The San Francisco Giants will continue an improbable quest to nearly catch the first-place Los Angeles Dodgers before the All-Star break when the Giants go for a three-game sweep of the visiting Philadelphia Phillies on Wednesday afternoon.
The Giants were two outs away from having to settle for a two-run loss to the Phillies before Patrick Bailey drilled a three-run, inside-the-park home run in the last of the ninth Tuesday night, handing San Francisco its ninth walk-off win of the season. The 4-3 victory was the Giants’ fourth consecutive win.
All four Giants wins have come on days when the Dodgers have lost, allowing San Francisco to cut a National League West deficit that stood at nine games to five with four games to play before the break.
The Giants and Dodgers will meet for three games in San Francisco starting Friday.
After a wild celebration honoring a rare occurrence — the first walk-off, inside-the-park home run for a catcher since Bennie Tate did it in August 1926 — Giants manager Bob Melvin said he hopes the momentum carries into Wednesday’s series finale. And further.
“Crazy,” he said. “You don’t see many in-the-park home runs. Kinda Ichiro-esque in the All-Star Game … probably a little different speed.
“Hopefully that’s something that catapults (Bailey). Those are the types of at-bats that hopefully can get somebody going, because we all know he can hit.”
Trying to salvage the final game of the series will be Phillies left-hander Jesus Luzardo (7-5, 4.44 ERA), who has been remarkably inconsistent over his past seven starts, during which his season ERA has more than doubled from 2.15 to 4.44.
Luzardo has allowed four or more runs in five or fewer innings in four of those starts, but also a total of just three runs in 17 2/3 innings in the other three.
The 27-year-old has made five career starts against the Giants, going 1-1 with a 6.75 ERA. He pitched in the Phillies’ 6-4 win in their earlier three-game home series against San Francisco on April 15, allowing three runs in 5 1/3 innings but didn’t get the win.
Aside from picking up another game on the Dodgers, who have lost five in a row, the Giants would like nothing better in the series finale than to get right-hander Justin Verlander (0-6, 4.84 ERA) his first win of the season.
Verlander has gone winless in his 14 starts this year, with the Giants losing 10 of those games, including the past four. He has gotten three or fewer runs of support in nine of his starts, including the past six.
The 42-year-old has a winning record in five lifetime starts against the Phillies, going 3-2 with a 3.34 ERA. He went head-to-head with Luzardo when the Giants visited Philadelphia in April, taking the loss when he allowed four runs, including a home run by J.T. Realmuto, in 5 2/3 innings.
Even in defeat on Tuesday, Phillies manager Rob Thomson had to be happy to see Otto Kemp (two-out double in the sixth) and Kyle Schwarber (two-out homer in the seventh) come through with RBI hits with runners in scoring position.
“I approach individually at times, sure, depending on who the player is and what they’re going through,” Thomson said in his pre-game press briefing Tuesday. “It’s just a matter of relaxing them, and as we always say: Get a good pitch to hit, work counts, use the field.”
–Field Level Media
