Philadelphia Phillies slugger Bryce Harper slugs a top of the fourth inning home run against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park in San Francisco on Wed Jul 9, 2025 (AP News photo)

Wednesday, July 9, 2025

Oracle Park

San Francisco, California

Philadelphia Phillies 13 (54-39)

San Francisco Giants 0 (51-43)

Win: Jesus Luzardo (8-5)

Loss: Justin Verlander (0-7)

Time: 2:48

Attendance: 37,334

By Stephen Ruderman

SAN FRANCISCO–Wednesday was a total buzzkill on a beautiful day at Oracle Park, as the Phillies avoided the sweep with a 13-0 rout over the emotionally-hungover Giants in the series finale.

The beautiful but flawed game of baseball works in so many mysterious ways. After going 1-5 against the Marlins and the White Sox, the Giants have gotten back on track in the last week to win six of their last seven games. That included taking the first two games from the Fighten Phils, not just one of the best teams in Baseball, but one of the hottest, too.

The Giants took the opener thanks to two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning Monday night. Tuesday night. What can I say about Tuesday night? It was a win for the ages. Patrick Bailey’s walk-off inside-the-parker will be remembered by Giants’ fans for years, and depending on how this season turns out, generations to come.

Wednesday, the Giants could go for the sweep. However, Justin Verlander was on the mound, and he was still looking for his first win as a Giant in what would be his 15th start of the season. Verlander was lit up in his last start last Friday night in Sacramento, as the Sacramento A’s touched him up for six runs over three innings.

Verlander wasn’t exactly lights out today, but he was much better. He came out of the gate hitting 96 miles per hour with his fastball, as he opened the game with a one, two, three, top of the first inning.

The Phillies got on the board in the top of the second, as J.T. Realmuto hit a base-hit to left field with two outs to knock in Alec Bohm from third base. Earlier in Realmuto’s at-bat, he hit a roller along the first base line that first-baseman Wilmer Flores could have charged and tagged Realmuto out with. However, Wilmer’s decision to let it roll foul proved to be a costly one.

Bryce Harper led off the top of the fourth with an opposite-field home run to left to make it 2-0, but Verlander continued to cruise along. Verlander escaped a jam in the top of the fifth, but the Phillies got to him for two more runs in the top of the sixth to make it 4-0.

Verlander was alright over six innings, as he ended up giving up four runs on seven hits. He didn’t walk anybody, and he struck out seven.

As for the Giants’ offense, they couldn’t muster anything against Phillies’ starter Jesus Luzardo, who gave up just three hits and struck out seven over seven shutout innings.

The Phillies then exploded for seven runs in the top of the eighth to make this thing a laugher. Despite giving up six of the seven runs, you really in all sincerity have to tip your hat to Tristan Beck, who really took a bullet for the Giants’ bullpen Wednesday.

The Fightens then scored two more off Mike Yastrzemski in the top of the ninth. That’s right. Yastrzemski was the poor guy who had to be the position player that pitched in the ninth. Yastrzemski hit Kyle Schwarber with two outs, and Yastrzemski sunk his head in shame, but some in the Phillies’ dugout seemed to get a kick out of it, so no biggie.

Patrick Bailey was rewarded for his triumph last night with the day off Wednesday, but he was given a standing ovation from that remained of the 37,334 fans at Oracle Park today as he pinch-hit to lead off the bottom of the ninth. If anybody’s wondering, Bailey grounded out to second, and the Giants went down one, two, three to end the game.

Jesus Luzardo got the win, and Justin Verlander took the loss.

The Giants fall to 51-43. It’s really not the worst thing in the world, especially after the magic that transpired last night. Still, the Dodgers blew a ninth-inning lead in Milwaukee and were swept by the Brewers, and a win by the Giants Wednesday would have put them just four games back in the National League West.

The Giants will have their first day off in two and a half weeks Thursday, and then they will host the hated ones from down south the Los Angeles Dodgers over the weekend to close out the first half of the season. The good news is that the Dodgers were just swept in Milwaukee by the Brewers, and have lost six in a row. It will be a spirited series, that’s for sure.

The only question is whether the Giants’ faithful, who have filled up the park this week, can show up this weekend to counter the army of Dodgers’ fans making their way up north.

Once again, Logan Webb (8-6, 2.62 ERA) will have to be the stopper, as he will take the ball in the series opener Friday night. Dustin May (5-5, 4.52 ERA) will go for the Trolley Dodgers.

First pitch will be at 7:15 p.m.