Phillies Bats Explode as Team Returns Home
By Matt Veasey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | |
| Giants | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 8 |
| Phillies | 2 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | x | 13 |
The Philadelphia Phillies pounded the visiting San Francisco Giants in the club’s first home game in nearly two weeks on Tuesday night.
Following a road trip lasting nearly two weeks, the Phillies returned to the friendly confines of Citizens Bank Park in South Philly last night and treated the fans to a 13-8 thrashing of the San Francisco Giants.
The Fightin’ Phils broke out their big bats, pounding 15 hits on the night. The 13-run outburst was the most the club has scored since last September 1st, when they scored 14 at Citi Field against the New York Mets.
Perhaps even more impressively, the outburst came at the expense of one of the best pitchers in all of baseball, southpaw ace Madison Bumgarner, who for some reason the Phillies seem to have solved at the moment.
Back on June 25th at AT&T Park, the Phils dumped the Giants ace by a 3-2 margin for one of his few defeats this season. Last night they tuned him up, ripping 10 hits and scoring eight runs, though just four of those were earned runs.
On the Phillies end of things, rookie Zach Eflin struggled for the second straight outing. He allowed six earned runs on six hits over five innings while walking three batters. But after he had surrendered a big early lead, his teammates bats bailed him out.
Both Cesar Hernandez, who has been hot over the last month, and 3rd baseman Maikel Franco produced four-hit nights. Aaron Altherr continued to prove a welcome addition back in the lineup, banging out three hits.
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Both Altherr and Franco homered, as did catcher Cameron Rupp, whose 8th inning blast highlighted a 5-run crooked inning that proved to be the difference in this one.
“It should give us confidence,” Phillies manager Pete Mackanin said per MLB.com contributors. “We beat Bumgarner over there in San Francisco. Anytime you beat a classy pitcher like that, a top-notch guy, it’s got to give you confidence.”
Of course we all know that is not necessarily how it works in baseball, where everyday is a chance to forget the previous night and flip the script. If the Phillies want to show they have such lasting confidence, they’ll need to do it again tonight against another ace, right-hander Johnny Cueto.