By Morris Phillips

One inning on Wednesday said it all about the Giants’ current situation. They may be the best right now at wiping out deficits late, but it appears their bullpen’s developed a leak.

Nine runs were scored in the sixth inning of the Giants’ 6-5 loss to the Phillies, but four of those–on two, big home runs–belonged to the hosts, who halted a tough string of losses in the process. The Giants saw their rally to go from down 2-0 to up 5-2 wind up as a footnote, as the Phillies quickly put up four of their own to halt a five-game losing streak.

Jarlin Garcia–arguably the most effective setup man in baseball this season (through 17 appearances) finally had a hiccup, allowing his first earned runs and home runs of the season. Nick Maton and Kyle Schwarber both connected with men on base against Garcia with Schwarber’s giving Philadelphia the lead. The cozy dimensions of Citizens Bank Park were in play with Schwarber’s home run, which probably would have been a flyball out at a lot of parks including San Francisco’s. Garcia’s poor outing also took a possible win away from starter Carlos Rodon who pitched the game’s first five innings.

Manager Gabe Kapler tried to make sense of the situation in which two of the team’s best arm talents couldn’t get it done.

“The most important thing we can do is protect our starters,” Kapler said. “Carlos is a guy we have to treat with that level of respect. When he’s super efficient … of course we’re going to give him that opportunity. Today wasn’t that day, and it wasn’t close. … You could point to any number of spots in the game where there were a couple additional pitches. Certainly we weren’t perfect on defense, and that hurt his chances to pitch deeper into the game.”

The Giants rallied in both of the previous games in the series and made it stick with a pair of victories. Their sixth inning rally in this one brought out the boo birds–predictably–but those same fans had to change their tune when three relievers shut down the Giants in the game’s final three innings.

The Phillies had dropped five in a row, and got worse news before the game when versatile infielder Jean Segura was declared out for at least two months with a broken bone in his index finger, and Bryce Harper was ruled out for the game with a forearm issue.

The Giants–experiencing issues of their own in winning ballgames–looked to pounce by sweeping the series, but it all crumbled with Maton and Schwarber’s home runs. Maton just joined the club, after a call-up from Triple A Lehigh Valley.

Aaron Nola pitched the first six innings for the Phillies, allowing all five Giants’ runs on five hits while notching five strikeouts.

“These guys have been grinding,” Phillies’ manager Joe Girardi said. “A lot of guys have played every day in this 16-day run. We get an off day and we get an off day Monday. Hopefully that refreshes our guys. But I think we really needed (a win) bad.”

The Giants open a four-game set in Miami on Thursday against the Phillies.