Ratto: Ten Things to Know About NLCS Game 6

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Oct. 23, 2010RATTO ARCHIVEGIANTS PAGEGIANTS VIDEOPREVIEW: NLCS GAME 6Ray Ratto
CSNBayArea.com

PHILADELPHIA -- These are the following 10 things you need to know about Game 6 of the National League Championship Series. If you do not know them, you will weep. We want you to be happy . . . OK, moderately informed, anyway.

1. Roy Oswalt will be better than you want him to be. He is like Roy Halladay in that he does not cave easily or willingly, and a little extra throwing the other day will not make him cry.

2. The poor offensive statistics of the two teams are not unusual for this time of year. The only difference is that eventually one team stops hitting .220.

3. One team will go to the World Series as the first team in 20 years to have nobody with 30 homers or 90 RBIs on the roster. The other is the Phillies. Lesson: Get used to not much hitting.

4. If youre wondering why Bruce Bochy cant find a right-handed eighth-inning reliever, its because none of the candidates have presented themselves. Any Giant reliever not named Wilson or Lopez has an ERA of 8.10 this postseason, and the best of the crop is Guillermo Mota, who hasnt appeared yet.

5. The Giants offense does not work off the top of the order. If it did, it would die. Through nine games, the top two spots are hitting .178 with five runs scored.

6. Everything you will be told about Oswalts history v. the Giants, or Jonathan Sanchez history v. the Phillies is irrelevant. Everything.

7. Of the six umpires, only Tom Hallion, who works the plate tonight, has yet to offend. Well give it about three innings.

8. At no time in the last decade has the home team performed so poorly in home clinching situations. Texas was the first team to win a series on its home turf this year.

9. In case you have a feeling about tonight, stop it. Visiting teams in the last decade are 37-38 in clinching games, making this game, like all others I suppose, a coin flip.

10. In case you have a feeling about tomorrow night, forget it. The visiting team in a seven-game series is 5-17 going back to 1980.

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