In the post season so far, the Phillies offense has performed similarly to the regular season; large stretches of nothing. Unfortunately, the Phillies find themselves in one of those nothing stretches at the wrong time. The offense has been woeful in the playoffs and now seriously endangers their post-season run.
In game 3, the Phillies managed only two hits against Matt Cain. Furthermore, they managed to get just five runners into scoring position and failed to drive any of them in. The lineup looks bad from top to bottom; Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Jayson Werth, and Raul Ibanez went a combined 1 for 15 with a walk. That’s simply unacceptable from the heart of the order. Ibanez grounded into a double play to end the game, and remains hitless in the playoffs. The Phillies simply cannot win any games with this level of offense.
Now the pressure just gets higher on the offense to wake up and do it’s part as the Phillies try to even the series. With Joe Blanton set to pitch game 4, they won’t have the luxury of a front line pitcher to help cover-up their hitting ineffectiveness. Blanton has not appeared in a game since the last day of the regular season and rust could be an issue.
It will be critical for the offense to jump on Giants’ starter Madison Bumgarner early to give Blanton some margin for error and some comfort. If they can’t put together a strong performance against Bumgarner, how will they recover down 3-1 in the series with Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, and Cain set to pitch the final 3 games of the series?
The offense has been dragging it’s feet through the entire post season. If not for a number of errors from the Reds, the Phillies wouldn’t have scored half of the runs they did in that series. The offense, with the exception of a small run here and there, has really been unreliable all season. Give credit to the Giants’ excellent pitching staff for mowing the Phillies down, but the Phillies offense is capable of much better than what they have displayed. It’s put up or shut up time in game 4. No more excuses. It’s time for this offense to start playing like they are contenders, not pretenders.
Hey, maybe Joe Blanton can hit another homerun.
Where is Rick Wise when we need the man
Couldn’t agree more G
Too many thought the sweep of the Reds indicated the Phillies were on track to the World Series
Pitching was the only thing that went well in that series
Not to be gloom and doom..
Phils face a young LHP M Baumgarner today for their 1st time..
Phils do not have a good track record when facing a Pitcher for the first time..
You have video,scouting reports,etc,etc, but for a struggling line-up who is not hitting, this is not good
Baumgarner is not a flame-thrower and rey’s on his command,location and has a sneaky fastball and a good slider.. Of course as most LHP, he is very tough against left handed batters
I think Blanton pitches a solid 6 innings and gives up 2-3 runs which is norm for him, the good thing is that Candlestick Park has a big outfield which suits Blanton high-fastball pitches which become long fly ball out in this park instead of Home Runs at Citizens Bank
Obviously the pressure is on the batters to step up and start hitting, they should get some more opportunities,but need to take advantage with Baumgarner makes some mistakes and gets the pitches over the middle of the plate..
These guys have too come up with more then that if Cole only gives up 3. Fat Joe and terror squad tonight. Just get the w and hand it too Doc.The Giants are a tough squad and the best team we’ve faced during these years of greatness.Yet if we can tie this thing up we’ll gain confidence that should push us through the rest of the series.
The Giants really aren’t that great of a team. Cody Ross is great. Giants pitching is great. The rest is garbage. That just goes to show how woefully awful this offense is right now. What happened to our clutch guys in red pinstripes? Let’s go boys!
Have to admit, their Manager has been pushing the right buttons too…
Pinch running for Burell whcih got them another run in game #2
Moving Ross up in the line-up when he’s hot,
Playing A Rowand in place of the struggling Torres…
Phils facing a pitcher for the 1st time ever (Baumgarner) tonight is what scares me about Game 4,
they usually struggle against 1st timers..