After two games of taking advantage of a weak Phillies bullpen in extra-inning wins, the Giants couldn’t come back late in the series finale in Philadelphia.
The Giants, one of three teams in MLB averaging at least five runs per game, poured on five in the sixth inning alone to flip what was a dominant Aaron Nola start. But Wilmer Flores’ three-run shot in the frame — the homer that put SF ahead 5-2 — preceded a stunningly uncharacteristic Jarlin García appearance in which Philadelphia retook the lead.
San Francisco (27-22) couldn’t complete the series sweep in Citizens Bank Park. The Phillies doubled SF in hits and blasted two two-run homers off García to send the Giants to Miami on a loss.
A win on Wednesday would have been SF’s fourth straight victory. In Tuesday’s nearly five-hour affair, the Giants overcame a lack of timely hitting early in the game in extra innings with Joc Pederson’s go-ahead home run. For the series opener, SF needed Evan Longoria’s ninth-inning home run to send it to extras, where Curt Casali played the hero.
Even with the two victories, the Giants finished May at 13-14 for their first sub-.500 month since August of 2020.
If SF is to course-correct in June, the pitching staff will have to perform more consistently. Elite on paper, the rotation averaged roughly five innings per start. Their 4.83 ERA was over a point higher than in March and April. As a staff, SF posted a 5.44 ERA in the month — double that of April. Some of the issues can reasonably be linked to simple bad luck, but that number is unbecoming of a group as talented as San Francisco’s arms.
Rodón specifically was a microcosm of the Giants’ May downturn. His elite 1.17 ERA in his first four starts didn’t resemble his five May starts of 5.67 ERA all in the slightest.
A 3.2-inning blowup against St. Louis damaged his numbers the most, but Rodón had a harder time finding strikeouts than he did to start the year. He walked four Padres on May 21 and three Reds the next time he got the ball.
As with most extremes, the true Rodón is somewhere in the middle of 1.17 and 5.67. That showed on Wednesday in Philadelphia, as the southpaw tossed five two-run innings with six strikeouts and one walk.
Three straight singles in the third inning led to the Phillies’ first run off Rodón, then subpar fielding from Wilmer Flores and Jason Vosler on the corners led to another Phillies run in the bottom of the fourth.
Although Philadelphia laid off most of Rodón offspeed offerings early in the game, he dialed up his patented fastball as his start wore on, striking out three in his final inning.
While Rodón was effective, Nola was dominant. Between Tommy La Stella’s double to leadoff the game and Donovan Walton’s double to start the sixth, Nola retired 15 straight Giants. But then Nola suddenly unraveled.
Vosler, activated earlier in the day, doubled home Walton to half Philadelphia’s lead and stain Nola’s line. La Stella followed it up with SF’s third straight hit to plate Vosler and even the score. Nola hit Mike Yastrzemski in the elbow in a two-strike count, then Flores turned on a hanging curveball for a three-run shot.
The sixth-inning blitz put San Francisco up 5-2. Flores’ sixth home run of the year more than made up for his errant throw in the fourth that led to a Phillies run.
But the Phillies responded. Jarlin García’s streak of 17.1 innings to start the year without an earned run ended loudly. Both Nick Maton and Kyle Schwarber tagged the lefty for two-run shots, retaking the lead from SF.
García’s 17 appearances without an earned run had tied Joe Nathan’s franchise record. Wednesday’s outing soured the factoid.
And unlike García, Philadelphia’s bullpen delivered. The same bullpen that imploded in the first two games of the series, and the same bullpen that ranks 24th in MLB in ERA, retired nine straight hitters.
The game set up for another late Giants comeback, with Joc Pederson facing closer Corey Knebel in the ninth with SF down a run. But he lined out, and then down went the next two would-be game-tying runs at the plate. The script for another epic Giants victory was there, they just didn’t follow it.