SAN FRANCISCO– A last minute, furious rally came too little, too late for the San Francisco Giants.
Carlos Moncrief led off the bottom of the ninth with a single and Pablo Sandoval singled in two runs shortly after with the bases loaded. Jarrett Parker scored one at bat later on a passed-ball-turned-throwing-error and Orlando Calixte singled in Sandoval on the next pitch. Ryder Jones followed up with an RBI-triple to bring the game to three, and Kelby Tomlinson walked to put the tying run at the plate. But Moncrief, in his second at-bat of the inning, struck out to end the game.
At the end of it all, the Phillies’ seven-run sixth inning rally was just too much to overcome.
A 44-77 Phillies lineup utilized an explosive sixth inning to jump over the Giants, with Ty Kelly’s pinch-hit grand slam into the right-field arcade serving as the cherry on top of one ferocious rally, as the Giants fell to Philadelphia 12-9 and inched to the brink of being officially eliminated from playoff contention.
Denard Span, whose defensive abilities continue to come into question, misplayed Cameron Rupp’s fly ball to center which led to a double — the first of many incidents to go wrong for the Giants in the sixth. Cameron Perkins’ RBI-single the next at-bat knocked starter Ty Blach out of the game, resulting in Giants’ manager Bochy turning to the ‘pen early.
Blach had struggled early, but was able to pitch around mistakes and limit the majority of the damage, besides a three-run home run courtesy of Sacramento-product Rhys Hoskins. Such was not the case for the Giants’ bullpen.
After Blach’s exit, reliever Josh Osich gave up four earned runs on two hits and two walks. Cory Gearrin entered, preparing to do as much damage control as possible. Instead, he did the opposite as Kelly’s slam whistled over a deflated AT&T Park for his second home run of the season and his first career grand slam. It was the first pinch-hit grand slam by a Phillies’ player since 2012.
Rupp tacked on one more insurance run, just for good measure, in the top of the ninth off Albert Suarez. It was the lone blemish for Suarez, who bailed out the bullpen by striking out seven over three innings and scattering just two hits and one run.
It was a rough blow for the Giants, who as of late had begun to string together some decent baseball. Before Saturday, they had won nine of their last 12 home games and had also won nine of their last ten home games against the Phillies. But the same, season-long troubles of untimely defense and bullpen woes sunk the Giants once again.
On Saturday, their ninth-inning rally showed a fight that’s been missing from the club for much of the season, one that did fall short, but is sure to be a seen as a welcoming sight.
Blach’s early departure ended his streak of eight consecutive outings in which he pitched at least six innings, but he still exited to some faint cheers from the crowd. He finished the night tagged for six runs on eight hits with two walks and two strikeouts over 5.1 innings.
The beginning of the game started much more positively for the Giants thanks to Span — on the first pitch to be exact. Span sent the first pitch he saw from Phillies’ starter Jerad Eickoff off the bricks in Triples’ Alley. It took a weird carom, and an even weirder skid, resulting in both outfielders misplaying it while Span raced around the bases for an (you guessed it) inside-the-park, leadoff home run.
He struck again one inning later and was responsible for the majority of a rare Giants’ two-out rally. After Ryder Jones was hit by a pitch, and back-to-back walks were issued to Kelby Tomlinson and Blach, Span roped a two-run single to bring the Giants up 3-1.
The Phillies however weren’t going down easy. After the Phillies tacked a run off of Blach in the second, Hoskins — who has played just ten games in the big leagues –blasted one over the Chevron cars in left field, giving Philadelphia a 4-3 lead. But Tomlinson provided the Giants with timely situational hitting once again, this time with an RBI single to drive in Pablo Sandoval to tie the game in the fourth.
But the excitement of the first few innings (and the last) wasn’t enough to combat the suddenly blistering bats of a last-place Philadelphia team.
Philadephia batted around the order and then some in the sixth inning, combining for two doubles, two singles, two walks and one grand slam. Their seven runs in the inning were the most they had scored total since July 31 and their 12 runs total represented the most runs Philadelphia had scored since June 5.
