Major League Baseball

Not close, now even;S.F. pays price for its lapses in Game 2 loss

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:11 a.m. ET

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The Giants have gotten a lot of props this postseason for their grit in winning all those one-run games. Those were predicated on solid fundamental play. When their execution goes into the dumper, the results are predictable.

The Phillies won 6-1 Sunday night to send the National League Championship Series to San Francisco even at one win apiece. With Roy Oswalt dominating for eight innings, the Giants had to play near-perfect ball to have any chance. In fact, they had no chance.

A night that began ominously with shortstop Juan Uribe being scratched with a jammed left wrist got worse immediately when Jonathan Sanchez walked three in a 35-pitch first inning. That, combined with a Mike Fontenot throwing error, helped the Phillies to a 1-0 lead.

Fontenot also let an easy pop-up drop for a single in the fourth. First baseman Aubrey Huff cut off a throw he should have let through, allowing Oswalt to score the first of four runs in the seventh inning. Moreover, the Giants did nothing at the plate aside from another swat by serial home run hitter Cody Ross, who in six postseason games has hit four out.

To put that in perspective, Hall of Famer Mel Ott hit the same number in 16 World Series games for the Giants.

The Ross home run was nothing more than eye candy on a night the Giants did little right.

"You've got to make all the plays," Fontenot said. "You can't have this right now."

Games 3, 4 and 5 will be played at AT&T Park starting Tuesday, and manager Bruce Bochy promised changes. He would not provide specifics, but a fair guess is Aaron Rowand over Andres Torres atop the order against left-hander Cole Hamels.

Torres struck out all four times Sunday. For the postseason, the switch-hitter is 3-for-25 with 12 strikeouts, mostly from his good side.

Fontenot was installed as third baseman largely for defense. He probably will be out, too, against Hamels, though nobody could say how the infield will look because Uribe could not say if he will be able to play.

Uribe jammed his wrist sliding into second base after driving in the fourth run in Saturday's win. He did not feel a thing the rest of that night but took one swing in the cage Sunday, felt the pain and said, "Wow." He is expected to have an MRI exam before today's workout in San Francisco.

"I want to play, but there's nothing you can do," Uribe said. "I'll wait to see tomorrow. When I came to the ballpark today, I thought I was going to play. I went to the cage and couldn't hit."

The same could be said for the Giants overall in Game 2 as they went down on four hits. Oswalt allowed three over eight innings, including Ross' fifth-inning homer, which tied the game 1-1.

Ross' third homer of the series and fourth of the postseason broke up Oswalt's no-hit bid, Ross' standard operating procedure. His sixth-inning homer in Game 4 of the Division Series busted a Derek Lowe no-hitter and the first of his two homers in Game 1 of this series ended a string of 12 hitless innings by Roy Halladay.

Ross is locked in at a time the rest of the offense is locked out.

"We're all getting pitches to hit," Huff said. "We're fouling them off, and he's hitting them."

Right after Ross' homer, the Phillies took a 2-1 lead in the bottom half of the fifth on Shane Victorino's double and Placido Polanco's one-out sacrifice fly.

Any shot at a Giants comeback ended after Sanchez allowed a leadoff single in the seventh to Oswalt, a liner that Torres nearly grabbed. Victorino sacrificed against new pitcher Ramon Ramirez, who then walked Chase Utley intentionally before Polanco lined a single to center.

Third-base coach Sam Perlozzo raised a stop sign that Oswalt ignored. Phillies manager Charlie Manuel might not have been thrilled, but as he said later, "What the hell are we going to do, rope him?"

Huff saw the stop sign and cut off Torres' throw, hoping Oswalt would take a wide turn at third and could be nailed trying to get back. Instead, Oswalt had kept going and beat Huff's throw home.

"No question we had him dead," Bochy said. "He was going to be out by 10, 15 feet. But Aubrey thought he was holding up. That's why he cut the ball off."

With two outs, slumping Jimmy Rollins finished the Giants with a three-run double against Santiago Casilla.

The Phillies found a way to beat Sanchez for the first time in three tries this season and flew to San Francisco on an up note. The Giants, like any visiting team that wins the first game of a postseason series and loses the second, tried to ignore the latter and dwell on the former.

"We're fine," Sanchez said. "We wanted to take two games, but we split. We just have to go home and try to win the next three."

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