Phillies Lose Game 1 ….

Game
one of the NLCS was not even close to the hype dispersed by the media, it may
have started with all good intentions of being the overly anticipated duel of
the Cy Youngs, but it turned into another ordinary game between 2 NL teams, one
from the East and one from the West.

I could bitch and complain that the home plate umpire had a bad
call at a critical moment that extended the inning allowing the Giants to add a
couple of runs, but as I said previously umpires are part of the game and it
happens, in fact it was touch and go as to Halladay or Lincecum saying something
to the umpire, in the end Halladay spoke out, which seemed to ease the pain for
the Giants bull pen, but not the Phillies.

 The bottom line the Phillies didn’t monopolize on
situations that they should have, they had the chances from the first inning to
the last inning. I am sure that Giants fans are on cloud nine, standing Ross and
Lincecum on pedestals well above the heights they gave Bonds.

As a Phillie fan I see it differently, I see that game as a game
the Phillies lost, not one the Giants won. Halladay of all pitchers should never
have thrown the same pitch, in the same location to Ross in his 2nd at bat,
after he hit the first one for a home run. Ibanez should have caught that ball
at the wall in the 6th, and J-Roll should have at least made contact in the 9th,
not just swung through the pitches like a 5th grader in the playground. Another
place, another time, you’d almost have to call foul and wonder why MLB aren’t
investigating, oh wait, it’s not Chicago, and we’re all more civilized now,
above all that stuff.

The ALCS had an early game on Saturday, game 2 started with the
Yankees having a 1-0 game lead in the series, the Rangers like game 1 came out
swinging and running, after some very normal baseball action, it was the final
pitch of the game with the Rangers winning 7-2. No magical come back, no Texas
meltdown for the Yankees to jump on, it just happened. The ALCS goes to New York
for games 3, 4 and 5 with the series tied 1-1, any single win by the Rangers and
it will force a return to Arlington to decide the series.

All in all Saturday was some very average baseball action, no
edge of the seat will they won’t they stuff. You could almost tell that the
Yankees weren’t going to be able to do enough for a second comeback, it was like
game 1 drained them of their comeback energy and they needed more time to
recharge, had they had a day off Saturday to play Sunday, it may have all been different.
As for the Phillies game being just a 1 run game, at no time did I see anything
from the Phillies players that indicated they were going to get that run back,
it was almost as if they just gave up.

Today is game 2 the Phillies have Oswalt on the mound and the
Giants have Sanchez, I just hope the Phillies offence can actually play some
baseball today. Yankees and Rangers have a travel day and will be back at it
Monday.

Go Phillies….