will we ever win?

The phone's off the hook, but the Giants aren't

In the NLCS Game 1 write-up, I noted that "if there's some reason Jimmy Rollins isn't batting eighth in the lineup I'd like to hear it." I guess J-Roll game me a reason in Game 2.

The Phillies hitters — in the form of Rollins — finally made Giants pitchers pay in a big way with a bases loaded, bases clearing double in the seventh.

But as overdue and as welcome as that game-sealing offensive outburst was, Roy Oswalt was the story of this game. That's eight innings of 1-run pitching Roy Oswalt, obviously. But it's also single-hitting and jacket-wearing, base-running terror Roy Oswalt.

Oswalt scoring from second on Placido Polanco's single up the middle in the seventh was one of the crazier plays in recent Phillies history. Oswalt — seemingly taking over the then tied game by himself — ran right through third base coach Sam Perlozzo's quite reasonable stop sign and scored.

Fox announcer Tim McCarver is crazy himself if he thinks Aubrey Huff's cutting off the throw at the pitching mound was a good play. The throw from center fielder Andres Torres was on line and plenty high enough to clear the mound. There would have been a play at the plate without the cutoff. Not sure if Huff just didn't know Oswalt was running or what, but it wasn't the right call in that situation. (Then again, Huff did attend that bastion of intelligent athletes — The U.)

Hero status in place for Oswalt, the rest of the lineup did its thing with Rollins' double sealing the win. Appropriately, Oswalt even talked Charlie Manuel out of removing him when he let a couple guys get on in the eighth. It was his night.

NOTES:

— Phillies need more hitting like they got in the seventh inning, less like they had in the first when only a Rollins walk drove in a run with the bases loaded and one out.

— After a huge drop against the wall the night before, Raul Ibanez made a great diving catch of a Pat Burrell line drive in the ninth. Had it dropped, the Giants would have had two on with no outs, and things might have gotten nervous.

— Speaking of nervous, I'm nervous every time Shane Victorino starts running backwards when fielding fly balls. He fell over fielding a wind-aided fly in the second, but still caught it.

— How awesome is Tim Lincecum blister-cam?!?! Does MLB.tv offer that camera view all game?

— Cody Ross hit another homer to left off an inside fastball, this one off Oswalt. I'm all for pitching him outside for a while and seeing how he does with that (even if Ryan Madson struck him out looking on an inside heater in the ninth).

— Game 1 forgetfulness: Forgot this on the last post, but the Game 1 ump yelled "strike 3" and demonstratively rang up Rollins in the second inning, but it was only the second strike. Never seen that one before.

— I'm glad the Phillies had to wait six days between the NLDS and NLCS, but will have three games in three days this week. Game 3 starts at 4:19 p.m. Tuesday.

— Soundtrack for this blog post here.