San Francisco Giants’ Joc Pederson (23) celebrates with Andrew Knapp (33) after hitting a three-run home run against the Philadelphia Phillies during the second inning at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Fri Sep 2, 2022 (AP News photo)

Philadelphia (73-59). 1. 5. 1

San Francisco (62-68). 13 11. 0

Friday, September 2, 2022

By Lewis Rubman

SAN FRANCISCO–It’s the start of September, the beginning of the stretch drive that will determine which teams will participate in the crap shoot known as the MLB playoffs. This context gave added meaning to tonight’s confrontation between Your San Francisco Giants and the visiting Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies came to town at 73-58, occupying second place in the race for a wild card spot, half a game ahead of the San Diego Padres, who in turn were leading the Milwaukee Brewers by two and a half. The Dodgers were leading the pack, eight games in front of the Phils.

The 61-68 Giants had a different struggle on their hands, the fight to finish the season at .500 or better. Their rivals weren’t Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Milwaukee, or any other team. Their own worst enemy was themselves, their pitching, especially out of the bullpen, their hitting, and their fielding, which has been worse than their numbers would make it appear.

Slow throws, missed double plays, Alphonse and Gaston routines with fly balls, missing the cutoff man, all these hidden errors and others camouflage shoddy glove, arm, and brain work. Injuries haven’t helped the situation any. The outlook wasn’t brilliant.

“But,” as W.H. Auden wrote in “Spain, 1937).” “to-day the struggle.” The Giants, surprisingly massacred the crew from the City of Brotherly Love, disposing of them by a score of 13-1.

The Giants sent their number three starter, Alex Cobb, to the mound. Opponents had been batting .248 against him., The Phillies’ team BA was .254 coming into the game, which was two points higher than San Francisco’s OBA of .252 for the 129 they’d played before today. The Giants, by way of contrast, had a team batting average of .233.

The Giants’ game notes unfailingly remind us of how deceptive his numbers (like the team’s fielding stats) are. Tonight, they informed us that “while his ERA is currently 3.81, his ERA is 3.14 … his FIP is currently 2.94 and his FIP sits at 2.85.” Maybe fielding independent pitching and expected ERA and FIP are concepts that need some adjustment.

Cobb pitched beautifully, earning his fifth win and lowering his ERA to 3.58. He went seven strong innings and didn’t allow a run, surrendering only three hits and a walk. He threw 88 pitches, 55 for strikes. He stayed focused on his job even though his teammates scored early and often and finished his work with a 12-0 lead.

The Phils also called on a righty. Kyle Gibson, at 9-5, 4.08, was making his 26th start of the year. Once Gibson threw his first pitch, he and Aaron Nola were tied for the team leadership in starts and wins.

Gibson’s performance tonight was horrendous. He threw 65 pitches in 1-2/3 innings; 28 of them were balls. Those aren’t bad numbers, but these are: seven runs, all earned, on five hits, includes a homer, four walks, and a wild pitch. He managed to strike out two. The loss dropped his won-lost record to 9-6 and raised his ERA to 4.48.

The combination of September roster expansion and Joey Bart’s concussion led the Giants to make some roster changes yesterday and today. The most notable was the promotion of veteran major league bench warmer Andrew Kapp from Sacramento.

He started tonight’s contest as catcher, batting ninth. Yermín Mercedes, who was San Francisco’s emergency back stop, was optioned back to the River Cats. The orange and black also purchased Lewis Brinson’s contract from Houston and placed the outfielder on the club’s active roster. Joining him there was David Villar, promoted from Sacramento.

Two southpaw hurlers, Andrew Vasquez and Jonathan Bermudez were sent outright to the Giants’ AAA farm team. Brinson entered the game in the bottom of the fifth, hitting for Pederson, and got his first big league hit of the season, a Texas League single to center. Villar also saw action, entering the game to give Crawford a little down time in the seventh. The Giants jumped off to an early lead.

With one down in the bottom of the first, Mike Yastrzemski blasted a double off the bottom of the 354 foot sign just to the right of the Toyota advertisement in left field. After Wilmer Flores walked, Joc Pederson took an 85 mph change of pace to the top of the same marker, driving in Yaz and sending Flores to third. He scored on Brandon Crawford’s solid single to left, which sent Pederson to second.

Each of those runners moved up a base, Crawford scoring, on a wild pitch to Evan Longoria. Longoria, batting in the sixth position, was fourth on the hit parade, lacing another two bagger, this one down the line to left, and Pederson crossed the plate.. Thairo Estrada reined in the parade, whiffing on a 3-2 count, and Luis González grounded out to short, ending an inning that put San Francisco up, 4-0.

The Giants continued their attack in the second. Knapp made his San Francisco debut with a walk. After Wade took a third strike, Yaz walked and was forced out at second on a ground ball to the pitcher. Pederson then whacked his 21st home run of ’22, 415 feet into the right field seats.

That gave four RBIs in two turns at bat, bringing his season’s total to 57. After Crawford walked to first on a base on balls, Gibson walked to the club house for a shower. Sam Coonrod replaced him and got Longoria out on a fly to left. SF now was up, seven zip.

No sooner had Cobb retired the Phils in order in the top of the third, than Coonrod found himself in hot water. He hit Estrada with a 96 mph sinker to start the frame and threw the ball away on a pickoff attempt for an error that sent the Giants’ second sacker to third. After González walked, Estrada trotted home on Knapp’s sacrifice fly to center.

Wade sent a single to right and advanced 180 feet on Yastrzemski’s Texas League single to right before Flores loaded the bases with a walk that sent Coonrod out of the game, giving way to Cristopher Sánchez.

Sánchez gave Pederson a free pass on four pitches. The Giants now had reached double digits in the run column; half of the ten were driven in by Pederson. A walk to Longoria gave San Francisco an 11-0 margin and kept the bases loaded, which is how they remained after Estrada fanned. All four third inning tallies were charged to Coonrod.

San Francisco tacked on a tally in the fifth to make it an even dozen. Sánchez lasted until the notes of ¨Take Me Out to the Ball Game” had died down. He did a credible job in his 3-2/2 innings on the mound, containing the Giants to that fifth frame run, which was earned. Andrew Bellatti became the Phillies’ fourth pitcher of the game when he relieved Sánchez and retired the side in order in the seventh.

Jarlín García did the same for San Francisco in the top of the eighth.

Back up catcher Garrett Stubbs was the position player pitcher for the Phillies in the final San Fran frame. He allowed a triple to González, who scored the Giants’s 13th run on a ground out by Knapp.

Philadelphia notched a meaningless run in the ninth on a double by Nick Maton and a single by Alex Bohm.

They’ll get another shot at the Giants at 1:05, when they’ll face San Francisco’s Jakob Junis (4-4, 4.04). The home team will hope to continue showing its prowess at the plate,, this time against Noah Syndergaard (8-9, 3.98)