The Phillies haven’t done well this year in California. The team lost to the San Francisco Giants last night by a 4-3 score. So for the ’23 season, the Phils are now 0-5 when playing teams from CA. It all started in Los Angeles from May 1-3, with three straight losses at Dodger Stadium. Now, two straight losses against the Giants have added up to not doing very well.
Zack Wheeler was on the hill for the Phillies and usually, that’s a recipe for the Phillies to get a win when it’s needed. On the pregame show on TV, manager Rob Thomson said, ‘And then we had the LA series where we didn’t play well at all’, and summarized his comments by saying ‘I think we’re trending in the right direction and I like where our ballclub is at’ but that the team has to be better at being consistent when they start to win and play better.
Well, the Phillies have had plenty of chances in San Francisco, at one point in the 3rd inning last night, the team though was 0-26 with runners in scoring position (which made it to 0-28 before the spell was broken) in the first two games of this series as noted by Jon Miller on the Giants broadcast. That’s incredible. The Giants wore the Nike ‘City Connect’ uniforms, which many teams look very silly in, the Giants uni almost reminded Tom McCarthy, Phillies broadcaster, of being a bit like a Little League style of uniform with the way the helmuts were outlined.
Kody Clemens was playing first base, and lost a pop-up in the lights, Bryson Stott couldn’t make it over to catch the ball which led to a Giants runner scoring all the way from first base. That made the score 3-2 Giants at that point in the game in the bottom of the 4th.
This loss last night was the 5th in a row at Oracle Park by the Phillies, and since 2014 the Giants are now, 22-6 at home in San Francisco vs. the Phillies. This record is in the top 5 of best home records against an opposing team according to Stats LLC.
One bright spot was a Kyle Schwarber home run during the game very late in the top of the 9th inning, it was his 10th HR of the season and his 19th RBI, his batting average remains at .179 though.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe two teams will wrap up the series this afternoon at 3:45 PM local time in Philadelphia, the Phils need to get a win under them to get out of California today and head home for a weekend series with the Chicago Cubs. Taijuan Walker is scheduled to be facing Sean Manaea of the Giants today.
