SF Giants win second-straight against Phillies in wild back-and-forth game
The SF Giants finally have a winning streak going. After ending their seven-game losing skid on Friday, the Giants doubled down with a 5-4 victory in a back-and-forth contest on Saturday. Scott Alexander got his first win of the season while Brad Hand ended up receiving the loss.
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Jakob Junis worked around a pair of first-inning walks to hand the Giants an opportunity to take an early lead. LaMonte Wade Jr. led off with a double off the right-field wall and scored on a Thairo Estrada swinging bunt that Phillies starter Noah Syndergaard threw into RF.
As would be the story of the game, though, the Giants were unable to build a bigger margin and Philadelphia quickly answered. Bryson Stott led off the second with a bunt single against the shift and advanced to second on a throwing error by shortstop Brandon Crawford. The Phillies immediately capitalized on the mistake, with Jean Segura recording a double. Segura stole third and later scored on a bloop single by Matt Vierling to the Phillies ahead 2-1.
Knapp and Wade got a rally started in the third with back-to-back singles. Syndergaard briefly lost the zone, walking Mike Yastrzemski to load the bases with no outs. Joc Pederson knocked in the tying run and an error by Rhys Hoskins on a Crawford grounder allowed the Giants to take a 3-2 lead.
Stott immediately erased San Francisco's lead, homering to lead off the top of the fourth.
Things got dicey in the fifth, when Schwarber hit what should have been a flyout to left field but resulted in a double because Pederson and Yastrzemski lost it in the sun. The infield defense picked up the slack. A few batters later, Crawford nailed Schwarber at the plate on a fantastic play by catcher Andrew Knapp to corral the throw and apply the tag.
At that point, manager Gabe Kapler turned to the bullpen, bringing in Scott Alexander to face Bryce Harper with one out and runners on first and second. He induced an inning-ending double play.
In the bottom of the fifth, Yastrzemski blasted a ground-rule double to right-center with one out and Estrada followed that up with a bunt single to put runners on the corners. Phillies manager Rob Thompson pulled Syndergaard but decided to go with righty Connor Brogdon even though Pederson and Crawford were due up (a pair of left-handed hitters) and Philadelphia had a trio of southpaws in the pen.
The Giants took advantage of their platoon advantage, with Pederson recording an RBI single to put San Francisco ahead 4-3. However, Brogdon was able to keep the Giants from doing any additional damage.
Once again, the Phillies offense did not take long to answer. With Alexander back on the hill for the top of the sixth, Segura lined another RBI double that brought Stott home.
The Phillies turned to southpaw Brad Hand in the sixth, and the Giants countered with four consecutive right-handed pinch hitters. Recently acquired Lewis Brinson showed off his impressive pop to lead off the inning with a double that left his bat at 103.9 mph, J.D. Davis worked a walk, Wilmer Flores struck out, and Evan Longoria walked to load the bases. Pederson came to the plate after an Estrada groundout, and he worked a walk to put San Francisco back ahead.
John Brebbia entered in the seventh and surrendered a leadoff triple to Schwarber. This time, though, the Giants held the line. Brebbia struck out Hoskins and incuced a groundout by Alec Bohm with the infield in. Then, Jarlin García entered and struck out Harper.
The Giants missed a fantastic opportunity to add an insurance run in the seventh after Schwarber misplayed a flyball by Austin Wynns into a leadoff double. San Francisco hoped they would not regret missing another opportunity to add to their lead.
Things quickly got dicey for Alex Young in the eighth, with Stott and Segura each reaching base once again. However, Young induced a double play and well-rested closer Camilo Doval entered from the bullpen and struck out Matt Vierling on a 100 mph fastball.
Jose Alvarado shut out the Giants in the bottom of the eighth, which left the game in the hands of Doval against the top of Philadelphia's lineup. Doval won a battle against Schwarber to start the inning and Austin Slater made an excellent diving catch in left field to take a hit away from Hoskins. To finish off the game, Doval blew a 101 mph fastball by Bohm. He recorded his 19th save of the season.
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With Syndergaard starting for the Phillies, there was an interesting secondary storyline in today's game. The Phillies were heavily involved in trade talks with the Giants at the deadline for ace Carlos Rodón. They were likely unwilling to include any of their trio of top pitching prospects (Griff McGarry, Mick Abel, and Andrew Painter) in a deal. When the Giants refused to lower their asking price, Philadelphia shifted focus and acquired Syndergaard for a pair of outfielder prospects (Mickey Moniak and Jadiel Sanchez).
While Syndergaard built a reputation as a flamethrower with the Mets, he is no longer that pitcher anymore. Syndergaard induced just 5 swings-and-misses in his outing. Syndergaard finished his outing on Saturday having allowed 7 hits, 4 runs (3 earned), and a walk across 4.1 innings pitched with 3 strikeouts. He now has a 4.63 ERA with just 21 strikeouts in 35 innings pitched since he was acquired by the Phillies at the deadline. It's worth wondering if they wish they could have done things differently.
The Phillies farm system is surely stronger because of president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski's discipline, but Syndergaard has been far from the impactful addition that Rodón would have been. As the Phillies stare down an intense National League postseason, it would be a lot easier to be confident in their chances if they had Rodón atop their rotation.
Both teams will finish off their three-game series tomorrow at Oracle Park. The first pitch is scheduled for 1:05 PM Pacific.
