Major League Baseball

PHILS' BATTER OF TIME; MUST REVIVE LUMBER TO RETURN TO SERIES

Published Oct. 18, 2010 10:13 p.m. ET

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PHILADELPHIA - The Yankees weren't the only one of last year's World Series teams to get off to a shaky start in the LCS. The Phillies basically had not hit this postseason.

"They really haven't hit for quite a while," said one scout who has been following the team. "They are striking out way too much. They can't get anything going because of that."

Strikeouts shut down everything. Giants pitchers Tim Lincecum, Javier Lopez and Brian Wilson struck out 13 Phillies in the 4-3 victory Saturday night at Citizens Bank Park in Game 1 of the NLCS. Going into last night's Game 2, the Phillies were hitting .212 for the postseason.

If the Phillies and Yankees survive their respective series and reprise last season's World Series matchup, the Yankees will be facing a lineup that their pitchers should be able to handle.

"I'm concerned," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "I think we need to hit better. We gotta hit better and we've got to score more runs."

Runs could be hard to come by against the Giants pitching staff, which had held opposing hitters to a .182 average in the postseason. Jonathan Sanchez, who went 13-9 with a 3.07 ERA in the regular season, was on the mound last night against Roy Oswalt.

No one on the Phillies was struggling more than Jimmy Rollins. Everybody thought Derek Jeter was going to be the struggling shortstop in October, but Rollins was batting .067 through his first four games this postseason. He must play better.

Rollins had one lonely single to show for 15 at-bats. He had struck out three times. Slugger Ryan Howard had eight strikeouts in 15 at-bats. Things were so bad that Manuel changed his lineup last night, putting Chase Utley in the two-spot.

Sanchez has been one of the best kept secrets in the game. He was 4-1 in the final month of the season with a 1.03 ERA. He beat the Phillies twice during the regular season, holding them to two runs over 13 innings. Sanchez had a no-decision in his NLDS start against the Braves, allowing one earned run over 7 1/3 innings. He has been able to get hitters to chase his slider.

Lincecum got the strikeouts when he needed them Saturday night. He was so successful in his postseason debut the week before, striking out 14 Braves in a 1-0 victory, that when he surrendered three runs, some people thought he pitched poorly. But when Lincecum had to be at his best Saturday night he did the job.

Part of that was because of the way he was treated at the plate by the Phillies fans, who were whistling at him like one of those bad jokes: "Hey, the guy's got long hair. Let's whistle at him."

Lincecum said the whistles fired him up: "I was thinking that I must have a really nice butt because I'm hearing a lot of them.

"It kind of heightens you up a little bit," he added. "You're fighting a little bit more than just the Philly team. It kind of turns it into the whole Philly atmosphere, but you know you are going to get that when you come into here."

Manuel expects the Phillies to bounce back. Just as Yankees manager Joe Girardi believes in his guys, Manuel believes in his.

"Our team has shown in the past it can be down and come back," Manuel explained. "We were seven and a half games behind the Braves with a month to go and we caught them. Yeah, we lost the game [Saturday]. We also won the first three games in the other division playoffs."

But if they can't hit, they can't get back to the World Series.

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