The Phillies faithful honored Gabe Kapler with welcoming boos upon his return. Everyone saw that one coming for sure. He was reportedly put up on the jumbo screen to almost instigate the fans to boo. Nonetheless, I don’t think anyone can blame them. The Phillies had Chase Anderson start tonight against righty Kevin Gausman. Gausman came in sporting a 2.01 ERA, 20 K’s in 21.1 innings of work (0-0 record). Anderson came in sporting a 3.27 ERA, 8 K’s in 11 innings of work (0-1 record).
The Phils got two on in the first with a Harper base hit and a JT walk who battled Gausman for some time. Bohm would come up and take a 2-1 pitch up the middle on a high bounce to end the inning. The Giants would follow up the inning with 2 quick baserunners then a skied ball to center, what seemed routine, was lost in the night by rookie Moniak who recovered to make a diving catch. Following that he would get another fly ball, this time made the catch in a normal fashion and Anderson would punch out Gausman to end it. The Phils rookie tandem would strikeout and line out to left in a noneventful second. Nick Maton made his debut this evening sporting the number 29 just like Phillies legend Jimmy Rollins did in his.
The game would see some runs scored after on some two-out rallying by the Giants. Longoria would double to center field followed by a no doubter by Brandon Belt to right that made the score 2-0. Anderson would allow another single followed by a line out to Maton to put out the rally. The Phils would follow with two quick outs from Anderson and McCutchen. Hoskins would rip one through the left side for a single followed by another Harper single to center. Harper would steal second as JT battled Gausman. The count started 0-2 and would get to a full count that would lead to JT looking at a splitter that started high and fell back down into the zone, practically the middle. Again, in a big spot, Realmuto unable to come up with a base hit.
Following an inning of quick work by Anderson, the Phillies got things going again with a Bohm walk and then Jean Segura’s 200th career double. It didn’t split the gap in left, but he could smell number 200 as he sped up around first and beat the tag with a beautiful headfirst slide. The rookie tandem would follow it up with a pair of swinging strikeouts, Maton being thrown out at first on a dropped third. In a surprising move, Skipper Joe Girardi would pinch hit Brad Miller for Anderson. Miller would ground out to end the inning, again stopping a Phillies threat with runners in scoring position. Anderson’s night would end at 4.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R (both ER), no walks and 5 punchouts. A peculiar move to pull him.
As David Hale would set down the Giants in order, they would again threathen with base runners. Hoskins would walk followed by a Harper single to a vacant third. JT would come up and roll it to third in a should’ve been inning-ending double play, however Belt unable to pick the ball. All of this to just lead to another Bohm fly out to end the inning. Hale would go on to set down the Giants easily in the 6th, this time giving up just a bunt single. The Phillies would be thwarted yet again when they put on a 2-out rally. Maton would get his first big league career hit, Joyce would walk, but sadly McCutchen would roll it to third to end the inning, again.
The pen would go scoreless the whole 6 innings of relief. Hale, Coonrod, Kintzler and Romero combined for 2 H, 1 BB and 7 K’s. The bats left them hanging out to dry as they went scoreless the whole game. They went 0-8 with RISP, leaving 11 runners on. The bone-dry offense continues after scoring just 2 runs the game before.
Kevin Gausman is without a doubt the player of the game. A masterful performance through 6 IP: 6 H, 4 BB and 5 K’s doesn’t sound all that great, but when he gets out of countless scoring threats, it’s a start to be really proud of if you’re the skipper. Gabe Kapler wins in his return to Citizens Bank, 2-0.