16 of 19: Phillies 5 Giants 4
16 of 19: Phillies 5 Giants 4
Sunday Night Baseball had everything. Brandon Marsh invented a band, some dude dropped a Bryce Harper home run, and Alec Bohm extended his hitting streak.
Taijuan Walker put together a solid second start of the season after giving up six against the Padres but the first inning wasn’t kind. LaMonte Wade Jr. crushed a ball to the wall in right but Nick Castellanos made a nice play off one hop to hold him at first.
After Wilmer Flores got caught browsing, Michael Conforto crushed a hanging splitter to center field that Johan Rojas couldn’t handle. Wade scored from first because there were two outs and the Giants took the early lead.
Nick Ahmed slipped trying to throw a routine groundball to first base that sailed into the stands.
After a Brandon Marsh groundout and Nick Castellanos strikeout, Bryson Stott walked on five pitches to put runners on first and third. Edmundo Sosa got jammed on a sinker that broke his bat and gave Giants starter Logan Webb an optical illusion so the ball went under his glove and into no man’s land.
Webb couldn’t settle down in the fourth. Kyle Schwarber battled to draw a seven-pitch walk and JT Realmuto slapped a sinker into center field to give Harper a chance with a couple of runners on.
Harper got a changeup that stayed in the zone just long enough for him to pull it in the air with authority.
The Phillies made Webb throw 98 pitches through four innings to end his night. They forced him to get his stuff up in the strike zone so that they couldn’t hit the ball on the ground.
Walker took advantage of a bad and patient Giants offense with seven strikeouts, five of them looking. He threw some hangers that were hit for popups but got through six innings.
They rewarded him with the seventh inning and it didn’t work. After a Flores flyout, Mike Yastrzemski singled off Stott’s glove and Thairo Estrada got a fastball right down the middle but didn’t miss it.
Gregory Soto came in and immediately looked shaky. Austin Slater got hit with a slider and Ahmed walked on six pitches. The top of the Giants’ order came up but luckily for Soto, they were lefties.
Jung Ho Lee popped up on a slider and Wade grounded into a force out at third.
The eighth brought another challenge for the Phillies bullpen. Jeff Hoffman came in and got three strikeouts but had an issue in between. Conforto crushed a fastball to center field that Rojas was able to get to but couldn’t haul in (it was impressive he even got to the ball).
However, Hoffman was able to work out of it with a pair of strikeouts against Matt Chapman and Yastrzemski.
José Alvarado came in for the ninth sitting close to two miles per hour lower on his fastball and rookie Jakson Reetz made him pay with a homer to left to cut the lead down to one. Alvarado was able to get Ahmed to strike out and Lee to fly out to give the Phillies their 16th win in 19 games.
Zack Wheeler gets the ball tomorrow at 4:05 as the Phillies look for the four-game sweep of the Giants. He faces off against Mason Black, who’s making his major league debut.