The Series: Philadelphia Phillies

The San Francisco Giants took two out of three games against the defending National League Champions Philadelphia Phillies.

I am going to experiment and change the format of how I write the series, please let me know which way you prefer.

PROS:

• Jonathon Sanchez - In five innings of one run ball, Jonathon Sanchez beat Roy Halladay. In the start, he threw for 6 big strikeouts, and only 3 hits. Halladay, the best pitcher in baseball according to the east coast biased ESPN, allowed 10 hits, and 5 runs.
• Eli Whiteside - He only started in one game this series, but he called an excellent game, and went off with the bat. He went 2-3 with a double, and a homerun, both off Holliday
• Edgar Renteria - After a horrific slump, Renteria seems to be on track again. He entered the series batting .274, and left it batting .320. Every game in the series Edgar Renteria picked up multiple hits. Additionally, Renteria picked up a stolen base in the series finale.
• Tim Lincecum - Not a big surprise here. Lincecum pitched 8 1/3 innings, with 11 strikeouts, and only allowed 4 baserunners (3 hits, 1 walk). He left the game with a 5-1 lead in the ninth, but due to a blown save by Brian Wilson, did not get a W.
• Nate Scheirholtz - Nate the Great played outstanding defense in the series. He picked up two great outfield assists, and he kept runners from trying to advance an extra 90-feet. In the final game of the series, Nate went 5-5 with a walk, and picked up two doubles in the game. He came through in clutch situations, and now without a doubt is the starting right fielder for the team.
• Todd Wellemeyer - Wellemeyer picked up his first win of the season. It was the first time he did not pitch against the opposing team's opening day pitcher.
• Giants Offense - As a whole, the Giants offense now leads the National League in Batting Average (.282). Led By Pablo Sandoval (.373) the Giants are hitting unlike years past. Nate Scheirholtz (.378) actually leads the team in batting average, but due to his lack of at-bats he is not eligible to be a league leader in the category. Bengie Molina is succeeding down in the batting order. Now that he is not a clean-up hitter, he is batting .350.
• Giants Pitching - The pitching staff of the Giants is incredible. They are 1st in the NL in Quality Starts (15), WHIP (1.15), Opposing Batting Average (.215), and OPS (.614). They are also second in ERA at 2.78.

CONS:

• Eugenio Velez - On the year, Eugenio Velez is batting .190. You can easily blame him for the loss in the Giants series too. He dropped two balls in the 11th inning. The first one was a tough play, but in an extra inning game, you need to make the catch. The second drop was on a routine fly ball that there is no excuses for dropping. He came up to bat in the bottom half of the 11th, and with the tying run on third base, Velez failed to knock him in.
• Brian Wilson - Every reliever is going to blow a save. It's hard to blame Wilson because the ball hit the foul line. It's just the luck in the game. If the ball was hit a little bit softer, Nate Schierholtz would have took a better route to the ball, and hypothetically could have held the runners on.

San Francisco will now play the Colorado Rockies. They are currently 1 1/2 games behind the Padres for first place in the NL West.