Game Wrap 8/9/2019: Phillies 9 Giants 6

The Giants got into a slugfest with the Phillies and it went about as well as expected.  Key Lines:

Donovan Solano 2B- 3 for 5.  BA= .338.  Solano continues his remarkable season as a RH alternative for the middle infield.

Steven Vogt C- 3 for 4, 2B, HR(6).  BA= .284.   The HR was definitely worth seeing.  He pulled it just inside the foul pole and it went way out into McCovey Cove for a splash hit.  The other remarkable thing is he did this damage against a pretty good LHP, Drew Smyly.  Vogt has put up 1.2 fWAR in 181 PA while Buster has 1.8 in 330.

Kevin Pillar CF- 1 for 4, HR(14).  BA= .245.  Pillar got the Giants on the board first with a laser beam into the emergency runway down the LF line.  I was wrong about Pillar's power disappearing with the move from Toronto to Oracle and the NL West.  The Giants got him to hit dingers and catch balls in CF.  That's what he's done.  I'll have to go with the eye test here over UZR and fWAR stats.

Joey Rickard LF- 1 for 3, HR3), BB.  BA= .207.  I had forgotten that Joey Rickard is one of those rare guys who B-R, T-L.  That's kind of fun.  He also was a relatively rare Rule 5 Draft success story with the Orioles before turning back into a pumpkin with them.  Maybe he can recapture that magic as a platoon OF with the Giants.

Tyler Beede RHP- 5 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 2 BB, 7 K's.  ERA= 5.61.  Young Beedah came out on fire striking out 5 of the first 8 batters he faced.  The he completely lost the strike zone agains the opposing pitcher with 1 out in the 3'rd inning and the wheels fell off.  Another walk, single, triple and SF later, the Phillies had a 4-1 lead. The Giants offense would eventually get that back until another 4-spot in th 7'th finished them off.

Jandel Gustave RHP- 2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 0.00.  Gustave came in after Tony Watson gave up a 3-run blast to Harper in the 7'th then put 2 more runners on, all with no outs.  Gustave served up a couple of long fly balls that advanced the runners then drove in one, but at least he got outs in the process.  Despite his 97 MPH FB, Gustave has not been a strikeout pitcher for the Giants but has gone 2 innings in each of his 4 appearances.

Travis Bergen LHP- 1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 1 K.  ERA= 4.00.  Travis Bergen is back.  I don't think Farhan wants to give him back to the BJ's so look for him to stick around until the end of the season, especially if the Giants drop out of the Wild Card race, which seems increasingly likely.

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The Loss dropped the Giants to 4 games behind the BrewCrew in the Wild Card race with the red hot Mets, Cardinals and Phillies all 0.5 games behind the Crew while the D'Backs trail by 1.5 games.

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Jeff Samardzija tries to quiet the Phillies bats this afternoon against hard throwing Vince Velasquez.  The way balls were flying out of Oracle last night, that could be an adventure and not the good kind.