2010 National League Championship Series
Team (Wins) Managers Season San Francisco Giants (4) Bruce Bochy 92–70, .568, GA: 2 Philadelphia Phillies (2) Charlie Manuel 97–65, .599, GA: 6
Dates	October 16–23
MVP	Cody Ross (San Francisco)
Umpires	Derryl Cousins (crew chief),Dan Iassogna,Ted Barrett,Wally Bell,Jeff Nelson, andTom Hallion[1]
Broadcast
Television	Fox
TV announcers	Joe Buck andTim McCarver
Radio	ESPN
Radio announcers	Dan Shulman andDave Campbell
NLDS	Philadelphia Phillies overCincinnati Reds (3–0) San Francisco Giants overAtlanta Braves (3–1)
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The2010 National League Championship Series (NLCS) was a best-of-sevenplayoff series inMajor League Baseball’s2010 postseason that pitted the winners of the2010 National League Division Series - the overall #1 seedPhiladelphia Phillies and the second-seededSan Francisco Giants — against each other for the National League Championship. The Giants would defeat the heavily favored Phillies, four games to two, to advance to their first World Series since 2002. The series, the 41stNLCS in league history, began on October 16 and ended on October 23. The Phillies hadhome field advantage as a result of their better regular-seasonrecord. The Phillies hosted Games 1, 2 and 6, while the Giants were at home for Games 3, 4 and 5.

The Giants would go on to defeat theTexas Rangers in theWorld Series in five games, winning their first World Series championship since1954, and their first since relocating to San Francisco from New York City back in1958, ending theCurse of Coogan's Bluff.

San Francisco won the series, 4–2.

In one of the most touted postseason pitching matchups in recent history, two former Cy Young Award winners faced off:Roy Halladay for the Phillies andTim Lincecum for the Giants. The Giants jumped out to a 1–0 lead in the top of the third inning on aCody Ross solo home run, Halladay's first hit allowed in the postseason. The Phillies quickly tied the game up in the bottom half of the same inning on a home run from catcherCarlos Ruiz.

The game remained tied until the top of the fifth inning, when Ross belted his second homer of the game, another solo shot, giving San Francisco a 2–1 lead. The Giants extended that lead to 4–1 the following inning on a string of three two-out hits, namely, a single byBuster Posey, a double by former PhilliePat Burrell, and a single fromJuan Uribe. In the bottom of the same inning, the sixth, the Phillies closed the deficit to 4–3 on a two-run blast fromJayson Werth.

Lincecum and Halladay then each pitched a scoreless half of the seventh before turning the game over to their respective bullpens. SouthpawJavier López retired the first two Philadelphia batters of the eighth inning, then handed the ball to Giants closerBrian Wilson, who recorded a four-out save, striking outShane Victorino to end the game.

In the first inningChase Utley walked, then stole second.Mike Fontenot misfieldedPlácido Polanco's grounder and everybody advanced.Ryan Howard andJimmy Rollins both walked, bringing in Utley for the first run. Oswalt no-hit the Giants through the fifth inning untilCody Ross hit a home run, his third in two games. This was the third straight game in which Ross's solo home run broke up a no-hitter. In the bottom inning,Shane Victorino doubled, then advanced to third on a Utley fly out. Polanco's sacrifice fly brought in the second Phillie run.

In the bottom of the seventh inning Oswalt hit a single up the middle. That knocked Sánchez out of the game, bringing inRamón Ramírez. Oswalt then advanced on a Victorino sacrifice bunt. Polanco then ripped a single up the middle bringing in Oswalt. Ramírez was brought down and in cameJeremy Affeldt. Affeldt struck out Howard then intentionally walkedJayson Werth. Giants managerBruce Bochy then sent inSantiago Casilla to face Jimmy Rollins. Rollins ripped a three-run double off Casilla, extending the Phillies' lead to five.

With a five-run lead, Oswalt pitched a scoreless eighth. He struck out nine while allowing three hits and walking three.

With the series shifting to San Francisco for a day Game 3, and the series tied 1–1, both teams again threw very good starting pitchers, 2008World Series MVPCole Hamels for Philadelphia and All-StarMatt Cain for San Francisco. Both starters started out strong, dominating the first three innings. In the fourth inning, however, the Giants broke through against Hamels.Édgar Rentería led off with a base hit to right, and was bunted to second byFreddy Sanchez. FollowingBuster Posey's strikeout andPat Burrell's walk, Cody Ross ripped a fastball down the left field line for an RBI single, his fourth RBI of the NLCS.Aubrey Huff then singled off the glove of a divingChase Utley, bringing in Burrell and making the score 2–0, Giants.

