After a quiet bottom of the seventh from the Phillies against Giants reliever Javier Lopez, the Giants struck back in the top of the eighth.

Still facing reliever Ryan Madson, Juan Uribe—starting at third base in place of Pablo Sandoval and who had been hit by a pitch in his last at-bat—took the tall righty deep to right and into the first row of seats, giving San Francisco a 3-2 lead and shocking the home crowd into silence.

Madson comes back to whiff Edgar Renteria to end the frame.

The Phillies could now be down to six outs on their season.

'Twas the top of the seventh inning in Philadelphia.

Reliever Ryan Madson has entered the game for the Phillies, replacing starter Roy Oswalt, who went a very solid six innings. The hard-throwing veteran allowed nine hits but allowed just two runs, one of them unearned, while striking out five and walking none.

The even-harder-throwing Madson strikes out Travis Ishikawa looking and Andres Torres swinging to begin the frame.

For all the discussion about how Cliff Lee could decide the American League Championship Series in a potential Game 7, it turned out the 

It almost seemed that it was over before it started. The Texas Rangers' homecoming to an Arlington stadium full of their rowdy fans and a Colby Lewis gem finally put an end to the Yankees' hopes of defending their World Series title.

Unlike Game 5 back in New York, the Yankees didn't have their ace C.C. Sabathia on the mound. Instead, they were relying on a young and relatively inexperience Phil Hughes who had already taken the Game 2 loss when he gave up seven earned runs in only four innings of work.

After watching San Francisco Giants' third baseman Pablo Sandoval backpedal in a futile attempt to get his foot on the third base bag in game 5 of the NLCS before eventually falling backward, one can't help but chuckle.

It's not that Sandoval is alone in his seemingly lack of athleticism. Baseball players certainly have an amazing ability to either hit or pitch a baseball, but when it comes to agility and general athleticism, there are a few of them who appear to come up short. Retired players like John Kruk, Cecil Fielder, and David Wells immediately come to mind.

Ryan Howard's biggest contributions to the Phillies so far this postseason has been his celebratory high-fives to his teammates after they get driven in by Placido Polanco . 

On the brink of elimination, Philadelphia need first basemen Ryan Howard to wake up from his eight-game slumber and re-energize a dormant Phillies' offense. 

The hit television show "Glee" has dominated Fox for the past year, but this October Cliff Lee, or "Clee," as one site likes to call him, looks to take over Fox. 

Even the great ones need a hand sometimes.

I moved back to Buffalo after being gone for 31 years. I guess I’m getting old, but I don’t remember so much interest in the Yankees back then. It’s probably just that my mind is going.

In any case, there are an awful lot of Yankee fans in Buffalo—or else it's just an act of support for locally owned New Era Caps that half the millinery products observed in the Queen City have that overlapping NY logo on them.

By Cooper L. Train