I got 99 problems in San Francisco, but this was a new one: Giants 4, Phillies 3

What in the world…

The game on Monday night was a nightmare. The umpire was bad, the offense couldn’t hit anything and the pitching matchup tonight, the Phillies facing Robbie Ray, felt like one the team was going to be at a disadvantage in. However, they have had good starting pitching of their own and tonight, that combined with some solid relief pitching work, led to what we thought would be a good result for the Phillies.

Instead…

The onus to continue the good starting pitching fell this evening on Taijuan Walker. Yanked from his bullpen role and put back into the rotation, Walker was actually fine on the evening. He allowed a single run in the second inning when he walked the leadoff hitter, Mike Yastrzemski, then watched him go to third on a one out hit-and-run by Jung Hoo Lee. Dominic Smith singled to drive in Yastrzemski and the Giants had the early lead.

For the Phillies, the third inning represented a chance to get back into the game when Johan Rojas walked and Trea Turner singled with one out, then saw both steal the next base to put runners in scoring position with Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper due up. Neither could snap the team’s streak of hitless plate appearances with those runners ready to score and they continued to let Ray off the hook.

The score remained at 1-0 in favor of the Giants through five innings before the Phillies finally started to wake up at the plate. Schwarber was hit by a pitch to begin the sixth inning, then stole second base. The steal was likely in response to the offense not hitting well, Rob Thomson deciding to try and be a little more aggressive. However, that aggressiveness backfired when, on a 3-0 pitch to Alec Bohm with one out that was out of the zone, Schwarber was thrown out at third trying to steal and left the team with only Bohm on. However, Nick Castellanos singled to keep the inning alive for Otto Kemp, who ended the streak of no hits with runners in scoring position at 26 at bats, singling in Bohm and knotting the game at 1.

After Walker exited, Tanner Banks and Max Lazar kept the Giants off the scoreboard in the fifth and sixth innings, allowing the Phillies to take the lead in the seventh when, with pinch hitter Brandon Marsh on second and two outs, Schwarber decided to do a splashdown in McCovey Cove.

Once this score took hold, it was up to the bullpen to get the game to the finish line. Normally, that would involve a whole of Tums and a bushel full of hope, but the unit was surprisingly good. After Banks and Lazar, Matt Strahm took care of the seventh, Daniel Robert and Jordan Romano handled the eighth (even if it got a bit hairy) to put the game into the final frame at the same 3-1 score.

In that ninth inning, Romano got the dreaded up/down appearance, coming back out after finishing the eighth and immediately surrendering a leadoff double to Casey Schmitt. Lee popped up for the first out of the inning before Wilmer Flores singled and put runners on the corners for Patrick Bailey.

Bailey has been bad at the plate this season. He was the last person you’d expect to do anything to bring the Giants back, but this being Oracle Park, something weird was bound to happen.

There is one place to hit a ball so that it could do that and it’s in that part of Oracle Park.

A walk off inside-the-park home run. I’ve never seen that with mine own two eyes.

Well, I guess there’s always tomorrow…