The Giants added a third run in the next inning, whenAaron Rowand led off the inning with a double to left and scored on a Sanchez single that fooled Chase Utley. With a 3–0 lead, Matt Cain cruised through the Phillies lineup. In the seventh inning, he ran into trouble, but was able to getShane Victorino to groundout to Sanchez with the bases loaded for the third out.Javier López relieved Cain and tossed a perfect eighth, striking outRyan Howard to end the inning.

Brian Wilson closed out the game by gettingRaúl Ibañez to ground into a double play with one out andJimmy Rollins at first. The Giants now had a 2–1 NLCS advantage.

Game 4 was a match up of both teams' fourth starters, 21-year-oldMadison Bumgarner for the Giants andJoe Blanton for the Phillies. The Giants scored first, whenBuster Posey lined an RBI single into center field that scoredFreddy Sanchez. Posey struck again in the third inning, scoring Huff on a two-out double over the head of left fielderBen Francisco, increasing the Giants' lead to 2–0.

The Phillies' offense broke through in the fifth inning against Bumgarner. Back-to-back singles by Francisco andCarlos Ruiz opened the inning, and Blanton hit asacrifice bunt to advance both runners into scoring position.Shane Victorino then hit a single up the middle, scoring Francisco; however, Ruiz was thrown out at home plate by Giants center fielderAaron Rowand.Chase Utley singled to right andSantiago Casilla was brought in to facePlácido Polanco. Polanco doubled in both runners, giving the Phillies a 3–2 lead.Ryan Howard was thenintentionally walked andJayson Werth washit by a pitch. FacingJimmy Rollins, Casilla threw awild pitch, bringing home a fourth Phillies run. Casilla finally ended the inning by striking out Rollins.

The Giants got a run back on an Aubrey Huff single up the middle in the bottom of the fifth, which scoredAndrés Torres. In the sixth inning,Pat Burrell drew a leadoff walk and advanced to third on aCody Ross double.Pablo Sandoval came to the plate and appeared to double down the right field line, but the ball was called foul. Four pitches later, Sandoval lined a two-run double into the left-center field gap, scoring Burrell and Ross, and giving the Giants a 5–4 lead.

The Phillies tied it in the top of the eighth with back-to-back doubles by Howard and Werth. Giants relieverSergio Romo recovered and retired the next three Phillies batters to strand Werth at second. Going to the ninth inning, the game was tied 5–5. In the top of the ninth, Giants closer Brian Wilson threw a 1-2-3 inning.

In the bottom of the ninth, Game 2 winner Roy Oswalt was brought in as a reliever. Sanchez lined out to right field to start the inning, but Huff singled past a diving Howard immediately afterwards. Posey followed with a base hit to right—his fourth hit of the game—moving Huff to third with only one out.Juan Uribe,pinch hitting in the pitcher's spot, followed with asacrifice fly to left field, allowing Huff totag up and score the winning run. The victory gave the Giants a commanding 3–1 series lead.

Game 5 saw a rematch of Game 1's starting pitchers:Roy Halladay of the Phillies andTim Lincecum of the Giants. In the bottom of the first inning Halladaywalked leadoff hitterAndrés Torres.Freddy Sanchez followed up with a single, advancing Torres to third.Aubrey Huff lined out to first basemanRyan Howard, followed by aBuster Posey RBI groundout to second.

The Phillies struck in the top of the third inning.Raúl Ibañez singled, andCarlos Ruiz washit by a pitch. Halladay thenbunted the ball, which dropped in the home plate area, and the ball was ruled afair ball by home plateumpireJeff Nelson. Giants catcher Posey quickly picked up the ball and threw to third basemanPablo Sandoval in an attempt to throw out Ibáñez; however, Sandoval, who was playing shallowly in anticipation of the bunt, misjudged the position of third base while retreating to the bag, allowing Ibáñez to reach safely. Meanwhile, Halladay, thinking the ball wasfoul, did not begin his run to first base until after Ibáñez was ruled safe, and Sandoval had enough time to throw the ball to first base to retire Halladay. Television replays showed the ball was in foul territory when Posey picked it up, which means it should have been ruled a foul ball.^[8]

Then, Giants first basemanAubrey Huff committed anerror on a grounder byShane Victorino, scoring two runners.Plácido Polanco added to the lead with an RBI single.

In the bottom of the fourth with one outPat Burrell hit a double to left and scored on aCody Ross RBI double.

