Phillies vs. Giants: 2010 NLCS

Filed under: Giants, Phillies, MLB Playoffs, National League Championship Series

If October baseball is about pitching, this year's NLCS, pitting the Philadelphia Phillies against the San Francisco Giants, has it in spades. The Giants led the National League in ERA and allowed the second fewest runs in the league. The Phillies were fourth in runs allowed, but adding Roy Oswalt to Roy Halladay and Cole Hamels at midseason gives them perhaps the most vaunted 1-2-3 rotation punch in all of baseball.

After great regular seasons, both teams' pitching staffs have come through with big playoff performances. Roy Halladay no-hit the National League's best offense in his first playoff performance and Cole Hamels followed shortly after with a complete-game shutout of his own to close out the Reds. Tim Lincecum was nearly as good as Halladay, striking out 14 and shutting out the Braves' offense in Game 1, then Jonathan Sanchez struck out 11 Braves in Game 3. Those two performances are the two highest strikeout totals in the Giants' franchise's long playoff history.

For a third straight season, the NLCS will feature the Phillies against the NL West champion. In 2008 and 2009, the Dodgers only managed two wins total (one each year), as the Phillies brought back-to-back pennants to Philadelphia. This year the Phillies shoot for their third pennant in a row, while the Giants try for their first since 2002 and just their third of the division era.

 

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