Entering Sunday’s series finale against the Giants, the Phillies’ offense hadn’t scored a run since the seventh inning of Thursday’s game against the Dodgers, when Jorge Alfaro doubled in a run. The Giants blanked the Phillies 4-0 on Friday and 2-0 on Saturday.
Giants rookie Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall of Famer Ivan Rodriguez, made his first major league start on Sunday against the Phillies. He held them scoreless over the first two innings, but Jake Arrieta -- who entered Sunday with a 2.09 ERA, by the way -- homered to left field, leading off the third inning.
Come for the @JArrieta34 homer, stay for the @GmurphNBCS reaction. pic.twitter.com/vwgvDhW9Ua
— Philadelphia Phillies (@Phillies) June 3, 2018
That is Arrieta’s sixth career home run and his first of the season. He’s homered in each of the last four seasons. Arrieta also has a postseason home run to his name, which was also hit at AT&T Park. He hit a three-run home run off of Madison Bumgarner in Game 3 of the 2016 NLDS.
Phillies starter Zach Eflin has also homered this year. Technically, bench player Pedro Florimon homered as a pitcher as well. On May 18 against the Cardinals, with the Phillies trailing 12-3, Florimon pitched a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth, then hit a solo home run off of Mike Mayers in the top of the ninth. If we count that, the Phillies lead the majors in home runs by pitchers with three. The Cardinals are the only other team with multiple homers from pitchers, as Carlos Martinez and Miles Mikolas have both gone yard.