Phillies cold bats shut out by Spencer Howard and Giants bullpen originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia
SAN FRANCISCO – It never seems to matter how well or poorly a team plays, the Bay Area is rarely kind to the Phillies.
They lost 1-0 to the Giants on Tuesday night, dropping their second straight series after going undefeated in the previous 15. The Phillies have lost nine straight games at Oracle Park, 12 of their last 13, and are 26-53 all together. time at the Giants’ scenic home park.
Zack Wheeler (2.32 ERA, 0.95 WHIP) did his thing with six scoreless innings and nine strikeouts, but the bats remained quiet. The Phillies have scored 16 runs during their 1-4 road trip and six of those came in their ninth-inning comeback at Coors Field on Saturday. They scored just 10 runs in the remaining 47 innings of the trip.
Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado and Jeff Hoffman kept the Giants off the board in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings, but Matt Strahm gave up Luis Matos’ walk-off sacrifice fly in the bottom of the 10th. Four of the Phillies’ last six losses have come in overtime.
The Phils had a significant advantage on paper heading into Tuesday night with their ace on the mound in a bullpen game for the Giants. San Francisco has just two left-handed relievers – Erik Miller and Taylor Rogers – and they were the first two pitchers used to cover three innings.
The opportunity to score was ripe in the middle innings when the Giants brought in Spencer Howard, who like Miller is a former Phillies prospect. The Phils traded Howard to the Rangers at the 2021 deadline for Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy and traded Miller to the Giants in January 2023 for Yunior Marte.
Howard has struggled mightily in the majors since the trade with an 8.37 ERA and an OPS against .894 opponents, but the Phillies couldn’t take advantage of him on Tuesday.
Nick Castellanos and Edmundo Sosa singled in Howard’s first inning (the fourth), but were stranded when Brandon Marsh struck out swinging on a full count.
Johan Rojas singled against Howard in the fifth, but was eliminated on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.
JT Realmuto doubled off Howard to start the sixth, but was thrown out at third base when he tried to advance on a groundball to the left side from shortstop Brett Wisely. Realmuto might have thought the ball was going up the middle, but Wisely made an impressive play by fielding it and contorting his body for the throw to third.
Sosa singled off Howard to lead off the seventh and did not advance.
Howard pitched four scoreless innings. The only better night he has had as a Major League player was in July 2022 with the Rangers, when he pitched five scoreless against the Angels.
The Giants’ strength is the funkiness and depth of their bullpen. Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker have unusual, deceptive deliveries, Taylor Rogers is one of the stingiest lefty specialists in the game and Camilo Doval is a top-tier closer. That San Francisco bullpen has racked up 15 scoreless innings in the series.
Third baseman Alec Bohm, who is 3-for-22 with one RBI in his last six games, was left out of the starting lineup. It was planned and not a reaction to his two-foul game Monday, manager Rob Thomson said before the game. Bohm is back in the lineup for the series finale on Wednesday afternoon. He pinch-hit with one out and the go-ahead run 100 feet away in the top of the 10th, but grounded a ball to first base.
Either way, it will be a losing trip for the 38-18 Phillies, who will look to salvage their three-game set in San Francisco behind Cristopher Sanchez. They fly home after the game on Wednesday and have Thursday off before opening a six-game homestand against the Cardinals and Brewers.
