Roy Halladay - Photo credit: Steve Trapani

When the Phillies play on the West Coast, all of us in the East struggle to stay awake to watch them.  For me, I managed to watch the first few innings and who knew that was all I needed to do.

The Phillies offense that has taken some heat, took full advantage of a struggling Tim Lincecum.  Kind of strange to type that Lincecum is having a rough time, but he is.  The righty nicknamed ‘The Freak” has somehow lost velocity on his fast ball and uncharacteristically gave up four runs in the first inning.  His ERA is at 10.54 and for the former Cy Young winner and Giants ace, that’s a disheartening sign.  I don’t root for Lincecum, obviously, but my son is a fan of his style of pitching, so unless he’s playing against the Phillies, I hate to see him do bad.

That being said, the Phillies came out strong by scoring four runs and actually hitting in the first inning.  Placido Polanco doubled and eventually scored.  For a guy whose been struggling himself, that was a sight for sore eyes.  Laynce Nix, who according to the Phillies announcers, is one of Charlie Manuel‘s fave guys, had a 2-RBI double.  The Phillies also relied on bad fielding judgements by the Giants.

Roy Halladay, having a four run lead to work with, gave up two hits, two walks, and a run in the bottom of the first.  But unlike Lincecum, you never got the feeling Doc couldn’t settle in.  And that he did.  Because after eight innings of work, Halladay allowed seven hits, two runs, three walks, and struckout six.  Doc also contributed to the offense by hitting an RBI-single in the fourth.

Jonathan Papelbon closed out the ninth by only allowing one hit and the final score was 5-2.

Complete Box Score Phillies/Giants – April 17, 2012 Game

The Phillies are FINALLY at .500!

Second game of the series is tonight at 10:15 pm EDT and can be seen on The Comcast Network (Philly) and MLBN.

Photo courtesy of Steve Trapani – Flickr Follow him on twitter: @Trap_33

Heather Carnassale is Contributing Phillies Writer for Aerys Sports. You can email her at viewfromsection116@gmail.com, or follow her on twitter @heatherc531 and @viewfromsec116.