Major League Baseball

'Just enough' might be tough against Phillies;NEXT UP: NLCS

Published Oct. 12, 2010 10:09 a.m. ET

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Buster Posey didn't jump into Brian Wilson's arms this time. Nobody lost his breath in a dog-pile. No victory lap. This was Turner Field, after all. The Giants' on-field celebration, though festive, wasn't quite as rowdy as the division-clinching wingding eight days earlier.

Partly out of respect for retiring legend Bobby Cox. Partly because this was a best-of-five Division Series, and not the culmination of a 162-game grind that brought a National League West title on the final day.

No championship was won Monday night. No Division Series flag will hang above China Basin. The Giants considered Monday's first-round triumph, optimistically, just another step.

"There's more to do," said Wilson, who closed out a 3-2 victory over the Braves in Game 4 that earned a date with the Phillies in the NL Championship Series.

Make no mistake: After the team retreated to the visitors' clubhouse, havoc was wreaked. Bodies were drenched. As Tim Lincecum so eloquently described the scene, "A lot of swearing. A lot of screaming. A lot of alcohol." The latest Champagne dumping followed four straight thrillers, all one-run games, all in doubt until the final pitch.

The party featured lots of exhaling.

Typically, the Giants did just enough. Again. They scored 11 runs in the series, an average of 2.8 a game. Batted .212. And won three of four because the Braves hit .175 and scored nine times.

"We've got pitching, and pitching wins," Pat Burrell said.

Just ask the Phillies. The Giants - The Train That Barely Could - beat a Braves team that was decimated by injuries and harmed by a second baseman who couldn't make a play. The Phillies, the two-time defending league champs with the only rotation in baseball that rivals the Giants', present a loftier challenge.

After sweeping the Reds in their Division Series, the Phillies will stage Game 1 of the NLCS on Saturday. Make way for a rotation of Roy Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels, a more experienced version of Lincecum, Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez, give or take a Madison Bumgarner - the cool rookie who won Monday in his first postseason appearance.

Can the Giants do just enough once more? Can they pull off a 2.8/.212 repeat and actually beat the Phillies, who have a lineup that could be as authoritative as their rotation?

"It's a real good question. I don't know," Cody Ross said. "They have a lot of guys who can swing it. But we've got a real good pitching staff. They have a real good pitching staff. We've got guys who can swing it, too. It's the playoffs. All these games are going to be close. They'll be nail-biters. That's just the way it is.

"But I like our chances."

Consider Ross. Two months ago, he was a Marlin bound for nowhere. Now he's four victories from winning the pennant. The Giants claimed him off waivers from Florida in part to prevent the Padres from grabbing him. He arrived as an extra body, to do little more than extend the depth chart.

But with Jose Guillen out of sight and Aaron Rowand out of the lineup, Ross is a key member of the outfield. He drove in the only run in Game 1. He tripled and scored in Game 2. In the clincher, he homered in the sixth inning, the first hit off Braves starter Derek Lowe, and capped the winning rally in the seventh with a two-out, bases-loaded single off Jonny Venters.

If a Division Series MVP existed, Ross would be it. "The Giants got me over here. However it was, I don't care," Ross said.

No Giant knew the Braves better than Ross, a five-year veteran of the NL East. "I always felt comfortable hitting here. It helps, absolutely," he said. For that matter, Ross knows the Phillies well, too.

"I love hitting there, too," he said of Citizens Bank Park.

Speaking of which, Burrell is returning to his former baseball home, where he played nine seasons and won the 2008 World Series before leaving to begin an unsuccessful career as a Tampa Bay designated hitter. Now he's back in the NL and about to face the Phillies in the postseason for the first time.

"Fitting, I guess," Burrell said.

Looking ahead to the best-of-seven NLCS, he added, "They're the best team in the National League because you've got to knock 'em off before you can say you are, and that's what we're going to try to do."

Just like the division clincher, Burrell was the first guy off the bench after Wilson's final pitch. The on-field celebration was more subdued, quickly turning from a hug-fest to a clap-fest as Giants players and coaches turned toward the Braves' dugout and showed their appreciation for Cox.

The Braves' season is over. So is Cox's career. It's a different story for the Giants. As Wilson said, there's more to do.

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