LATE OUTBURST LIFTS GIANTS
Throughout Gabe Kapler’s two-year tenure as Phillies manager, he faced constant criticism for the way he managed his pitching staff and received constant blowback for the club’s bullpen blowups.
As fans at Citizens Bank Park are learning this week, Kapler might not have been the problem.
With a six-run eighth inning that featured a pair of three-run home runs from Alex Dickerson and Wilmer Flores, the Giants’ second-year manager watched his lineup take advantage of the Phillies’ latest bullpen meltdown in a 10-7 victory that clinched a series win.
Led by a pair of home runs from catcher Buster Posey, the Giants hit five homers against the Phillies on Tuesday and enjoyed their best offensive performance of the season. For the second time this year, the Giants overcame an early four-run deficit as Posey and Tommy La Stella, who launched a tworun homer in the fifth inning, helped chase Phillies starter Zack Wheeler.
The Phillies led 4-0 in the third and 6-3 after the fifth, but the Giants showcased their resilience against setup man Connor Brogdon, who entered the eighth inning with a 12appearance scoreless streak that spanned 15 innings. A majestic 421-foot home run from Dickerson gave the Giants their first lead of the night before Flores blasted the Giants’ fourth pinch-hit home run of the season to give the club a four-run cushion.
Posey hit multiple home runs in the same game for the fourth time in his career and the first since he homered twice on May 28, 2016 at Coors Field against the Rockies. Posey’s first home run of Tuesday’s game came on the first pitch of the fifth inning, a hanging slider that the Giants catcher drilled 428 feet, marking one of the two longest homers he’s hit in last three seasons.
The Giants’ 2008 first-round draft choice then knocked Wheeler, the Giants’ 2009 firstround draft choice, out of Tuesday’s game by yanking a 97.6-mph sinker that was high and inside into the left field seats in the top of the sixth.
Nearly everything that transpired in the late innings worked in the Giants’ favor, except for an apparent injury to first baseman Brandon Belt, who did not play the field in the ninth inning. The club did not immediately announce why Belt exited the game, but
he was replaced by backup catcher Curt Casali.
Giants starter Logan Webb was sent to the bullpen last week, but rejoined the rotation when veteran Johnny Cueto was placed on the 10-day injured list with a Grade 1 lat strain on Thursday. His return to a starting role didn’t go as planned, as Webb’s command of his change-up evaded him for much of the night including on the three-run home run crushed into the right-field bleachers by Brad Miller.
Webb received the same help from the Giants’ lineup that Kevin Gausman did a week ago when he gave up a pair of first-inning home runs against the Reds.