Giants Pin NLCS Hopes On Beleaguered Offense
Danny Knobler, CBSSports.com
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS) - In four games with the Atlanta Braves, the San Francisco Giants hit .212 as a team. They scored 11 runs. They struck out 43 times.
And they won.
More power to them, right?
Yeah, and good luck to them if they try to do that against the Phillies.
That's not to say the Giants have no chance in the National League Championship Series that will begin Saturday night in Philadelphia. No team in the league has someone who can match up as well with Roy Halladay as Tim Lincecum can, and no one has a second and third starter who can match up with Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels as well as Matt Cain and Jonathan Sanchez can.
"I think we have a whole pitching staff that can match up with anyone," second baseman Freddy Sanchez said. "We've just got to try to get our offense going a little."
Sanchez, who bats second for the Giants, hit .125 in the series against the Braves. So did Andres Torres, who leads off. Add in Juan Uribe, who hit .071, and you had more than a third of the lineup combining to go 5-for-46 with two runs scored and no runs driven in.
And they won, because their pitching was so good—or because the Braves lineup was even worse.
Photo Gallery: 2010 Giants Playoff Run
The Giants understandably believe in their pitching. The Giants also, realistically, realize it's going to be near-impossible to beat the Phillies by averaging fewer than three runs a game.
"They've got a lineup that can really swing," Cody Ross said. "But we've got a really good pitching staff."
Because the Giants were able to finish the Division Series in four games, by beating the Braves 3-2 on Monday night, they also have that pitching staff set up the way they want it.
Lincecum, who won the last two NL Cy Young Awards, will be on a full week's rest for his matchup with Halladay, the likely Cy Young winner this year. Cain can go in Game 2, Sanchez sets up for Game 3 back in San Francisco and rookie Madison Bumgarner, who pitched so well in Monday's clincher, gets a home start in Game 4.
And the Giants will hope to get them a few runs. Very few, in all likelihood, but maybe just enough.
"That's how we've been playing all year," closer Brian Wilson said.
With Lincecum vs. Halladay, with Pat Burrell returning to Citizens Bank Park to try to deny the Phillies a third straight NL pennant, this is the NLCS matchup that neutrals had to be hoping for. It's a whole lot more compelling than Phillies vs. Braves would have been, given the gap between those two teams that became so obvious in six head-to-head matchups in the final weeks of the season.
Maybe the Phillies will prove that the gap between them and the Giants is just as wide. But maybe the Giants' pitching will shut down the Phillies' lineup the way it just shut down the Braves' (admittedly much weaker) lineup.
Maybe the Giants hitters will be able to get going just a little, as Sanchez hoped for.
The Giants believe it's possible.
"It's going to be a great series," Sanchez said.
It will be, if only the Giants can score a few runs.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
