The Philadelphia Phillies, the team that still owns the best record in baseball, lost back-to-back games for the first time in since the first days of June and the dropped series to the Giants was the team's first losing series in their last ten. Tim Lincecum stifled the Fightins' bats and made Philly fans sick in the process. San Fran won by the final of 4-1 on Thursday evening.
The Giants ace, who couldn't pitch the last two days with a food poisning-like illness, shut the Phils out over six innings of work in which he allowed only three hits, walked four, and struck out six. The Phils managed to scrap together a run off of Ramon Ramirez in the seventh, but couldn't do any serious damage with men on the pond.
Lincecum was a bit erratic at times, and did walk four guys, but the Phillies never really made him pay.
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"Felt like Lincecum changed speeds good. Felt like we could have worked him a little better," Charlie Manuel said following the game. "We chased a lot of pitches out of the strike zone."
"We didn't handle him too good."
The newest addition to a formidable Giants squad, Carlos Beltran, was hitless with two strikeouts in his debut.
As for Kyle Kendrick and the Phils pitching, it wasn't bad, but an early home run to Pablo Sandoval and a couple of manufactured runs later proved to be more than enough with Lincecum and the Giants pen that seems to dominate the Phils. You certainly can't put this one on Kendrick.
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Two straight games at Citizens Bank Park ended with Brian Wilson and his atrocious beard doing that thing he does when he finishes out a game. Phillies fans can't be happy about that at all.
These two teams will meet again next weekend out in San Francisco, but will the Phillies have a new bat to throw in the lineup against a Giants staff that seems to have their number?
Asked if the Giants were in the Phillies heads, Charlie Manuel didn't hesitate for a second and chuckled during his response.
"They're not in our heads. I don't think so. Really, I don't think so at all," Manuel said.
While there may be some fireworks going off at Citizens Bank Park following the Phils loss, the sky is not actually falling. Don't listen to Ricky Bottalico.
Roy Halladay pitches tomorrow.
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Related: Ben Franklin was at the game tonight