will we ever win?

Phils being Phils

You can't say the Phillies didn't have every opportunity to win tonight and send the NLCS to a Game 7. But they blew too many opportunities, and will be watching the World Series from home for the first time since 2007.

Both teams stranded 11 base runners — and a lot of those situations weren't exactly guys stranded on first after a two-out single. There were a ton of dangerous situations that went for naught on both sides. But the Giants found a way through with a Juan Uribe solo homer off Ryan Madson that barely got over the right field wall in the eighth.

With the lead, and despite a vaunted back end of the bullpen, the Giants went with Tim Lincecum to start the bottom of the eighth, and it felt like a comeback was more than possible. After K'ing Jayson Werth, Lincecum was throwing mostly breaking balls, and didn't seem to have it. After surrendering singles to Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez, Lincecum was out of the game and the Phillies were on the cusp.

Then it all went pear-shaped.

With Giants closer Brian Wilson in the game, Carlos Ruiz sent a laser to first base. Ibanez recognized the line drive and dove back to first. Victorino didn't, and was easily doubled off second.

I'm not sure why the announcers just let that play go, but Victorino can't get picked off in that situation. Bottom line. If you make sure the ball gets through, you can still probably score. If not, at least you have the bases loaded with one out.

Victorino, since being moved to the leadoff spot late in the season, played much smarter baseball. But he fell back on his "dumb baseball" tendencies with two bad baserunning plays in this series, and the last one cost the Phils.

Hope was still alive in the ninth, with Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley working walks off Wilson, but Howard struck out looking and that was that. Queue annoying Giants players celebrating on Philly turf.

Game 6, in the end, was a microcosm of the Phillies' season. Good starting pitching (even if Oswalt had to work out of a bunch of jams) and a brutally inconsistent offense, with some mental and physical errors sprinkled in for fun.

Changes are likely afoot for 2011, but I'm hoping the management took note of what the offense looked like against left-handed pitching in this series. Because the point isn't to reach the playoffs, it's to win the World Series.

NOTES:

— I'm hearing people complain about the last strike to Howard, and about umpire Tom Hallion hesitating slightly before calling it a strike. Looked like a strike to me, albeit a borderline low one. And I have to give Wilson credit for good pitching. He froze Howard with an almost identical slider at 2-1 in the count, and he came back to it after Howard fouled off a few fastballs.

— In a very Charlie Manuel move, Rollins was reinstated as the leadoff batter. I liked the move, even if Rollins annoyingly swung at the first pitch in the first (he came back to work a full count).

— I haven't been keeping track — how's Cliff Lee doing these days?

— Ruben Amaro Jr. at this point is known, above all else, for trading Lee. Does this loss affect the chances of Werth being back? Are several moves necessary at this point?

— Jonathan Sanchez losing it and having to be taken out of the game in the third might have been the best piece of luck the Giants had in the game.

— I'd love to know what Ruiz and Buster Posey were saying to each other with Posey at the plate in the fifth. Didn't look friendly.

— If Howard's double in the fifth doesn't bounce perfectly off the wall for Andres Torres, Rollins scores the Phillies' third run. But he had to be held at third or else easily be thrown out at home.

— I wouldn't be shocked if Oswalt purposefully hit Uribe — who's been having success off Oswalt — in the ribs in the sixth in order to set up a potential (and realized) double play off of Edgar Renteria. The first pitch almost hit Uribe too, and I don't think Oswalt got that wild all of a sudden. Definitely more entertaining than an intentional walk.

— I hope Pittsburgh got something good for lefty reliever Javier Lopez, because that guy was awesome in this series. (They probably didn't, though.)

— Way too many missed opportunities for the Phillies to even get into here. If the World Series loss last season hurt, at least the Yankees were favored by most. The Phillies should have been the better team in this series, but weren't in the end.