PHILADELPHIA — The Phillies are technically a major league team, and any team can beat any other on any given day. But given the hole the Giants have put themselves in, there really was no excuse for not sweeping the home team this weekend.
Instead it was the Phillies who celebrated Saturday, coming from behind for a 5-3 win. The Phillies had lost 15 of 18 entering the day. For the Giants, the season-long search for momentum continues. A night after scoring 10 runs and leaving 17 more runners on base, the Giants did nothing against a right-hander making his MLB debut, and they paid the price when the Phillies scored four in the seventh.
Here are five things to know from the day we learned nobody in MLB — and I mean nobody — bat-flips like Odubel Herrera …
--- The Giants led 1-0 heading into the sixth, but Tommy Joseph — the man traded for Hunter Pence — wrapped a homer around the left field pole. In the seventh, the wheels came flying off. Johnny Cueto gave up a pair of singles and Hunter Strickland was hit with two singles and a bases-clearing triple by Herrera.
--- It has been a brutal week for Strickland. Aside from the looming suspension and everything else that came in the aftermath of his fight, his ERA has jumped from 1.06 to 2.29 over his past three appearances.
--- Joseph has carved out a nice role in Philadelphia after concussions kept him from continuing a career as a catcher. He’s their everyday starter at first base, and Saturday’s homer was his ninth of the year. He hit 21 last season as a rookie.
--- The Giants continued their strange trend of not hitting against rookies they were seeing for the first time. Ben Lively threw seven one-run innings, allowing just four hits.
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--- Cueto got out of the third when he picked Cesar Hernandez off first. A shoutout to Shawon Dunston and Chad Chop for the call from the replay room. We assume Chop helped out, but he ate five cheesesteaks by 2 p.m. local time, so it’s possible he was lying on the floor.
