Rodriguez powers Giants to series sweep with first career win over Phillies
SAN FRANCISCO – Against a Phillies team that swept the Giants in May, facing a nine-year major league veteran with a Cy Young Award under his belt, rookie Dereck Rodriguez could have looked out of place.
He might have been overwhelmed or uncertain. Unprepared or undisciplined.
Instead, Rodriguez owned the moment. The Giants owned the game and in the end, they owned the series.
With a 6-1 takedown of Philadelphia, San Francisco secured its second series sweep of the season behind a pitcher making his first career major league start.
“It’s awesome, it’s a great feeling,” Rodriguez said. “We battled out there and in that sixth inning, the guys really pulled together and put up a five spot.”
Rodriguez exited after six innings trailing 1-0, but a five-run outburst by his offense in the bottom of the sixth helped him become the first Giants pitcher to win in his debut as a starter since Joe Martinez beat the Astros on Aug. 5, 2009.
“He’s got a nice feel out there for pitching,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “He’s not afraid to throw secondary pitches at any time. Commands the ball well. He does the little things.”
Welcome to the big leagues, Dereck. The Giants might have you stay awhile.
With their fourth straight victory Sunday, the Giants matched their longest win streak of the season and pulled within a game
of .500 ahead of their series against the first-place D’backs beginning Monday.
Phillies starter Jake Arrieta navigated through five dominant, scoreless innings to start Sunday’s contest, facing the minimum and opening up a 1-0 edge on Rodriguez with a solo home run to lead off the third inning.
But after Arrieta struck out left fielder Mac Williamson to kick off the sixth, the Giants started a station-to-station operation and didn’t miss a stop.
After throwing an eyelevel fastball that sent center fielder Gorkys Hernandez diving to the ground, Arrieta was the one who went tumbling. Hernandez regrouped with a one-out single and reached second on an infield hit by pinch hitter Alen Hanson.
RBI base hits from Joe Panik and Buster Posey pushed the Giants ahead 2-1, allowing Andrew Mccutchen to step to the plate with a chance to break the game open. With a high, arching flyball down the right field line, Mccutchen snapped a 159 at-bat homer-less streak, delivering a three-run shot to help the Giants take a commanding 5-1 lead.
With his club searching for its second sweep of the year, manager Bruce Bochy turned to Mark Melancon in the seventh inning. The Giants closer made his 2018 debut and enjoyed immediate success, fanning all three hitters he faced before turning the game over to Will Smith in the eighth and Reyes Moronta in the ninth.
“It’s been a long time,” Melancon said. “So it’s a really good feeling to be back and help these guys out and it was fun. A lot of fun.”
A’S 5, ROYALS 1
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – It was a victory for the A’s, but they took another loss in the starting rotation.
Daniel Gossett’s early departure with what was later revealed as right elbow tightness put a damper on a sunny day at Kauffman Stadium that saw the A’s put together a clutch eighth-inning rally in Sunday’s 5-1 victory to win the three-game series against the Royals.
Gossett was looking as good as he has all season and was only getting better as the start went along, turning in a eight-pitch fourth and seven-pitch fifth. But when it was time for bottom of the sixth to begin and Gossett at just 63 pitches, Lou Trivino emerged from the bullpen and took over on the mound.
Gossett allowed one run on two hits and two walks with one strikeout over five innings, with his only real mistake on the day a 1-0 slider to Jon Jay that was crushed to center field for a solo home run in the third as the Royals (21-38) tied the game.
After Jed Lowrie drove Dustin Fowler home with a single off Jakob Junis to put the A’s (31-29) back ahead in the eighth, Matt Olson delivered the critical blow two batters later by unloading on a 3-0 fastball from Burch Smith for a three-run home run. It was Olson’s 12th home run of the season, and fourth home run in as many games.
The back-end bullpen trio of Lou Trivino, Yusmeiro Petit, and Blake Treinen continued to thrive, combining four scoreless innings of one-hit ball.
Lou Trivino gave the A’s two innings following Gossett and got the win to improve to 3-0 with his ERA now at 0.82.
Fresh off earning American League Reliever of the Month for May, Treinen struck out two in a perfect ninth inning.
Already having lost starters Brett Anderson and Andrew Triggs to the disabled list, and Kendall Graveman having also been placed on the disabled list with a forearm strain at Triple-a Nashville on Saturday, a stint on the DL for Gossett would be disastrous for the A’s thin starting pitching depth.