NLCS Game 1 Reaction

Obviously, a disappointing result for the Phillies and their fans last night in the opener of the NLCS.

Roy Halladay looked he was going to breeze through the Giants until the first of Cody Ross's two home runs in the third inning. The sixth inning was problematic from a third strike that wasn't called on Pat Burrell that kept the inning going to Raul Ibanez misplaying Burrell's fly ball later in the frame to Juan Uribe coming through with a clutch two-out RBI hit.

But, the bigger problem for the Phils is their offense. They are still struggling to come through with timely hits and any sort of consistency at all. Ryan Howard doubles to lead off the second inning in a scoreless game and never moves; Howard gets ahead of Lincecum 2-0 with two on and two out in the third and strikes out. He has to be a force in the middle of the lineup and everyone has to be disciplined and get into hitters counts and take advantage of them.

Do we need to send out a search party for Jimmy Rollins? Hard to look worse than he did in Saturday's game. He can't run and he is impatient but maybe it is time to put him back in his comfort zone at the top of the lineup.

The starting pitching should be good enough to keep the scores low and the games close which means a lot of how this series will play out and be determined will fall on the bullpens. The Phils have made a lot of dramatic, late inning comebacks against the likes of Huston Street and Jonathan Broxton over the last few postseasons and it looks like they are going to have to do it again if they want to advance to a third straight World Series.