Both teams are currently second in their respective divisions they still have a chance to take the division crown. They also though have to fight for the Wild Card and that's what we're going to witness beginning on Tuesday.
The Giants are coming into the series just having lost two out of three games against the San Diego Padres. Their offense looked stagnate against the outstanding pitching of the Padres. Luckily the Giants will not face Roy Halladay and will instead face the Phillies pitchers they've had success against. The Giants face Roy Oswalt, Joe Blanton, and Cole Hamels. The Giants are 3-0 this year against Oswalt and have had success against both Blanton and Hamels.
Meanwhile luckily for the Giants, Tim Lincecum won't be facing the Phillies. Lincecum has struggled mightily in his last three starts and has been inconsistent all season. The Giants instead will have Barry Zito, Matt Cain, and Jonathon Sanchez face the Phillies. I'm not overly confident in Sanchez facing the Phillies, but Cain and Zito have been outstanding this season. The Zito vs. Oswalt match-up on Tuesday should be fun to watch.
Pitcher To Watch, The Bullpens: The starting pitchers for this series are solid if not spectacular. The Bullpens though will be an interesting battle. The Giants bullpen has been scary/inconsistent/great/terrible all in one season. I trust Giants closer Brian Wilson more than I trust Phillies closer Brad Lidge, but after that it's a tossup. One of the three games will definitely be a bullpen game and whoever has the best bullpen will determine the outcome.
Hitter to Watch, Buster Posey: Posey busted out of the gates for the Giants when he was finally called up in May. Posey hit so well that the Giants decided it was fine for them to trade Bengie Molina. Posey was red hot in July going on a 22-game hitting streak with 6 home runs. Posey struggled at the beginning of August, but hit a home run and scored the game-winning run against San Diego this weekend. The Giants offense revolves around Posey. He gets on base for the RBI hitters Aubrey Huff, Pat Burrell, Juan Uribe, and Pablo Sandoval. He must get on base during this series if the Giants want to have success.
The Prodigal Son Returns: Pat Burrell makes his official return to Philadelphia on Tuesday night. The former number one overall draft pick by the Phillies was let go by the team after he helped them win a World Series. Burrell has been a great pickup for the Giants since he isn't costing them anything and he single handily won a couple of games for the Giants. It will be interesting to see the type of reaction he gets when he returns on Tuesday.
This should be a fun series. Since I'm a Giants fan, I expect the worse outcome. The Giants will lose two out of three games and then will be two games behind in the Wild Card. They'll struggle down the stretch and once again miss the playoffs all because they lost this series. We Giants fans are a pessimistic bunch aren't we?
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