Phillies relieversJosé Contreras andJ. C. Romero combined to shut the Giants down in the seventh inning. Then Phillies middle relieverRyan Madson pitched a perfect eighth inning, striking out Posey, Burrell, and Ross.

In the top of the ninthJayson Werth hit a solo homer offRamón Ramírez to extend the lead to two.

Phillies closerBrad Lidge pitched a perfect ninth inning to collect his 12th postseason save out of 12 opportunities with Philadelphia (and the 18th of his career). To send the series back to Philadelphia.

San Francisco starterJonathan Sánchez had a poor outing. In the first inning, he walkedPlácido Polanco and threw awild pitch toChase Utley that advanced Polanco to second base. Polanco then scored on an Utley RBI double, and Utley himself scored later in the inning on asacrifice fly byJayson Werth.

San Francisco rallied against Phillies starterRoy Oswalt in the third inning. Sánchez singled off his opposite number and advanced to second base on a long fly ball fromAndrés Torres that was dropped up against the center field wall byShane Victorino.Freddy Sanchez bunted the runners over to second and third andAubrey Huff hit a single up the middle, which only scored Sánchez as Torres was thrown out at home by Victorino. Huff took second base on the throw home and eventually scored on a throwing error by Polanco to tie the game at 2–2.

Sánchez was still very wild with his command as he walked Polanco andhit Utley to start off the bottom of the third. Utley flipped the ball back towards the mound which led to Sánchez and Utley exchanging hostile words. The confrontation led to bothbenches clearing. No one was ejected as a result of the incident, but Sánchez was removed from the game and replaced withJeremy Affeldt. Affeldt was effective for the Giants, retiring the next three Phillies to end the scoring threat in the third, then throwing a 1-2-3 fourth inning.

In the fifth, Affeldt was relieved byMadison Bumgarner.Jimmy Rollins singled and advanced to third on a two-out double fromRyan Howard. After walking Werth intentionally, Bumgarner got out of the jam by getting Victorino to ground out with the bases loaded.

Oswalt got into a jam himself in the top of the sixth, whenCody Ross doubled andJuan Uribe was hit by a pitch. Oswalt got out of the jam by getting Édgar Rentería to ground into Utley who executed the double play. Bumgarner faced yet another jam in the bottom of the sixth, asRaúl Ibañez doubled to lead off the inning and was bunted over to third byCarlos Ruiz. Bumgarner then struck out pinch hitterBen Francisco and induced a fly ball out from Rollins to end the threat once again.

The Giants finally broke through in the top of the eighth, when Uribe hit an opposite fieldhome run off Philadelphia relieverRyan Madson.Tim Lincecum, who was the Giants' starting pitcher in Games 1 and 5, then entered the game in a relief role to pitch the eighth inning. Lincecum struck out Werth, but gave up back-to-back singles to Victorino and Ibáñez. Giants managerBruce Bochy promptly brought in closerBrian Wilson for a five-out save. Phillies catcher Ruiz hit a line drive right at Giants first baseman Huff, who caught the ball and easily doubled off Victorino at second to get out of the inning.

At the top of the ninth, Phillies closerBrad Lidge allowed two hits and an intentional walk of Buster Posey to load the bases but escaped the jam without allowing any scoring after getting the pitcher Wilson to groundout to Howard at first. Wilson got pinch hitterRoss Gload to ground out to start the bottom of the ninth, but then walked Rollins to put the tying run on base. Polanco grounded into afielder's choice to Uribe, who threw to second to force out Rollins. Utley then drew a walk, which put the winning run on first base. With afull count and the runners moving on the pitch, Wilson struck out Howard looking to end the game and send the Giants to their first World Series in eight years.

2010 NLCS(4–2):San Francisco Giants overPhiladelphia Phillies

Fox televised the NLCS in the United States, withJoe Buck providing play-by-play andTim McCarver as commentator. Every pitch of 2010 NLCS was also broadcast onESPN Radio withDan Shulman (play-by-play) andDave Campbell (color commentator). The series did not air in Cablevision homes afterNews Corporation, Fox's parent company, pulled stationWTXF on October 16 as the result of a carriage dispute withCablevision.^[9]

• Probable Pitchers | phillies.com: News
• 2010 Postseason | MLB.com: Schedule
• 2010 NLCS at Baseball-Reference
• 2010 NLCS at ESPN

• 2010 Major League Baseball season
• National League Championship Series
• Philadelphia Phillies postseason
• San Francisco Giants postseason
• 2010 in sports in California
• 2010 in sports in Pennsylvania
• 2010 in Philadelphia
• 2010 in San Francisco
• October 2010 sports events in the United States

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