NL East

Phillies' skipper Charlie Manuel has played things pretty much straight up over the past two postseasons and has two NL Pennants and a World Series ring to show for it. With his team finding itself down two games to one and the next two contests in AT&T Park, the time is right to veer from previous course. 

San Franciso Giants manager Bruce Bochy adjusted his lineup for Game 3 and it paid large dividends. 

The preseason favorites. The favorites after 162 games. The favorites after Game 6 in 2009.

These titles refer to the New York Yankees and the Philadelphia Phillies.

Yet they stand on the wrong side of the win-loss hyphen.

Both are losing to unproven teams with little postseason experience who were considered World Series long-shots before the season—the Texas Rangers and the San Francisco Giants.

Here's some advice to both teams on how they can turn things around.

In a press conference the other day, Philadelphia Phillies’ manager Charlie Manuel said his team really hasn’t hit since the first half of last season. Well, the man knows his team and knows what he is talking about.

Since the start of the second half last and including this year’s postseason, the Phillies have hit .245 as a team. Things only got worse for the Philly batters in Game 3 of the NLCS.

Good afternoon baseball fans, and welcome to Game 3 of the NLCS.

Baseball superfan Evan Adrian here, guiding you through this pivotal matchup between the Phillies and the Giants in San Francisco.

Philadelphia will send Cole Hamels to the mound, fresh off his complete-game shutout of the Cincinnati Reds. Matt Cain will toe the rubber for San Francisco.

The star-studded staffs of the Giants and the Phillies have been largely dominant in the series so far, despite Roy Halladay's ho-hum performance in Game 1; but Game 3 has the potential to become an offensive shootout even though a pair of elite pitchers are involved. 

Prior to suffering a season ending knee injury, the Washington Nationals’ Josh Willingham showed that he is the same player that he’s been over the past few years.  Just look at the numbers to see how consistent he’s been:

370 At Bats
.268 Batting Average (99 Hits)
16 Home Runs
54 RBI
56 Runs
8 Stolen Bases
.389 On Base Percentage
.459 Slugging Percentage
.304 Batting Average on Balls in Play

Due to timely hitting and a dominating pitching performance by Roy Oswalt, the Philadelphia Phillies defeated the San Francisco Giants 6-1 in Game 2 of the 2010 NLCS.  

Cole Hamels and the Philadelphia Phillies now need to focus on how to defeat the Giants in San Francisco in Game 3.   

Matt Cain will get the start for the home team, as he will try and lead the Giants to a 2-1 series lead. 

With the series tied 1-1, Game 3 may determine the winner of the series.  The losing team will face some daunting questions.  

With the departure of Mets' GM Omar Minaya, the Wilpons are on the hunt for a replacement. Whoever they choose will have a large and difficult task ahead of him. They must deal with a team coming off another disappointing year in which they finished under .500, fourth in the division, a disillusioned fanbase tired of high ticket prices and an overall lack of leadership and direction.

Yesterday, SI.com’s Jon Heyman tweeted that Mets have been ‘asking around about Daniels.' Even though Jon Daniels is still under contract with the Rangers, the native New Yorker and childhood Mets fan still tops the list of the Mets need for a new GM, along with GM veteran Sandy Alderson.

He is able to opt out of his contract with the Rangers because of the change in ownership of the team, but the question still remains: will he do this?