Barry Zito won the Battle of the Flaky West Coast Lefties today in San Francisco, as the Giants scorched Cole Hamels for seven runs in just five innings pitched, and took the four game set three games to one.
To be completely fair to Hamels, the Giants' three run fifth inning was mostly a result of a series of Texas Leaguers, infield dribblers, and poor defense on Ryan Howard's overthrown backhand flip over Hamels' head at first base on a Pablo Sandoval dribbler. Only new Giant Freddy Sanchez's two run double was hit hard. And although the last two runs were charged to Hamels, they scored as a result of an Eugenio Velez bases loaded single off Chan Ho Park. Call that a team failure, I guess.
The Phillies, for their part, were miserable with runners on base yet again. And to their credit, the Giants limited the damage, issuing zero walks on the day. Oh, and can I call out Jayson Werth's idiotic baserunning in the fourth inning, when he got thrown out trying to steal third base for the third out of the inning?
Jimmy Rollins went long for the Phillies in the top of the fourth, and Ben Francisco contributed two hits.
Tomorrow is a much needed off-day for the Phillies (the first day off in over a month for the team's five All-Star representatives). Hopefully the bats can wake up, and the injured Shane Victorino can return from his knee injury. They start a three game series against the Wild Card contending Colorado Rockies in Philadelphia on Tuesday.