Phillies drop two of three in San Fran: recap and takeaways

Right on the heels of losing two of three games in Colorado, the Phillies dropped two of three in San Francisco this week. The Fightins still have the best record in baseball and a six-game lead over Atlanta in the National League East, but their armor may be showing a few cracks.

Series recap

On Monday, the Giants knocked Phillies starter Taijuan Walker around for six runs (five earned) on nine hits in six innings. The Phils fought back from an early 3-0 deficit and even took a 4-3 lead in the fourth inning. But in the end, 12 Giants hits and three Phillies errors proved to be too much to overcome. The Giants won, 8-4.

Tuesday’s game inflicted a different kind of pain, with the Phillies losing 1-0 in ten innings. Zack Wheeler dominated the Giants through six, allowing just two hits, walking two, and striking out nine. Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado, and Jeff Hoffman came on in relief and kept the Giants scoreless through the ninth. But the Phillies couldn’t plate a run either, against an assortment of Giants bullpen pitchers and four innings from ex-Phils legend Spencer Howard. The Phillies then failed to score their ghost runner in the top of the tenth, and the Giants brought theirs home to win the game without scoring a single earned run.

The game represented a third consecutive loss for the Phillies, the first time they’d lost three straight all season. It was just the second time this season that the Phils were shut out, and the loss assured that the team would lose its second straight series after 15 consecutive series wins/splits.

The losing streak stopped at three on Wednesday, however, when the Phillies’ bats woke up in a 6-1 win. The lineup banged out 14 hits, including three much-needed knocks for Nick Castellanos and two each for Kyle Schwarber, Bryson Stott, Garrett Stubbs, and Cristian Pache. Castellanos and Schwarber went deep. And, as they did in Tuesday’s loss, the Phillies got six innings of shutout ball from their starter: Cristopher Sanchez allowed four hits, walked one, and struck out seven.

Hot and cold

– J.T. Realmuto extended his hitting streak to 17 games before sitting out Wednesday’s game, a Phillies franchise record for a catcher. He’s hitting .351/.385/.527 (.912 OPS) during the streak.

– Schwarber, famously a great hitter in his career during the month of June, seems to have started the month a little early this season. He had two hits in each game of the Giants series and is batting .412/.512/.618 (1.130 OPS) with two home runs over his last nine games. Schwarber’s batting average for the season is .246, higher than his .228 career avg. and significantly above the .193 figure he posted in 2023.

– With the exception of Walker, who now has a 5.51 ERA and 1.59 WHIP, the Phillies’ starting rotation continues to dominate. After their strong outings in the Giants series, Zack Wheeler has a 2.93 ERA and 0.95 WHIP while Cristopher Sanchez boasts a 2.83 ERA and 1.39 WHIP.

– Alec Bohm went one for ten in the series and is hitting .161/.212/.258 (.470 OPS) in his 33 most recent plate appearances. He also committed a pair of errors in the first Giants game.

– Whit Merrifield continues to struggle. He went one for eight in the series, is hitting .111 with a .386 OPS in his last ten games, and is hitting .184 with a .552 OPS on the season.

Takeaways

– The Phillies were going to lose some games sooner or later. The “117-win pace” was fun to discuss, but a tough series here and there is inevitable. It was nice to see the team finish the road trip on a winning note, at least, before Thursday’s day off.

– Similarly, every offense will go through cold spells like the Phillies did this past week. It’s a sobering thought, however, because it’s a reminder of the lineup’s ineffectiveness late in the 2022 World Series and the 2023 NLCS.

– While the Phillies struggled through their six-game road trip out west, Atlanta ran into some trouble of its own. The Braves dropped two of three in a road series with Pittsburgh, then lost two of three at home to the Nationals. Down superstars Spencer Strider and Ronald Acuna, Jr., the Braves may not be the juggernaut that the Phillies expected to battle all season.

Next up

The Phillies come back east for a six-game homestand beginning Friday.

First up is a three-game set with the Cardinals. Aaron Nola (6-2, 3.04 ERA) gets the ball in game one against RHP Miles Mikolas (3-5, 4.64 ERA). On Saturday, Ranger Suarez (9-1, 1.75 ERA) faces RHP Sonny Gray (7-2, 2.60 ERA). And in the series finale, Walker (3-1, 5.51 ERA) squares off against RHP Lance Lynn (2-3, 3.45 ERA).

Rhys Hoskins’ Milwaukee Brewers come to town after the Cardinals. After that, the Phillies will make their way across the pond for their London Series games against the Mets.

If you can’t make it to London, register here for PHLY watch parties for each of the two games at Gaul & Co. locations. They’re free!