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Streaking Phillies target sweep of Giants

Aug 7, 2011 - 3:05 PM (Sports Network) - Armed with a season-high nine-game winning streak and trying for their first-ever four-game sweep in San Francisco, the Philadelphia Phillies have been shutting down their opponents thanks to great pitching.

They'll get back one of their big arms when Roy Oswalt comes off the disabled list just in time to start Sunday's series finale.

Oswalt returns from a six-week stint on the DL due to lower back inflammation. He was shelved after winning just one of his previous six decisions. The right-hander has lost his previous four road decisions, last winning away from Philadelphia on April 21 at San Diego. He's 6-8 with a 3.61 ERA in 17 lifetime games vs. the Giants.

With a victory today, the Phillies would complete their first four-game sweep in San Francisco and first against the Giants since May 13-16, 1982 at Veterans Stadium. The last away four-game sweep by the Phils vs. the Giants came August 6-8, 1943 at the Polo Grounds in New York.

The Phillies have taken it to the defending World Series champions this weekend, outscoring them 14-3 over the first three games. Cole Hamels got his turn Saturday by going the distance in a 2-1 final.

Hamels (13-6) provided the Phillies with yet another great mound effort, as the lefty came within one out of his first shutout of the season. That was prevented by Pablo Sandoval's home run. Orlando Cabrera grounded the next pitch to shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who fired to Ryan Howard to end the game.

Hunter Pence, who has at least one hit in all eight games since being acquired from Houston, had an RBI single.

Matt Cain (9-8) was the hard-luck loser, allowing three hits and fanning eight over eight innings, as San Francisco lost for the eighth time in nine games yet remained a half-game ahead of Arizona atop the NL West. The D'Backs have lost three in a row.

The Phils have outscored their opponents, 54-24, during this winning streak, which is their longest since last year's 11-game run from September 12-24.

On the other side, the Giants haven't helped themselves in this series, going 0-for-17 with runners in scoring position.

"You don't expect to score a lot when you face the Phillies staff, they're really good," Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. "As far as the hitting, you keep working because you have to. That's baseball."

The Giants will send Tim Lincecum to the mound in an effort to try to shut down the Phillies. He's 3-1 over his career in the regular season against the Phillies, including a triumph on July 28 in Philly. In that game, he threw six shutout innings.

Lincecum has lost in two of his last three starts due to no offensive support. On Tuesday, he tossed seven frames in San Francisco's 6-1 loss to the Diamondbacks. On July 20, the Giants fell 1-0 to the Dodgers. All told, Lincecum hasn't given up more than three earned runs in any of his last nine starts.

Yesterday's Hamels-Cain matchup was a rendition from Game 3 of last year's NLCS as well as July 27 this year with the Giants righty winning both of those encounters. But on this sunny day by the bay, Hamels was awesome by throwing 83 of his 114 pitches for strikes and not allowing a runner to advance past second base until Sandoval's blast to left field. At one point, Hamels threw 23 straight first-pitch strikes.

"I think that's something that we always stress is to get ahead of the hitter and to get the first-pitch strike," Hamels said. "When you're able to do that, you get a lot of quick outs. That's the key to pitch deep in the ball game and keep them off-balance. That's what I was able to do."

The pitching for the NL East leaders has been spectacular in this series. Cliff Lee tossed a shutout in the opener on Thursday, and Friday Vance Worley threw seven strong innings.

Cooler heads also prevailed yesterday, one day after Philadelphia's Shane Victorino was hit by a Ramon Ramirez pitch in the back, sparking a benches- clearing shoving match and resulting in three ejections.