GAME RECAP: Giants Beat Phillies 7-5
Madison
Bumgarner did it all Saturday, supplementing his eight-inning performance
with a pair of key singles as the San Francisco Giants fended off the
Philadelphia Phillies, 7-5 at Citizens Bank Park. Bumgarner (7-2) maintained
remarkable precision, throwing 78 strikes and 20 balls as he struck out 11
batters. He didn't throw his 10th ball until he faced Darin Ruf in the sixth
inning en route to striking him out. Bumgarner's lone lapses occurred in the
fourth inning, when Philadelphia's Jeff Francoeur hit his
second career grand slam to wipe out most of San Francisco's 6-0 lead, and in
the eighth, when Andres
Blanco delivered a pinch-hit homer. Bumgarner was unfazed by the homers.
""We were still winning the game," he
said. "If not, it might be tougher." Bumgarner's offensive
contributions almost offset the runs he allowed. His third-inning hit set up a
run-scoring single by
Nori
Aoki, who went 3-for-3. Bumgarner added an RBI single in the seventh to
conclude the scoring for the Giants, who won for the 10th time in their last 12
road games and improved to 9-2 in their last 11 games against Philadelphia. "You
put the ball in play, good things are going to happen," Bumgarner said.
OTHER
NOTES FROM THE DAY:
- A brief shower delayed the game's
start for 29 minutes. The rest of the game proceeded without interruption.
- With the bases loaded in the bottom
of the fourth inning, Francoeur trimmed the Giants' lead from 6-0 to 6-4
with a one-out grand slam over the left-field wall. That grand slam came
in the middle of what proved to be a dominant return to the big leagues
for relief pitcher Dustin McGowan. Just two days after being recalled from
Triple-A Lehigh Valley, McGowan had 3 1/3 innings of shutout relief,
allowing just two hits and striking out three. "He has that kind of
an arm and he bounces back real well," Phillies manager Ryne Sandberg
said. "So he was the guy to go in there and give us some length. I
thought he had real good life on his ball and he even said he felt like he
got better the longer he was out there. He's got that type of an arm so
he's good to have in the bullpen."
- Phillies starting pitcher Severino Gonzalez
entered his start Saturday having allowed 18 of the 31 lefties he'd faced
to reach base this year. Right from the start, Gonzalez continued that
trend as the first three batters he faced all swung left-handed and all
reached base. Two of them eventually came around to score. In all, seven
of the 11 lefties he faced reached base via hit, walk or hit-by-pitch and
a 12th plate appearance resulted in an RBI sacrifice fly.
- After yet another 0-for-4 day,
Phillies shortstop Freddy
Galvis is on a 0-for-29 streak. Galvis' batting average has dropped
from .355 to .265 in 16 games since May 15. Over that span, Galvis has
seven hits, two walks -- none of which have come in the last 15 games --
and 16 strikeouts and has grounded into four double plays. "Freddy's
just a little jumpy at home plate," Sandberg said. "He's getting
out on his front foot and he's a little off-balance. He's been working at
that for a few days now just trying to stay back on the ball and stay
short with his swing but he's getting out on his front foot. Not only is
he making contact too far out in front of home plate when he does he's off
of the breaking pitches and going into the fastballs."
- The Giants' four-run rally in the
third inning could have been more fruitful, but Joe Panik's bid
for extra bases died in Ben Revere's glove
in deep center field with two on and two out.
NEXT
GAME:
Sean O'Sullivan
starts for the Phillies. The Phillies are 2-5 in games O'Sullivan has started
this year, largely due to the large volume of hits he allows. O'Sullivan has
allowed an average of 7.87 hits per nine innings this season, nine of which
being home runs. If there is one saving grace, at least O'Sullivan has a strong
track record career versus the Giants, against whom he has a 2.25 ERA in 12
innings. Ryan Vogelsong
never has trouble psyching himself up for a game. But if he needed extra
incentive for his start in Sunday's series finale against Philadelphia at 1:35
p.m. ET/10:35 a.m. PT, he could summon the memory of being released from the
Phils' Triple-A club in July, 2010. A year later, Vogelsong was named to the
National League All-Star team.
PHILS PHACTS:
McGowan Takes Over – There
was a time not too long ago when a starting pitcher for the Phillies getting
taken out early was an anomaly, but the rotation is hitting hard times of late.
Case in point: Starting pitcher Severino Gonzalez lasted
just 2 2/3 innings Saturday, allowing six runs on seven hits and a walk in the
Phillies' 7-5 loss to the Giants.
