Photo: Giants relief pitcher Ryan Borucki exits the mound in the 7th inning after giving up two runs (Jay Choi/SF Bay News Lab)

By Vince Cestone

SAN FRANCISCO–For the second day in a row, the San Francisco Giants blew a late-inning lead as the Philadelphia Phillies rally from 4-0 down to win 6-4 at Oracle Park.

After starting pitcher Adrian Houser gave up back-to-back singles to start the seventh inning, Giants manager Tony Vitello brought in lefty Ryan Borucki to try and get through Phillies sluggers Kyle Schwarber and Bryce Harper. That did not go well, as Schwarber walked and Harper hit the game-tying single. The next batter Alec Bohm hit a ground-ball single that gave the Phillies a 5-4 lead, one they would not give back. The Phillies tacked on another run later in the inning on a sacrifice fly by Brandon Marsh.

Some may question Vitello’s decision to bring in Borucki in a leverage spot against two of the best hitters in the game. Borucki is a journeyman pitcher who had a 4.63 ERA in 35 innings with both the Pittsburgh Pirates and Toronto Blue Jays. Fellow lefty Matt Gage, who has yet to give up an earned run this season, was not used in the high leverage spot and the Giants paid for it. Gage would go on to pitch a scoreless eighth inning, with the Giants down 6-4.

This latest bullpen blow up comes after Keaton Winn and Erik Miller gave up four runs combined in the eighth inning on Sunday against the New York Mets, giving the Mets a 5-2 come-from-behind victory. The Giants were up 2-1 at the start of the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon.

On Monday night, the Giants finally showed some offense in the third inning, where they scored three runs against Phillies starter Andrew Painter. Painter came into the year 1-0, with a 1.69 ERA. After Willy Adames starting the inning with a double, Luis Arraez followed with an RBI double of his own to give the Giants an early 1-0 lead. Giants third baseman Matt Chapman then tripled in another run. Two batters later, Giants left fielder Heliot Ramos singled in Chapman to give the Giants a 3-0 lead.

The Giants tacked on another run in the fourth inning on a Luis Arraez sacrifice fly. The Giants were up 4-0 and feeling good, but the Phillies got on the board in the fifth inning with two runs of their own. Two singles from the eighth and ninth spots in the batting order ended up scoring in that inning off of Houser.

The Giants did not score another run after the fourth inning. In fact, they only had 2 hits after the fourth inning–a single by Jung Hoo Lee in the eighth and a double by Adames in the ninth.

Houser ended up pitching well, better than his line score indicated. He ended up going six innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and two walks. He struck out three batters.

The Giants are now 3-8 on the year, not the start that Vitello wanted to begin his Giants career. In 2000, the Giants did start the year 3-9 and ended up winning the National League West with 97 wins, but that team had Barry Bonds and Jeff Kent in the middle of their order and Felix Rodriguez and Robb Nen on the back end of the bullpen. The Giants will hope to turn things around quickly, or they can find themselves buried quite early in the season.

Up next, the Giants will try again on Tuesday to get right as they take on the Phillies again in Game 2 of the series. Robbie Ray (1-1, 3.38 ERA) will take the mound for the Giants against lefty Cristopher Sanchez (1-0, 0.79 ERA). Game time is at 6:45 p.m.