Phillies Walkoff Giants on Maikel Franco Hit
By Matt Veasey
The Philadelphia Phillies defeated the visiting San Francisco Giants in extra innings walkoff fashion at Citizens Bank Park on Wednesday night.
The Phillies spotted the visiting San Francisco Giants an early 4-0 lead behind ace starting pitcher Johnny Cueto, then roared back with the help of the longball before winning 5-4 in walkoff fashion in extra innings on Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park.
Early on in this one it was a typical Giants game: Cueto dominating on the mound, and Buster Posey providing offensive heroics.
Cueto was working on a 3-hitter through the first 6.1 innings before the Phillies bats finally solved him. At that point, a two-run single by Posey in the 1st inning off Phils’ emergency starter Phil Klein, and an RBI double by Posey in the 3rd, with his subsequently scoring on a sac fly, had given the visitors that early 4-0 cushion.
Klein was making the emergency start in place of Aaron Nola, who was sent to the disabled list with an elbow strain. The Phillies will know more in the coming days after further testing, but Nola is likely shut down for the season. The hope is that it is not a UCL issue that would require surgery, keeping him out all of next season as well.
In this one, Klein would last five innings, allowing eight hits and the four earned runs while striking out three batters and walking just one. He threw 90 pitches, just 59 for strikes, and was returned to AAA Lehigh Valley immediately following the game.
Cueto retired the first batter in the bottom of the 7th, and seemed to be cruising to a possible complete game shutout, when the Phillies broke out their big bats with back-to-back solo home runs from Ryan Howard and Cameron Rupp.
Howard’s 15th home of the season and Rupp’s 12th cut the Giants lead in half at 4-2, but Cueto got out of the frame without further damage, and remained in the game.
With the Giants’ starter still on the hill in the bottom of the 8th, the Phils got it even. With one out, Jimmy Paredes drew a walk and Cesar Hernandez singled to put the tying runs aboard.
Aaron Altherr then rolled a grounder to 3rd and was barely thrown out on a play that was reviewed and went the visitor’s way, with Paredes and Hernandez each moving up into scoring position.
Maikel Franco then stepped in against Cueto, and wasted no time evening things up. The Phils’ 3rd baseman lined a clean two-run single to right field, with Paredes and the speedy Hernandez easily racing home, making it a 4-4 game and ending Cueto’s night.
The two clubs then rolled into the night, deep into extra innings. The Phillies bullpen would prove to be major players in this one, as Brett Oberholtzer would follow Klein with two shutout innings.
Michael Mariot, making his big league debut as the 1,999th player in Phillies franchise history would then toss his own shutout frame, followed by Hector Neris, Edubray Ramos, David Hernandez, and Luis Garcia doing the same.
All in all, the Phillies relief corps would see the six pitchers go seven innings, allowing just two hits and one walk along the way.
That took us to the bottom of the 12th, where Giants’ reliever George Kontos began the frame by hitting Tommy Joseph to put the lead runner aboard. Garcia was left in the game to bunt, and laid down a beauty of a sacrifice to move Joseph into scoring position.
Kontos then appeared to pitch around Hernandez, walking him on five pitches before being lifted in place of veteran former starter Jake Peavy, who was just sent to the bullpen with the acquisition of Matt Moore at the trading deadline.
Altherr chopped Peavy’s second pitch at 3rd baseman Eduardo Nunez, who knew he would have to hurry. Nunez, perhaps thinking ahead of himself, never got a grip on the ball, fumbling it away to leave Altherr safe at 1st base and move Joseph over to 3rd base.
With runners on the corners and one out, Franco stepped in against Peavy. The Phillies’ 3rd baseman again wasted no time, shooting Peavy’s first pitch into right-center. Joseph trotted home, and the celebration was on.
“Both Bumgarner and Cueto are two of the best pitchers in the league, so you have to go out there and not think too much,” said Franco per MLB.com contributors. “We’ve had good success with those guys and I feel pretty good about it.”
For the Giants, it was incredibly their 13 loss in 17 games since the MLB All-Star Game break. They continue to lead the NL West by two games. The win by the Phillies moves them to 50-59, and within 13 games of their entire 2015 victory total with nearly two months still to play.