Cards line-up managed to cross the plate just six times in the entire series; a series that saw a few bounces go the Dodgers’ way.

Like a bitch-slap isn’t enough, in what should have been the final out for a Cardinal victory in Game 2, Cards left fielder Matt Holliday took a direct knock in the nuts when he misjudged a line shot that bounced off his junk, allowing the Dodgers to rally for a comeback win.

That play, reminiscent of Bill Buckner’s infamous miscue, should have been the final out of that contest and would have tied the series one game apiece before heading back to St. Louis.

Instead, the blunder set the stage for the Dodgers’ sweep. To make matters worse, Holliday struggled at the plate batting .167 with only one extra base hit.

Holliday and his Cards do get to share this week’s award with the two other teams who also got the broom; the Minnesota Twins and Boston Red Sox.

That’s a lot of pain to endure . . . maybe Holliday is willing to pass around his ice pack to ease the pain.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax