Do or die.
It all comes down to this for the Philadelphia Phillies. 6 months and 169 games later the Phillies are on the brink of elimination as they head into Game 5 against the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night. Philadelphia’s hopes of becoming the first National League team since the 1942-1944 St. Louis Cardinals to advance to three consecutive World Series could come to a screeching halt as early as tonight.
The task at hand? Beat two-time defending National League Cy Young award winner Tim Lincecum at home in front of an electric crowd against a Giants team looking to advance to the World Series for the first time since 2002.
“If we like playing with our backs to the wall, we’re standing right there now,” manager Charlie Manuel said. “If we want to have our backs to the wall, I think we’re going to get that chance.”
“It’s definitely foreign but we’re here,” said Jimmy Rollins. “There’s only one thing to do and that’s win. (We’ve) got our back against the wall but we’ll fight.”
The Phillies will have to fight hard to dig themselves out of a very deep hole. In order to come back and win this series they will have to beat Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, and Matt Cain in three straight games. But before they worry about that daunting task, they must worry about tonight.
“If we get this thing back to Philly, we like our chances,” said closer Brad Lidge after a gut wrenching Game 4 defeat.
“This team’s got a lot of fight left. We’re going to come out and play our game,” added Ryan Madson. “They’ve got a good team over there, but our team is good too. We’re going to win and bring the series back.”
It will be a rematch of Game 1 on the mound as Lincecum takes on Phillies ace Roy Halladay. Neither pitcher had their best stuff in Game 1 as Halladay allowed 4 runs on 8 hits over 7 innings and Lincecum gave up 3 runs on 9 hits. Both pitchers allowed 2 home runs and were clearly not as sharp as they were in their first postseason appearances.
This will be the 9th time this season Halladay will start a game after allowing at least 4 runs in his previous start. In the 8 regular season appearances Halladay sported a 1.57 ERA and allowed no runs in 4 of his 8 starts. The Phillies will need him to have similar success tonight if they want this series to continue.
Since the league championship series expanded to a best-of-seven series back in 1985, 30 series have seen a team take a 3-1 series advantage. Of those 30 teams with the series edge, 24 have gone on to advance to the World Series. Roy Halladay wanted to come to Philadelphia to pitch in big games during October. He will get that opportunity as he takes the mound in the biggest game of his life on Thursday night.
On the 30th anniversary of the Phillies first World Series Championship, they will take the field with their season at a crossroads. Win and return home to Citizen’s Bank Park with life. Lose and a roller coaster season that had so much promise just a week ago comes to a disappointing conclusion. Philadelphia has shown its resiliency time and time again over the past 3 seasons. They will need to do it one more time starting tonight as they begin to battle back from the brink of elimination.
Roy Halladay vs. Tim Lincecum with the entire season on the line. First pitch 7:57pm EST on Fox.
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