Bad and unlucky: Giants 7, Phillies 4

Not a lot has gone right for the Phillies during this trip to San Francisco. They’ve been the victim of bad luck as many of their hard-hit balls have found gloves, while the Giants have found grass. But the Phillies have largely authored their own misfortune, thanks to poor defense, poor pitching, and poor hitting with runners on base. On Wednesday afternoon, the mixture of bad and unlucky continued as the San Francisco Giants defeated them 7-4, completing a three-game sweep.

After a strong start his last time out, there was hope that Taijuan Walker could help snap a three-game losing streak. Instead, he gave up four runs and didn’t make it out of the first inning. The Giants may have gotten some bloop hits, but Walker allowed it to happen by walking two batters and lacking command.

Facing an early four-run deficit in the final game of a road trip, it wouldn’t have been surprising if the Phillies rolled over and died. But the bullpen stabilized things after Walker’s departure, and in the third inning, someone finally had a hit with runners in scoring position. J.T. Realmuto’s bases loaded double plated two runs, and Alec Bohm followed with a sacrifice fly to get the Phillies within one.

In the fifth, Bryson Stott erased the rest of the deficit with a solo home run.

Solo home runs haven’t been the problem for the Phillies. They’ve hit their share of those, but home runs with runners on base have been much harder to come by. For instance, when Stott came up with two runners aboard in the seventh, he hit into an inning-ending double play.

The game remained tied until the bottom of the eighth where once again, the Giants’ hitters placed the ball where it needed to go. Five singles against Gregory Soto resulted in three runs, and the Phillies were faced with another deficit to overcome.

They made it interesting in the ninth. Thanks to a single, hit batsman, and a walk, they had the bases loaded for Trea Turner. However, much like he has in such spots all season, Turner looked completely overmatched in striking out.

This series continues an unfortunate trend from 2022 where the Phillies would spend an entire series playing awful baseball. The good news is that they would often snap out of it the next series, and the bad luck they’ve dealt with is sure to even out. But that doesn’t make the ugliness we’ve had to watch the previous three days any easier to deal with.