Feeble hitting puts Phillies in hole vs. Giants

SAN FRANCISCO - Maybe it was the ballpark. Maybe it was the pitcher on the mound. Maybe it was the sunlight. Whatever the reasons for the Phillies' offensive futility yesterday afternoon, the only thing that really matters is the ramifications.

After a 3-0 loss to Matt Cain and the Giants at AT & T Park in Game 3 of the National League Championship Series, the Phillies find themselves in perhaps their most precarious pre-World Series position of the past three seasons.

Down two-games-to-one in this best-of-seven series, they need to win three of the remaining four games, at least one of them coming in a stadium in which they have struggled to hit.

All of it sets the stage for a direly important Game 4 tonight, when righthander Joe Blanton will square off against rookie lefthander Madison Bumgarner in hopes of evening the series. In their past two NLCS series victories against the Dodgers, the Phillies took a stranglehold in Game 4, first riding eighth-inning home runs by Shane Victorino and Matt Stairs to a win in 2008, then getting a two-run, walkoff double by Jimmy Rollins in the bottom of the ninth in 2009. In both cases, the Dodgers were unable to regroup for Game 5, the Phillies outscoring them in the two clinchers, 15-5.

"I would say tomorrow is the biggest game we played so far," manager Charlie Manuel said after Cain outdueled Cole Hamels en route to the victory. "Today was the biggest game, but tomorrow becomes bigger. That's how I look at it."

How the Giants will react remains to be seen. Can an upstart squad that entered the series as a heavy underdog summon the same killer instinct that has characterized this Phillies team over the past few seasons?

And, conversely, can this Phillies team bounce back from a deficit it has rarely been forced to face?

Since 2008, the only other time they have lost two games in a playoff series was last year's World Series, when the Yankees led, 2-1 and 3-1, before ultimately eliminating them in six games.