Major League Baseball

A rough night for Fontenot

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:10 a.m. ET

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Don't fix what's not broken.

For the most part, that's a rule baseball managers live by. It's surely one Giants manager Bruce Bochy refuses to mess with.

Throughout this surprising season for the Giants, Bochy expertly tinkered with his lineup, matching certain hitters against certain pitchers, sometimes going by feel, sometimes using statistics to influence his moves.

Recently, though, Bochy stood pat with his lineup. His reasoning was simple - don't fix what's not broken - and the Giants had won three straight playoff games before the Phillies evened the National League Championship Series at one game apiece with Sunday's 6-1 win at Citizens Bank Park.

The lineup Bochy was riding showed some cracks. Journeyman third baseman Mike Fontenot, playing for the more-dangerous Pablo Sandoval, had a throwing error in the first inning that led to an unearned run for the Phillies and let an infield pop-up drop for a single. He also went hitless.

Leadoff batter Andres Torres, who plays center field ahead of veteran Aaron Rowand, struck out four times.

"You'll see a couple of changes," Bochy said without being specific. "These are things we'll discuss on the flight back."

There's nothing the Giants can change about the way Phillies righthander Roy Oswalt handled them. He held the Giants to three hits - one of them the third homer in two games by Cody Ross - and struck out nine.

"He was hitting spots with his fastball," first baseman Aubrey Huff said of Oswalt, who went eight innings. "He threw a lot more fastballs than he did the last few times we faced him, and he had a real good one. The ball was really jumping out of his hand. He was going after guys. He pitched a great game."

Oswalt also fooled Huff on the base paths during the Phillies' four-run seventh inning. Oswalt was heading for third on a hit by Placido Polanco. As Huff was deciding whether or not to cut off the throw from the outfield, he glanced at Phillies third-base coach Sam Perlozzo and saw he was trying to hold Oswalt at third. Huff cut off the throw. Oswalt ran through the stop sign and slid across home plate ahead of Huff's throw.

"I made a bad decision on that cutoff," Huff said. "I glanced up at their third-base coach and he had his hands up. So I cut it off thinking maybe he's going to make a big turn around third. The throw [from the outfield] would have nailed him. It was one of those plays, a reaction play. What are you gonna do?"

Fontenot's error came in the first inning when his throw after fielding a grounder by Polanco pulled Huff off the bag. The inning then deteriorated for Giants starter Jonathan Sanchez, who walked Ryan Howard, struck out Jayson Werth, then walked Jimmy Rollins to force in a run. The error also resulted in a swollen pitch count for Sanchez, who threw 35 in the first inning. The run he allowed was unearned.

In the fourth inning, Rollins hit a harmless infield pop and flipped his bat in disgust. Sanchez pointed to the ball and Fontenot moved toward the mound to make the catch. Then he inexplicably took a step back and the ball dropped in front of him for a single. No damage came of it, except perhaps to the confidence Bochy had in Fontenot.

On the long charter flight back to San Francisco, Bochy had plenty of time to tinker with his lineup for Tuesday's Game 3.

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