Giants drop Game 5, series goes back to Philly

The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Francisco Giants 4-2 tonight in Game 5 of the NLCS. The Giants still lead the series 3 games to 2. Game 6 is Saturday in Philadelphia with the start time yet to be determined (it depends on the outcome of Game 6 of the ALCS tomorrow night). Roy Halladay had a strained groin and seemed to be in trouble every inning for the Phillies but he gutted out six innings and had just enough to earn the win. The Phillies did most of their offensive damage in the 3rd inning, scoring three runs off Giants ace Tim Lincecum who suffered his first postseason defeat.

The Giants' defense let them down in the 3rd inning as Pablo Sandoval missed third base on a bunt attempt by Halladay that would have resulted in a double play and Aubrey Huff misplayed a groundball that ricocheted into center field and allowed two runs to score. The offense had some chances in the first inning as well but Phillies first baseman was able to snare a ball that Huff hit right on the screws for an out. If not for that play, the inning could have been a lot bigger than it was with the one early run the Giants did get. It's bad luck on that play, but part of baseball at the same time.

I thought Halladay showed a lot of heart tonight. It was clear he didn't have his best stuff, but he still only gave up two runs in six innings which to me shows a lot of character. And to find out after the game that he strained his groin in the second inning only makes his performance more impressive.

Cody Ross continues to be the frontrunner for NLCS MVP as he doubled in another run to push his RBI total to 5 for the series. He just seems to keep coming up with big hits in big situations. Let's hope he continues to swing a hot bat in Philadelphia.

I'm still optimistic about the Giants. They have already won in Philadelphia in the series and have Jonathan Sanchez and Matt Cain to pitch Games 6 and 7 against Roy Oswalt and Cole Hamels. Hopefully Game 7 isn't necessary, but it's nice to know that Saturday isn't an elimination game. I can hardly wait to see what happens. Game time should be just before 6 p.m. MT if the Rangers close out the Yankees tomorrow and just before 2 p.m. MT if the hated Yanks force a Game 7 in Texas for Saturday night. Speaking of the ALCS, it resumes tomorrow night. Here's the details:

Game 6 -- New York Yankees (Hughes) at Texas Rangers (Lewis), 6:07 p.m. MT (TBS, Rangers lead series 3-2)

And in another sports note, did anyone else notice what kind of beat down #1 Oregon (7-0, 4-0 Pac-10) put on UCLA (3-4, 1-3 Pac-10) tonight? The final score in Autzen was 60-13. The Ducks look really good and really fast. They are going to be tough to beat. I'm not a big Oregon fan per se, but their team sure is fun to watch play.