Paul DeJong has heroic debut, leads SF Giants to 8-6 win over Phillies
The SF Giants avoided a sweep against the Philadelphia Phillies, winning 8-6 on Wednesday afternoon. This is their last time facing the Phillies this regular season. They head home 66-61, tied with Arizona for the final Wild Card spot.
SF Giants SP Alex Cobb throws a pitch against the Phillies on August 23, 2023.
Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports
The Giants got the first inning started with some offense, just like they have the first two games in this Phillies series, putting one run on the board with ease. Wilmer Flores hit his 18th homer of the year 420 feet to put the team up 1-0.
Despite taking the lead 1-0 on Monday and Tuesday night in Philadelphia, the Giants could not pull out wins. Determined not to fall to the same fate, the Giants got back to work on offense in the third inning. Wade Meckler started things off with a leadoff single, then the Giants' newest roster addition Paul DeJong fouled out and LaMonte Wade Jr. popped out for the second time. With two outs and Meckler still on, Thairo Estrada hit a single to short right to put two men on for Wilmer Flores.
Flores, whose OPS since June only sits behind Shohei Ohtani, Corey Seager, and Mookie Betts league-wide, delivered. Singling to right, he was able to score Meckler from second, thanks to some extremely speedy base-running from Meckler. The Giants went up 2-0.
In the fourth inning, they struck again. With two outs, Meckler walked, bringing up DeJong. DeJong, a long time Cardinal who's enjoyed great success against the Giants, was traded to the Toronto Blue Jays in August, and went 3-44 for the team, getting designated for assignment just 18 days later. Giants President of baseball operations Farhan Zaidi signed him four days after that. Many wondered what the front office was thinking, signing someone struggling at the plate while the Giants' offense isn't faring much better.
In his second at-bat for the Giants, DeJong answered that question. On the second pitch he saw, a four-seam fastball at 93 MPH, DeJong homered 401 feet to put the Giants ahead 4-0.
On the other side of the game, the Giants and Alex Cobb were perfect through 3.2 innings. Cobb didn't allow a single base runner, retiring 11 in a row, before facing All-Star Bryce Harper for the second time. With two outs, Harper broke up the bid with a single, but appeared to experience discomfort in his knee running to first. He remained in the game. Nick Castellanos struck out to end the fourth inning.
Cobb gave up two more hits in the bottom of the fifth, but got through it without allowing a run. The Giants remained up 4-0 heading into the bottom of the sixth, when trouble finally came. On two straight pitches, Cobb gave up a home run each to Kyle Schwarber and Trea Turner to put the Giants up only 4-2, their lead cut in half in less than five minutes.
Scott Alexander came in to relieve Cobb, facing three batters and getting two outs before getting pulled for Luke Jackson. Jackson allowed a single to Alec Bohm, and then retired J.T. Realmuto to get the Giants out of the sixth. Despite those two pitches that Cobb likely wanted back, he only gave up two runs off five hits, walking zero and striking out four.
In the top of the seventh, the Giants added insurance against the offense-heavy Phillies. Estrada hit a single, and then stole second to put himself in scoring position. Flores struck out swinging, not reaching base for the first time all game.
Then Luis Matos came in for Joc Pederson and struck out looking. With two men out and Estrada on, Austin Slater came in for Michael Conforto. Despite going 0-27 in his last 17 games with an at bat, he was finally rewarded with his patience when he hit an RBI double to score Estrada, putting the Giants up 5-2.
In the bottom of the seventh, Matos and Slater stayed in defensively and Alex Wood came in as relief, a role he has been settling in to. He faced three batters, walking two and striking out one, before being pulled for Tyler Rogers. Rogers got the final two outs to keep the Phillies from scoring, but not before hitting Harper with a pitch and loading the bases.
The Giants didn't score for the remainder of the game, despite threatening with several hard hit balls, including from slumping Slater and Wade Jr. The Phillies, facing Tristan Beck in the eighth, did not score. The Giants' ace closer Camilo Doval, who's got a high 33 saves but has struggled against the Phillies and in his last few appearances, struggled again in the bottom of the ninth.
Facing the top of the Phillies order, walked Schwarber and Turner, putting Harper up to bat with two men on and no outs. As he often does, Harper hit a home run to right field to tie the game 5-5 going in the bottom of the ninth. Jakob Junis came in to relieve Doval, and allowed a single to Castellanos. The Phillies, with a chance to walk it off, weren't able to score him, and Junis retired them in order, with immense help from incredible catches out of Meckler and Slater.
In the bottom of the tenth, Craig Kimbrel came out to face the Giants, giving up a walk to Bailey and hitting Meckler with a pitch to load the bases, as Casey Schmitt was the ghost runner to start the inning. In an incredible rejection of his new team's struggles with scoring runners with bases loaded, DeJong hit a line drive to center, driving home Bailey and Meckler. The Giants took a 7-5 lead. Wade Jr. struck out, and then Estrada hit into a double play sacrifice fly to center field, but not before Meckler scored from third ahead of DeJong's throwout at first. The Giants went up 8-5 and headed to the bottom of the tenth.
The Giants, low on pitching options, sent out Taylor Rogers in the tenth. He struck out Brandon Marsh for the first out, then allowed a double to Edmundo Sosa, which scored the Phillies' ghost runner in Realmuto, to inch the Phillies closer, 8-6. Rogers struck out perennial threat Schwarber before being swapped for Ryan Walker. With two outs and one man on in the bottom of the tenth, Walker got Turner to fly out.
Though the Giants lost their first two games of the series, they had a total of 17 hits in them, and had 31 through the series, showing that there is a silver lining coming out of this road trip: an offensive resurgence. The SF Giants will return home to San Francisco and prepare for their three-game series against Atlanta that begins on Friday. First pitch is scheduled for 7:15 PM Pacific.
