Philadelphia Phillies Create More Doubts vs Giants Despite Series Win

By most measures, this weekend's series against the San Francisco Giants was quite successful. The Phillies took three of four from the defending champs, and widened the gap between the second-place Atlanta Braves to 8.5 games. But, after the first two games in the series, the Phils offense fell asleep, scoring a combined three runs against Giants starters Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum.

In the third game of the four-game set, the Phillies quickly took a 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Same story in the series finale: Chase Utley singled in a run giving the Fightins an early 1-0 lead, but then the Giants shut the Phils down and did not allow another run.

The Phils managed to nab the first game in the series due to an outstanding complete game performance by Cole Hamels.

Nevertheless, come October, the Phils cannot count on gems of this stature from their pitching rotation—not on a consistent basis, anyway. There will be occasions in which Hamels, Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee will give up two, three, four runs in a game. In those situations, the Phillies can't afford the kind of lifeless offensive performances that were so costly last postseason.

Roy Oswalt, pitching for the first time since June, persevered through a tough start in which he gave up a career-high 12 hits. Oswalt managed to hold San Francisco to just three runs in six innings of work however. It didn't matter. The Phils never were able to put together a substantial rally against Lincecum or the bullpen.

What should have been a solid foundation for Oswalt's comeback from the DL instead feels more like a disappointing effort full of doubts and skepticism regarding the rest of his season in the rotation.

Still, the Phillies are clearly the better team in this newly formed rivalry. Despite splitting the season series, Philadelphia holds baseball's best record of 74-40, while the Giants (63-52) cling to a half-game lead over the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NL West.

After this weekend, it's now obvious that the Giants are not, as many in the past have theorized, in the Phillies' heads. But if the Phils went into this series with a goal of instilling any sense of fear or intimidation into Giants players, they failed to do so. In a short series, the Giants and Phillies are as evenly matched as two teams can possibly get, which creates a somewhat foreboding reality.

If these two teams square up for a rematch this October, and the offense fails to wake up against Cain and Lincecum, it could easily be déjà vu all over again.