Lost in another team’s story

Lost in another team’s story

It became clear during Sunday night’s game that the San Francisco Giants were the Philadelphia Phillies’ foil.

As the flat, sidekick-y minor character used to highlight the dynamic qualities of the other, Logan Webb and the lineup played their part perfectly.

The Phillies stole the show early, so much so ESPN’s national broadcast came off as local television: a Philly love fest, diving into the bromance between Brandon Marsh and Alec Bohm, marveling at the fleet-footed catcher J.T. Realmuto, the admirable adaptability of Bryce Harper in making the move to first base, and his dominance at the plate of Citizens Bank.

Praise well-deserved. The Phillies might be as complete of a team as the Dodgers right now. Alec Bohm’s 7th inning double extended his hitting streak to 18 games while maintaining a .360 average with a 1.006 OPS more than a month into the season, Brandon Marsh hits the ball harder than anybody in the league, J.T. Realmuto went 3-for-4 with two infield singles, and Bryce Harper reminded everyone who’s story this was with a 3-run no-doubter against Webb in the 3rd inning.

The 5-4 final score is misleading. It was never that close. Even the Giants early lead—a run in the 1st—was a bit of a red herring. Both LaMonte Wade Jr.’s and Michael Conforto’s hits were solid, but couldn’t quite clear the wall, and the loud contact didn’t last against starter Taijuan Walker.

The way Philly equalized in the 2nd was further proof that San Francisco was not the main attraction, but a sideshow.

Nick Ahmed tripped over his own foot and airmailed his throw to first, allowing the lead-off man to reach and take second on the error. With two outs and runners on second and third, Logan Webb sawed Edmund Sosa’s bat in half with a sinker, but couldn’t field the 49 MPH come backer due to the jagged piece of wood shrapnel flying inches away from his face.

Though he had three strikeouts and no real hits allowed, Webb had to throw 43 pitches to slog through those two innings. A deep outing to get him back on track after his previous start in Boston already looked improbable, and by the 3rd it would be impossible.

Kyle Schwarber, who had struck out on a change-up below the zone in the 1st, spat on three of them to work a 7-pitch leadoff walk. Realmuto jumped on a first-pitch sinker for a single, setting the scene for Harper’s dramatics.

The change-up wasn’t terrible, but it was in the zone, and Harper was looking for it. Philly as a team picked up on the plate-approach blueprint laid out by Boston last week: expect the ball down and don’t try to pull it. In other words, don’t roll it over on the ground, but shoot it.

It worked to a certain extent. Philly bats took 17 hacks at Webb’s go-to pitch and only whiffed on 3 of them. A similar rate to Boston’s 19 swings and 3 whiffs. While the Sox generally sprayed the change-up around the diamond (10 balls in play), Philadelphia only put the pitch in action twice, though they neutralized its effectiveness by taking it (the pitch was thrown in the zone only 18% of the time) or fouling it off (12 times).

A perfect example of their disciplined approach took place later in the 3rd. After taking two change-ups and fouling one off, Webb gave in with a four-seamer to Bryson Stott and the lefty slapped a double to the opposite field gap for a two-out RBI gut punch for Philly’s fifth run and fourth of the inning.

Extending at-bats by swatting away the off-speed, coupled with the extra pitches he had to throw thanks to snagged studs and airborne bat fragments meant Webb, typically the model of efficiency, threw 98 pitches to barely make it through the 4th.

Down 5-1 with Webb chased and the rest of the lineup still damp from Saturday’s 14-3 soaking, it felt appropriate at that point to curl up into a ball and call it.

Phillies starter Taijuan Walker, who had been roughed up by the Padres in his debut start of the season, spent the evening collecting backwards-K’s and pop-ups. 5 of his 7 strikeouts were looking. San Francisco hitters stared at 21 strikes from Walker, and swung at only 57% of the his pitches in the zone (Philly hacked at 66% of Webb’s). After an aggressive start in the 1st, San Francisco managed only 3 base runners (1 H, 1 BB, 1 HBP) from the 2nd through the 6th inning.

It wasn’t until Thairo Estrada’s 2-run homer with an out in the 7th that everyone realized the score wasn’t 50 bajillion to 1, that this was a baseball game between two baseball teams. Nothing was predetermined. Nothing scripted. Sean Hjelle had just taken the mound and struck out six Philly hitters over two innings of work (over 4 innings pitched in this series, he’s allowed 2 hits, 0 runs, 0 BB, and struck-out 10 batters). The Giants were only down by two runs. They could still alter the course of events.

Things got more interesting when reliever Gregory Soto immediately plunked pinch hitter Austin Slater and walked Nick Ahmed, putting the tying run on base with only one out in the inning. One swing could’ve put San Francisco back on top…but 3-run bombs are reserved for protagonists, not the supporting cast. Soto danced on the precipice before moonwalking back to safety, bagging both Lee and Wade to end the threat.

Another narrative shift was teased when Michael Conforto launched a triple to deep right center in the 8th. The drive not far enough to clear the fence, and nearly caught by center fielder Johan Rojas, but once again brought the tying run to the plate for the Giants, this time against Philly’s slider-slinger Jeff Hoffman. But with the stakes appropriately raised—runner on third, one out—it was still Philadelphia’s story to tell. Matt Chapman, very much in character, whiffed big time, swinging through three hittable pitches before Mike Yastzemski fanned on an unhittable slider in the dirt to shut down the frame.

Jakson Reetz, the back-up catcher to the back-up catcher’s back-up catcher, homered in the 9th to put San Francisco within one and rather annoyingly break their streak of four 3-run games in a row. A final flail before Jose Alvardo secured the third out and the Phillies’ 9th consecutive home win.

Somehow, in a game decided by one run in which the tying run came up in back-to-back-back innings as three relievers combined to throw 4 scoreless innings while recording 11 of their 12 outs by way of the K, the Giants never seemed to have a chance. A single run in the first will never be enough to set the tone or intimidate a line-up like Philly’s, nor is perpetually playing catch-up going to earn them the narrative control they’re desperate for.