There was some relief and a little pride in Cameron Rupp’s voice when he talked about Tuesday night’s game.
“Finally,” Rupp said with a smile, the offense bailed out the pitching staff.
Rupp’s eighth-inning, three-run home run capped off a season-high offensive outburst as the Phillies won, 13-8, and tagged the San Francisco Giants for 15 hits (see Instant Replay).
“They’ve bailed us out all year,” Rupp said of the pitching staff. “We finally get to bail them out. It’s nice when it works out that way.”
Rupp’s home run came after Aaron Altherr — who went 3 for 5 with five RBIs and three runs — broke an 8-8 tie with a one-out, two-run single off of Sergio Romo to put the Phillies ahead, 10-8.
The top three in the Phillies' order — Cesar Hernandez, Altherr and Maikel Franco — went 11 for 14 with nine RBIs and seven runs scored.
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Rupp’s home run made it 12 RBIs from the top four in the order.
“It was nice to see the bats come alive,” manager Pete Mackanin said.
And they needed all the life they could get after they staked starting pitcher Zach Eflin to a 6-0 lead off Madison Bumgarner.
Altherr launched a Bumgarner cutter the opposite way to open the scoring and give the Phillies and Eflin a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning.
The pitch, Altherr said afterward, was one he was looking for.
“I wouldn’t say I was trying to hit a home run,” Altherr said. “But I’d seen a lot of video and it’s just something you just prepare for. He likes his cutter and I was looking for that.”
Altherr came to the plate again in the second inning and delivered a two-out, RBI single that scored Tyler Goeddel and put Hernandez at second base. That set up a line-drive home run off the bat of Franco, his 20th of the season. It gave the Phillies a 6-0 lead that eventually evaporated.
Eflin, who was looking to rebound after a sloppy start in Miami last week, worked through trouble early but was torched in the fifth.
Two-out singles from Angel Pagan and Hunter Pence put two runners on for Buster Posey, who worked a full count before taking a fastball that looked like a borderline strike for ball four.
“I thought it was a good pitch,” Eflin said. “At the end of the day, it’s baseball … stuff happens like that.”
With the bases loaded, Brandon Crawford knocked a two-run single up the middle.
Eflin, who had thrown 97 pitches, was allowed to stay in the game and immediately gave up a game-tying, three-run home run to Brandon Belt.
“Unfortunately, I kind of blew that for us,” Eflin said of the 6-0 lead.
Mackanin said he wanted to be on the top step, ready to take Eflin out, but wanted him to work through the trouble.
Eflin allowed six hits, six runs and walked three. His ERA jumped to 4.77.
But he was saved in the end by the offense.
Tommy Joseph and Franco each provided RBI singles in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively, to get the score tied at 8-8.
It stayed that way until the eighth inning, when Altherr and Rupp lifted the Phillies to a wild win.
“After that six-run lead and we lost it, it's tough,” Mackanin said. “But the guys really battled back. Never quit. Really responded well."