The Phillies hit 1,667 feet of home runs, spraying the ball all over on an 85-degree night in Citizens Bank Park.
San Francisco looked poised to continue breaking out of its offensive slump with a pair of quick home runs, but stalled out against starter Aaron Nola.
The Giants fell just short of extending their streak of reaching double digit hits to three games and put together a poor defensive performance.
Kyle Schwarber, Bryce Harper, Alec Bohm and Edmundo Sosa each homered, powering the Phillies to a 10-5 victory. With the loss to their fellow wild card contender, the Giants (65-60) have dropped nine of their last 12 games.
SF needed a bizarre ninth inning in which Phillies reliever Dylan Covey couldn’t find the zone to build on their two early runs. For over two months, they’ve treaded water in the National League playoff picture despite having one of the worst offenses in MLB.
Only these struggling Giants could find a way to hit two home runs and add four other hits, but only tally two runs.
In the first inning, they left the bases juiced when Johan Camargo tapped into a double play. In San Francisco’s previous nine games entering Monday, the Giants were 9-for-64 (.141) with runners in scoring position.
Solo shots from Joc Pederson — with an exit velocity of 110.6 mph — and LaMonte Wade Jr., plated the Giants’ pair of runs. But Alec Bohm and Edmundo Sosa tagged Sean Manaea for dingers, too, putting Philadelphia up 4-2 after three innings.
Manaea’s fastball velocity was down slightly compared to his season average. The lefty had been on a roll before Monday’s meltdown, allowing one run in his previous 15 innings (0.60 ERA).
Since getting moved to the bullpen full-time, Manaea has been very effective. He carried a 2.07 FIP since May 17 heading into the Phillies series. He hadn’t allowed a homer in the 20 games since that outing.
Manaea, who was supposed to give the Giants length, exited after allowing three earned runs in 2.2 innings. Sean Hjelle, his replacement, fared only slightly better.
The 6-foot-11 righty had a messy fifth inning, highlighted by Bryce Harper’s inside-the-park home run. Harper socked an inside fastball deep off the left-center wall, where rookie Wade Meckler misplayed it.
While trying to pick the ball up, Meckler dropped it twice as Harper was rounding third. It was the second inside-the-parker SF has allowed in the past week.
Meckler had a rough time in Citizen Bank Park’s big center field. Earlier in the game, he overran a lined shot off Trea Turner’s bat. Right before fumbling Harper’s homer, he struck out for the 12th time in his first 21 plate appearances.
Meckler went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, but he wasn’t SF’s only problem. The Giants went hitless in the fourth, fifth and sixth inning, and didn’t advance a runner into scoring position until the game was out of reach in the ninth inning.
On the dirt, Camargo and Wilmer Flores each joined Meckler in the error club. In left field, Blake Sabol missed a catchable line drive in the seventh, allowing the Phillies to extend their lead to 8-2.
Sabol’s costly mistake set up the most impressive homer of the night — a second-decker from Kyle Schwarber.
Schwarber’s game-breaking homer, PHI’s 16th hit of the night, had an exit velocity of 111.8 mph and landed in the second deck.
By picking up the last 4.2 innings, Hjelle saved the rest of SF’s bullpen, though he allowed six earned runs on 10 hits.
In total, the Phillies and Giants combined for six home runs, two triples and 25 hits.
If the series opener was any indication, Kyle Harrison could be in for a tough time for his MLB debut Tuesday.
