The Old Goat Beats The Freak

As seen on Phillies Nation.

Pedro Martinez is a three-time Cy Young Award winner. In his young career, Tim Lincecum already has one and is a legitimate contender for the award this season. Both pitchers proved why they have trophies on their mantles, but the Old Goat out-dueled The Freak.

On the very first pitch of the game, Eugenio Velez sent a fly ball into the right-center field seats. The Giants don't need much run support when Tim Lincecum is on the mound, who previously shutout the Phillies.

In the second inning, Jayson Werth hit his 30th home run of the year, an upper deck moonshot to left. The pitching took care of the rest.

Pedro struck out seven betters through the first three innings. He finished with nine strikeouts in seven innings. He allowed only one run on five hits. He did not walk a batter.

Lincecum was just as impressive, striking out eleven in seven innings. He gave up four hits and walked one, but Ryan Howard came up with the biggest hit of the night.

Chase Utley was plunked, which was followed by Howard's double into the right-center field gap. Utley hustled around the bases, scoring the go-ahead run.

It hasn't been easy when the game is left to the back end of the bullpen. Ryan Madson pitched a quick eighth inning, and it was up to Brad Lidge.

Lidge was able to get two quick outs and jump ahead 0-2 against Randy Winn, but Winn squeaked a single past the glove of a diving Chase Utley. Juan Uribe walked, and all of a sudden the go-ahead run was on base. Fred Lewis chopped a ball to second, but Utley played it perfectly and tagged out Uribe. Lidge secured his 28th save of the year, and third in a row.

The game flew, lasting only two hours and eight minutes. If you prefer pitchers' duels over slug-fests, then this was the series for you. Thanks to a stellar performance from a future Hall of Famer, the Phillies took the rubber-match of the series, 2-1. The Phillies only scored three runs during the entire series, but it was enough to take two out of three games.