SAN FRANCISCO – Before the Giants can finally welcome the Dodgers to Oracle Park this season on their way into the All-Star break, the National League East-leading Phillies came first as a three-game undercard.
It’s a high-powered homestand, and it got off to a victorious, tension-filled start Monday night with the Giants prevailing 3-1 before a sellout crowd of 40,043.
Swept by Miami their last time at home, the Giants produced two runs in an eighth-inning rally dependent on ground balls and batters hit by pitches.
The winning rally, step-by-step:
— Willy Adames, having already extended his hitting streak to a season-best eight games, led off by getting hit by a pitch from reliever Orion Kerkering.
— Matt Chapman, in his third game back from a sprained wrist, battled to a full count before grounding a single to right and moving Adames to third. “It’s a big homestand for us, so it’s big to get this first one for us,” Chapman said after getting a celebratory water shower on NBC Sports Bay Area’s postgame show.
— Wilmer Flores, the Giants’ RBI leader, got hit by a 3-1 pitch to load the bases.
— Casey Schmitt, in his first game off the 10-day Injured List, hit a grounder to shortstop to bring home Adames for a 2-1 lead; Schmitt beat the relay throw to first to avoid a double play.
— Jung Ho Lee rattled a grounder to first baseman Bryce Harper, whose wide throw home allowed Chapman to slid in safely head first for an insurance run and 3-1 lead.
Camilo Doval came on for his 14th save in 18 opportunities, and that capped a top-notch night for the Giants’ bullpen in relief of Landen Roupp’s start.
Doval, like Monday’s pitching predecessors, allowed the leadoff runner to reach (Max Kepler; walk). Schmitt made a leaping snare for the inning’s first out (on Doval’s 13th pitch to J.T. Realmuto). Bryson Stott then grounded to Flores at first for what would be a game-ending double play.
The Giants (50-42) have won three in a row. The Phillies (53-38) had won their previous two.
The Giants parlayed a bases-loaded rally in the second inning into a 1-0 lead, with Chapman scoring that lone run when Luis Matos’ RBI grounder was botched by shortstop Trea Turner, who potentially could have started an inning-ending double play had he cleanly fielded the ball. Chapman had led off with a single, followed by a Flores single and Schmitt walk.
Roupp opened with four scoreless innings, while twice striking out All-Star Kyle Schwarber.
Then the ball literally bounced the Phillies’ way as they pulled even in the fifth inning. Bryson Stott scored on a wild pitch from third, but only after Stott reached base when a bad-hop grounder clanked off first baseman Wilmer Flores’ right foot and between his legs on its way down the right-field line for a leadoff double.
Roupp escaped further damage in the fifth, thanks to Luis Matos making a diving catch on a Schwarber liner before Harper struck out looking on a high, full-count sinker.
Then it was up to the Giants’ bullpen to tease then shut down the Phillies.
Ryan Walker worked a 1-2-3 sixth, then Joey Lucchesi yielded a leadoff single in the seventh before recording three consecutive outs – on a sacrifice bunt, on a comebacker off his left hip, and on a strikeout of Trea Turner. Reliever Tyler Rogers mimicked that pattern, surrendering a leadoff single (to Schwarber) before inducing three outs and keeping the score tied.
NOTES: Schmitt had returned to the lineup fresh off the 10-day Injured List, presumably to settle in as the second baseman now that Chapman is back at third base and Tyler Fitzgerald got sent back to Triple-A Sacramento. Schmitt’s .276 batting average was the best in the Giants’ lineup entering Monday’s game. … Roupp has allowed four runs combined over his past four starts. … Adames stretched his season-best hitting streak to eight games with a fifth-inning double. … A marriage proposal – congrats to Olivia and Tobias – drew the night’s most emotional standing ovation, including from some Giants in their neighboring dugout during the sixth-inning stretch. … The Giants were poised to take a 2-0 lead in the third, but a ground-rule double by Chapman off the center-field track forced Rafael Devers back to third base. Wilmer Flores struck out to strand both runners in scoring position; Devers reached by skying a ball into the bay breeze before it kindly fell ahead of right fielder Nick Castellanos.
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