Phillies felled by Giants in NLCS

FROM THE MORNING CALL

PHILADELPHIA — Jayson Werth stood at the right-field wall and faced the fans in disbelief.

He must have needed time to digest the enormity of Juan Uribe's home run off Ryan Madson that barely cleared the fence and gave the Giants the lead in the eighth inning.

"I felt there was a little sense of shock," Phillies left fielder Raul Ibanez said, "because of what we expected from ourselves."

But if you've watched this NLCS, you'd know there's nothing to really be surprised about.

Philadelphia's offense was horrific throughout much of the first five games of this NLCS. Saturday's decisive Game 6 was just an extension of that.

The Phillies were 8-for-45 (.178) with runners in scoring position for the series (including 2-for-11 on Saturday), left 45 on base in the second round (11 on Saturday) and lost 3-2 to the Giants, who are making their first trip to the World Series since 2002.

"I know our guys and I know we can hit better than that," Phillies manager Charlie Manuel said. "I say just about every night that the team that makes the big play, especially late in the game, those are the teams that are going to win."

Philadelphia, the favorite to win it all, was denied a third straight trip to the World Series, something an NL team hasn't done since the 1942-44 Cardinals.

The Phillies had the tying run at second base and the go-ahead run at first with cleanup man Ryan Howard at the plate in the ninth, but he struck out looking at a 3-2 slider to end the series.

"We didn't get it done," Howard said. "I didn't get it done. I saw the pitch. I just saw it down."

Howard has now gone 57 at-bats without a home run and 37 without an RBI. He fanned 12 times in the NLCS, the most since John Shelby struck out 12 times in 1988. He's one of only five players in NLCS history to strike out 10 times or more.

Those chances in the ninth were just a small piece of the puzzle for the Phillies.

They had two on and nobody out in the third. Nothing.

They had the bases loaded in the fifth. Zilch.

They had a runner at third with one out in the sixth. Nada.

They had two more on in the eighth. Zippo.

That inning is the one that did them in, Shane Victorino said. With Victorino at second and Ibanez at first, Ruiz lined into a 3-6 double play.

"That sucked the wind outta us," he said.

Winning a pennant just isn't going to happen with that extreme lack of production.

http://www.mcall.com/sports/baseball/phillies/mc-phillies-mandyfiller-1023-20101023,0,6890291.story