Phillies beat Giants; Astros drop A’s.
After the Giants’ bid for an eight-run comeback in the ninth inning fell short Saturday night, and they lost to the Phillies 12-9, center fielder Denard Span provided an insight into the mind of a player who does something extraordinary and something costly in the same game.
Span hit his first inside-the-park home run since Little League on Jerad Eickoff ’s first pitch of the night, then added a two-run single an inning later.
However, he also popped out with the bases loaded and one out in the fourth, then lost a routine sixth-inning flyball in the twilight. It fell in front of him for a Cameron Rupp double that started a seven-run rally that ended with Ty Kelly’s pinch grand slam against Cory Gearrin.
Span did not ponder much when asked if the popup he hit and the flyball he lost detracted from one of the greatest moments of his baseball life.
“No,” he said. “I’m not perfect. That flyball could have happened to anyone. The popup could happen to anyone. I try to stay on the positives. I’ll let you guys toot my horn, but I did my job today.” The pitching staff did not. Ty Blach allowed six runs, three coming on a homer by Rhys Hoskins on a 2-0 pitch down the middle. Blach might have completed six innings with four runs allowed had Span caught Rupp’s one-out flyball.
But Blach could not pick up his teammate, allowing Cameron Perkins’ RBI single on his final pitch to give the Phillies a 5-4 lead. When the Giants returned to the dugout they were down 11-4.
Josh Osich added considerable fuel to the seven-run rally by allowing a double, single and two walks ahead of Kelly’s slam.
“You give up a three-run homer and a grand slam, that’s tough to overcome,” manager Bruce Bochy said. “You hate to score nine runs and not win the ballgame.”
Span hit the 11th inside-the-park home run at AT&T Park, the second this month. Javier Baez had one for the Cubs. It also was the Giants’ first game-opening inside-theparker since Johnny Rucker’s in 1945 .
Span’s drive to right-center would have been a traditional homer anywhere else. The ball caromed off the wall at a sharp angle toward center, forcing the right fielder Perkins to chase it. Perkins had a shot to grab the ball, but it rolled under his glove. With his next step, he kicked it past center fielder Nick Williams.
That generated a scoring controversy. Was it really a home run? Official scorer Jim Young ruled that an inadvertant kick of a ball that would not have been fielded with “normal effort” because of the strange carom should not result in an error.
Span did not see any of that. He just ran around third, losing his helmet, and scored standing. He heard the crowd getting “super excited” and saw third-base coach Phil Nevin waving wildly. Span said he told himself, “Here we go. Put the jets on.”
Pablo Sandoval hit a two-run single and Ryder Jones an RBI triple in a five-run ninth. The Giants were down 12-4 to start the inning yet got the potential tying run to the plate. Philly needed closer Hector Neris to strike out Carlos Moncrief to end it. Henry Schulman is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @HankSchulman