What we learned as Giants beat Phillies in extras again

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PHILADELPHIA -- It wasn't pretty, and it certainly wasn't short. In fact, both teams should probably burn any video they have from Tuesday night's game at Citizens Bank Park. 

But all that mattered for the Giants was that they won. 

Donovan Walton hit a go-ahead double in the top of the 11th and Joc Pederson followed with a 428-foot blast off the facing of the second deck as the Giants beat the Phillies 7-4 in a game that lasted four hours, 52 minutes.

This one was close throughout, although the Giants certainly could have blown it open early.

They loaded the bases with one out in the first and put a leadoff runner on second in two of the next three innings. They repeatedly came up short, though, until Luis Gonzalez finally got them on the board in the fifth. 

Trailing 1-0, the Giants loaded the bases ahead of Gonzalez with one out. He was the only left-handed hitter to start against lefty Ranger Suarez, but it was righty Nick Nelson who threw a 97 mph fastball that Gonzalez ripped into the right field corner to drive in a pair. Mike Yastrzemski's pinch-hit fly to center made it 3-1.

John Brebbia gave the lead up in the sixth, though it could have been worse. The Phillies opened the inning with three straight hits and a walk, but Jake McGee entered and got a double play and strikeout in his first appearance in 21 days. 

Tyler Rogers had a brutal month, but he pitched two scoreless innings to get a tie to the ninth.  

For the second straight night, two teams with struggling bullpens went to extra innings. The Phillies made an absolute mess of the top of the 10th with an error, another play that should have been ruled an error and plenty of wildness from Jeurys Familia, who bent down three times to tie the same shoe. The Giants scored one run when Familia couldn't catch a throw to first, but they left the bases loaded.

It looked like the Giants had escaped in the bottom of the inning, but Alec Bohm's two-out grounder up the middle hit the bag and bounced into the outfield to tie the game yet again.

What A Steal

The Giants gave Jakob Junis a one-year, $1.75 million contract in mid-March, and so far it's looking like one of the best signings of the offseason. Junis didn't allow a hit through three innings and ended up giving up one run on three hits and two walks. He struck out three. 

Through seven appearances, the right-hander has a 2.68 ERA and 0.97 WHIP and is holding opposing hitters to a .213 average. This was the first time he didn't give the Giants at least five innings, but that certainly wasn't on him. Junis was at just 64 pitches when Gabe Kapler went to the bullpen in the fifth. 

Starring Jarlin

Junis was cruising, but when he gave up a single with one out in the fifth, Kapler turned to Jarlin Garcia. That tends to work out very, very well. 

Garcia walked the first batter he faced and went to a 3-2 count on Jean Segura, but he struck the doubles machine out with a nasty changeup and then got Bryce Harper to roll over to second base. With the scoreless appearance, Garcia has 17 consecutive to start the year without allowing an earned run, tying the franchise record to begin a season. Joe Nathan also went 17 straight to kick off the 2003 season. 

Garcia hasn't allowed an earned run in 22 straight games going back to last season. That's the second-longest streak in the NL behind Milwaukee Brewers closer Josh Hader. 

Welcome Back

With Darin Ruf on the bereavement list, Heliot Ramos returned to the big leagues and started in right field shortly after his flight from Las Vegas landed. He was 0-for-3 before being lifted for pinch-hitter Brandon Crawford, but he did come pretty close to what would have been his first big league homer. 

RELATED: Ramos returns to Giants as Ruf goes on bereavement list

With two outs in the fifth, Ramos hit a 400-foot fly to deep center, but Mickey Moniak tracked it down just in front of the wall. That was one of two balls Ramos hit at 105 mph or above; he also had a hard grounder to third that got through Alec Bohm for a two-base error.

The ball found Ramos right away in the field, with two flyouts to right in the first inning. In the fourth, he laid out for a Harper liner but came up inches short of snagging what ended up being a double.

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