In two road trips since the All-Star break, both have started with Madison Bumgarner losses. The left-hander allowed the Phillies to score eight runs (four earned), but the game-deciding hits came against the bullpen in the Giants 13-8 loss. Five runs scored with Sergio Romo on the mound, soiling a six-run comeback earlier in the game. Here’s more on Tuesday night in Philadelphia.
The big moment
The Giants have never faced Aaron Alther, and they wish they never had after Tuesday night. He knocked in five of the Phillies’ 13 runs, headlined by a go-ahead, two-run single off Romo in the eighth. Both runs were charged to the record of new Giants left-hander Will Smith.
At the plate
Facing a six-run deficit after two innings, the Giants would need their biggest comeback of the year to even the score. Riding three home runs, more than they’ve hit in the last six games, it happened. First it was Brandon Crawford, who chipped in a towering solo home run to lead off the fourth inning.
Next it was Brandon Belt, who put a sparkling bow on the five-run fourth inning with a three-run homer. That tied the game, and added another team leader in home runs. Belt, Buster Posey and Eduardo Nunez all have 12 big flies this season.
Finally it was Angel Pagan, who flipped a 2-1 fastball over the right field wall for a go-ahead, two-run homer in the sixth inning. It was just the sixth game this season the Giants hit three or more home runs. They won four of the other five games.
On the mound
In his last start against the Phillies, Bumgarner breezed through the lineup for six innings until he was ambushed for three runs in the seventh. On Tuesday it took only three pitches for the tall left-hander to unwind. Alther went to the opposite field for a two-run homer, and the eight-run route was on for the Phillies against Bumgarner. Only four earned runs were tacked to his record because of a second-inning error, but it’s the most total runs allowed by Bumgarner in three years.
It took the Giants a few innings to bail their ace out on the scoreboard, and it didn’t help they were pitted in a six-run hole. Alther’s two-run homer was followed by an RBI single in the second inning, and a three-run homer by Maikel Franco stretched the lead to six. It was the first of his three hits of Bumgarner, but perhaps the most frustrating was a leadoff double in the sixth inning.
The Giants had just tied the game with a five-run, two-out rally, and Franco scored two batters later on a Tommy Joseph single to take a 7-6 lead. Bumgarner exited after a leadoff walk in the sixth inning, a runner that eventually scored to tie the game at eight.
In the ‘pen
Hunter Strickland relieved Bumgarner in the sixth inning and allowed the Giants 19th blown save. Franco scored on a 10-hopper that snaked between Crawford and Joe Panik, tying the game at eight.
Derek Law pitched the seventh inning and completed his 13th straight shutout appearance on 11 pitches.
Smith debuted in the eighth, and struck out the first hitter before Odubel Herrera reached on an infield single. Cesar Hernandez knocked a two-out double for his fourth hit of the game, planting runners on second and third with one out.
Romo allowed a dribbler up the middle to Alther to stake the Phillies to a 10-8 lead. The right-hander couldn’t get of the inning until Cameron Rupp hit a three-run homer to cement the Phillies win.
On deck
The Giants turn to Johnny Cueto (13-3,, 2.63 ERA) in the second contest of this nine-game road trip. The right-hander helped the Giants win 16 of his first 18 games, but the team has dropped two of his last three starts in the second half. He opposes Aaron Nola (6-9, 4.78), the Phillies pitcher who riled things up by hitting three Giants in a June start. First pitch at 4:05 p.m. on KNBR 680.
Quick roster note: New Giants left-hander Matt Moore makes his debut on Wednesdy, bumping Jeff Samardzija back a day and Jake Peavy out of the starting rotation.