Gonzalez left the game in the third inning with the bases loaded and Dustin
McGowan inherited the not-so-enviable position of limiting the damage. And
though McGowan was just two days removed from being a Triple-A pitcher, he came
in and did what he needed to do. "When you go out there, you've just got
to pitch," McGowan said. "Try not to think about the things I need to
do. I want to focus on pitching." Though McGowan did allow two of the
three inherited runners to score via a
Nori Aoki single, the
right-handed veteran settled down and delivered 3 1/3 innings of shutout
relief. He surrendered just two hits and two walks and struck out three in a
long, 49-pitch outing. After McGowan was called up Friday, Phillies manager
Ryne Sandberg said he envisioned the reliever to be the kind of pitcher who can
throw two-to-three innings of relief. That being said, Sandberg wasn't
surprised to see that McGowan went longer than that. "He's our long
guy," Sandberg said. "Early on in the season he had a spot start and
went 75 pitches and he built up to about two or three innings at that point.
But he has that kind of an arm and he bounces back real well. So he was the guy
to go in there and give us some length." That sort of length is something
that the Phillies have been sorely in need of over the past few weeks. Dating
back to May 19, the day after the Phillies' season-high six-game winning
streak, all Phillies starters not named
Cole Hamels have on
average lasted less than 5 1/3 innings per start. If
Aaron Harang's starts
are removed from the group, that average drops below five innings. Though
Saturday was just the third time Gonzalez had started over this stretch, a
stretch over which the Phillies are 5-11, he is the worst offender when it
comes to short starts, now having thrown a 4 1/3-inning outing and a 2
2/3-inning outing. But despite the expectation some may have on Gonzalez not to
last long, McGowan didn't come into Saturday thinking it was going to be his
day to prove himself. "Honestly, you don't think about it like that,"
McGowan said. "You always hope they go as long as they can and then when that
phone rings and it's your turn you just go." McGowan's turn impressed
Sandberg, as the manager said he thought his pitcher looked stronger with every
pitch. And though McGowan conceded it may have appeared that way, he didn't
necessarily feel like it. "I hadn't been that long in a while,"
McGowan said. "It may have looked like I was getting stronger but I was
getting a little tired too."
Frenchy Continues To Make An Impact – Whether
offensive or defensive, good or bad, Jeff Francoeur makes
plays that has the fans hold their breath. In the Phillies' 7-5 loss to the Giants on
Saturday, Francoeur helped ignite the scoring for both the Phillies and Giants.
Offensively, Francoeur laced his second-career grand slam, off
Madison Bumgarner in
the fourth inning with his team trailing by six runs. Defensively, Francoeur
air mailed a throw from right field over catcher
Carlos Ruiz's head in
the first inning, allowing the runners on first and second to advance to second
and third. Though on the surface the plays couldn't seem more different, they
actually show a progression of Francoeur's thought process throughout the game
and mirror in many ways the product his team has been putting on the field. Starting
chronologically at the beginning, the first-inning throwing error was a product
of Francoeur relying purely on instincts. "That was brutal,"
Francoeur said. "I should've just gone to third or second. It didn't help
that I think it just got done raining and it was a little wet so I slipped. I
know better than that." However, the grand slam was a product of the
veteran recognizing Bumgarner's pitch patterns and capitalizing off of that. "[It
was a] heater in," Francoeur said. "It was the same pitch he got me
out on the first AB, so I tried to kind of get ready a little quicker and stay
a little taller. I've been kind of diving out over the plate. It was a good
pitch to go on and obviously it was at a good time for us." Therein lie
the similarities between Francoeur's Saturday and the Phillies' season. The
good is there. In nearly every game the Phillies do something to prove that
there is talent hiding somewhere behind the 15-games-below-.500 record. But
it's often disguised by the unfortuante mistakes that bury the team early in
games. These mistakes, be they poor outings by starting pitchers or
base-running errors or swinging at pitches out of the zone, have led the
Phillies to lose 11 of their last 16 games and have them in last place in the
NL East standings. Francoeur said he's noticed this happening and said that
depending on the opponent, these mistakes can intensify or be more-easily
overcome. "In this game, even if you play eight innings hard, if you have
one bad inning it can cost you the game," Francoeur said. "There's
games where I feel like we do that or games where we're ahead enough and we
have a pitcher pitching really well and we don't really have to worry about that.
But against a team like [the Giants] we can't afford to make mistakes like
this." But with the youth the Phillies have, Francoeur said one solace to
be had is that his teammates aren't going to dwell on these mistakes for long. "We're
not happy about it," he said. "But at the same time, I think there
are a lot of guys who will go home tonight and get themselves ready for
tomorrow. We have to come win a ballgame."
THE BEGINNING:
The
Phillies are starting the season as expected and are now near the bottom of the
NL east at 21-36. Given the departures, aging stars, injuries, and performance
this spring, don’t expect their competitive place in the standings to last. All
time, the Phillies are 48-48-0 on this day.
