Giants 5, Phillies 1: Bombs away, Phillies lose

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BOX SCORE

No team in the National League gives up more home runs than the Phillies.

They served up three of them in the same inning en route to a 5-1 loss to the San Francisco Giants at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday night.

Vince Velasquez allowed a two-run homer and Adam Morgan a solo homer and a two-run shot, all in the sixth inning. That was the extent of the Giants’ offense, but it was enough against the Phillies’ feeble offense.

The Giants entered the game with just 111 homers. Only the Miami Marlins had hit fewer in the NL.

Phillies pitchers have allowed three or more homers in a game 27 times this season – 27  –and given up 181 homers in all, most in the NL and third-most in the majors. They are on pace to blow past the team record of 221, set in 2017.

The Phils entered the day tied with two other clubs for the second wild-card playoff spot. They are 56-51.

Velasquez’ night

This was a distilled version of Velasquez: Good, even dominant, early in the game; poor the third time through the batting order. Velasquez allowed just three hits and struck out six over the first five shutout innings. He allowed a walk and a two-run homer to Buster Posey to open the sixth as the Giants’ lineup got its third look at him. Entering the game, opposing hitters had a .516 batting average and a 1.656 OPS against Velasquez the third time facing him in a game.

Not doing it

The Phillies had just five hits in the game and only one for extra bases.

Jeff Samardzija cut right through the Phillies’ lineup. He gave up just three hits over six shutout innings for the Giants. He walked one and struck out five.

Morgan’s misadventure

Lefty reliever Morgan entered with the Phils down 2-0 in the sixth. He gave up three runs on a pair of homers.

The two homers were as many as Morgan had previously allowed in 29 1/3 innings this season.

Kingery dropped in order

The leadoff spot has been a problem for the Phillies ever since Andrew McCutchen went down in early April. Scott Kingery has gotten the bulk of the work in that spot over the past month or so and he has struggled. Manager Gabe Kapler dropped Kingery to the No. 6 spot in the batting order for Tuesday night’s game.

Kingery had hit either first or second (mostly first) over the previous 29 games. He slashed just .213/.296/.370 over that span.

Cesar Hernandez batted leadoff. It would not be surprising to see the Phils give newcomer Corey Dickerson a look in that role. Dickerson could join the Phils in time for Thursday afternoon’s game.

Neris ready to serve suspension?

Closer Hector Neris pitched the eighth inning with his team down four runs. Why? It’s likely that he will begin serving a three-game suspension on Thursday and was getting some work before he shuts down.

Up next

Jake Arrieta (8-8, 4.51) pitches against Dereck Rodriguez (4-5, 4.99) in the series finale Thursday afternoon.

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