Joc Pederson drove in five runs with a single, a home run and a bases-loaded walk, leading an 11-run onslaught in the first three innings that propelled the host San Francisco Giants to a 13-1 shellacking of the Philadelphia Phillies on Friday night.
Wilmer Flores scored three times and Alex Cobb (5-6) threw seven innings of shutout ball, helping the Giants emphatically snap a seven-game losing streak by matching their second-biggest margin of victory this season.
A fourth loss in their past five games, coupled with a San Diego road win over the Los Angeles Dodgers, dropped the Phillies out of the second National League wild-card spot, a half-game behind the Padres.
The Giants jumped all over erratic Phillies starter Kyle Gibson (9-6) for four runs in the first and three in the second before he was pulled after 1 2/3 innings. He allowed five hits and four walks while striking out two.
Pederson kicked off his big game with an RBI single four batters into the last of the first. A Brandon Crawford RBI single, an Evan Longoria RBI double and run-scoring wild pitch made it 4-0 by inning’s end.
Pederson, a first-year Giant, did all the damage himself in the second, bombing a three-run homer, his 21st, to make it 7-0. One batter later, Gibson was pulled.
San Francisco blew the game wide open with another four runs in the third, with the runs scoring on an Andrew Knapp sacrifice fly and bases-loaded walks drawn by Flores, Pederson and Longoria.
Pederson left for a pinch hitter in the fifth, having scored twice and equaled the second-most RBIs of his career. He had eight on a three-homer night against the New York Mets in May.
Thairo Estrada added an RBI single in the fifth and Knapp a run-scoring infield out after a Luis Gonzalez triple in the eighth.
To add insult to injury, the Giants brought Gonzalez, an outfielder, in to pitch the ninth inning of a 13-0 game. A double by Nick Maton and an RBI single by Alec Bohm prevented the Phillies from being shut out for the 13th time this season.
Cobb allowed just three hits in his seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven.
LaMonte Wade Jr. and Mike Yastrzemski joined Pederson with two hits for the Giants, while Longoria and Knapp had two RBIs apiece.
Bohm finished with two of the Phillies’ five hits in the opener of a three-game series.
–Field Level Media
