{"id":687308,"date":"2026-05-01T05:51:56","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:51:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/687308\/"},"modified":"2026-05-01T05:51:56","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T05:51:56","slug":"mlb-scores-giants-walked-off-by-philliesagain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/687308\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB scores: Giants walked off by Phillies\u2026again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine straight sinkers to Bryson Stott before his game-tying triple that led to the Phillies 3-2 walk-off win earlier in the day. <\/a><\/p>\n

Seven straight splitters to Kyle Schwarber before he ripped a two-out, game-tying double that eventually led to another Philly win in 10 innings \u2014 the first time an MLB team has walked-off twice in a doubleheader in 22 years.<\/p>\n

April 30th was really really so close to being a pretty dang good day. Two ball games, two leads in the 9th. 19 innings packed with some promising Giants baseball that ultimately has to get dumped into the toilet bowl and flushed.<\/p>\n

This was so close to being a joyous, insightful recap about a 5-4 win, rather than an incoherent rant about a 6-5 palm-to-the-face loss. I still want to salvage something from the wreckage. Anything, really. Look, see, the offense was kind-a doing their job. 5 total runs scored. They erased a two-run deficit twice to put themselves in position to win in the 9th inning. Luis Arraez and Jung Hoo Lee each came through with clutch 2-out RBIs. The line-up out-hit the Phillies 13 to 9 and walked 5 times. A Giants batter hit with a runner in scoring position in seven of 10 innings. Two sacrifice flies!<\/p>\n

All silver linings that as I sit here at my desk really really tired after a day of teaching and an evening of watching gut-punching baseball and a later-evening of writing with another day of teaching looming in the morning, I realize are not silver linings at all \u2014 rather instruments of torture.<\/p>\n

There is no sunshine behind clouds. All clouds do is piss rain, postpone games and delay the inevitable. Spring has sprung a leak. Two deficits erased, more like two blown leads, aided by free bases, conviction-less offerings, and 2-out RBIs handed-out by relievers. 18 baserunners, 15 at-bats with a runner in scoring position, and all the offense could manage was two run-scoring hits with two sacrifice flies. All those opportunities lost. Rafael Devers, Willy Adames, and Matt Chapman all struck out twice each. Heliot Ramos followed his 3-hit afternoon with a 4 K evening.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And not to harp on this \u2014 but seven splitters in a row? Did we learn nothing from Ryan Walker\u2019s stubbornness? And why was Keaton Winn even pitching to Schwarber in the first place? Schwarber had hit two homers on the day, and San Francisco arms had yet to get him out in the game. Winn had already thrown 1.2 innings and gave up a lead-off double in the 9th. Lefty Matt Gage was up in the bullpen. Instead of going for the left-on-left match-up, manager Tony Vitello stayed put, and the Winn-Bailey battery waffled between wanting to pitch to the slugger or not. The first two pitches were nowhere near the zone, then his splitters started creeping into bashin\u2019 range, keeping Schwarber at the plate \u2014 which was the last place the Giants wanted him to be. Would it have been better to put the winning run on base, and face Bryce Harper? Was the thinking that the splitter had the best chance of eliciting chase, or poor contact, or keeping a ball in play on the ground? But there\u2019s a point where an off-speed isn\u2019t off speed anymore, and by the last one Winn threw, Schwarber was well-timed to it, got down on one knee and golfed it into right.<\/p>\n

And why didn\u2019t Drew Gilbert score from second on Ramos\u2019s single in the 10th?<\/p>\n

The ball ricocheted off Bryson Stott\u2019s glove and rolled into no man\u2019s land in shallow center \u2014 Gilbert would\u2019ve scored easily, but third base coach Hector Borg decided to hold him at third. Did Borg lose track of the ball? Did he throw the stop sign up too early? Add \u2018em to the list of exasperating questions!<\/p>\n

During the postgame wrap, Ron Wotus referred to this as \u201ca broken play\u201d in which the action goes awry and the normal functions of a play get thrown out the window. Though it was possible Borg didn\u2019t see the ball, Wotus \u2014 who knows a thing or two about coaching third \u2014 figured he threw up the stop sign with an abundance of caution. He had to make a split-second decision. There were no outs, the 2-3-4 hitters were due up. Wonky things happen on wonky plays, why risk getting thrown out at home? Turns out the Giants didn\u2019t have the luxury of those precautions. Chapman struck out on a sinker out over the plate, Luis Arraez lined out\u2026and that was basically the game.<\/p>\n

So maybe Borg\u2019s stop sign made some baseball sense \u2014 it\u2019s just this team that doesn\u2019t make baseball sense.<\/p>\n

With the offense being so hit-or-miss, hot-or-cold, nothing feels guaranteed. Playing it safe doesn\u2019t work. Scrap that philosophy, load up at the buffet, grab what ya can carry off the sale rack, take the money and run. Runners at the corners and nobody out is just as much a crap shoot as two-out and runner on second. Luis Arraez can dump an 0-2 change-up into right, or he can slap a liner right into the outstretched glove of Alec Bohm. Or if it\u2019s Willy Adames at the plate, he can strike out on three pitches or four.<\/p>\n

But we should\u2019ve known it was going to end this way. Omens of disappointment announced themselves from the very beginning.<\/p>\n

Trea Turner and Schwarber were up front about what was in store for Giants fans with back-to-back homers in the 1st inning off Adrian Houser.<\/p>\n

While I\u2019m glad, deep down\u2026somewhere, that the Giants made things a little more interesting, my Thursday evening would\u2019ve certainly been much simpler if that early 2-0 score held. Houser would\u2019ve been the story, and what I wrote before the late-inning meltdown would\u2019ve been much more relevant.<\/p>\n

I already had a headline too: \u201cBurning Down the Houser.\u201d Great stuff. This is what I wrote.<\/p>\n

Adrian Houser is made of straw and sticks. He\u2019s been structurally unsound up on the hill, blown down by the slightest huff and puff from an opposing offense. The mound is nothing more than shifting sand beneath his feet, ground impossible to put one\u2019s faith in. Houser entered Thursday\u2019s start with a 7.36 ERA over his first five starts of the 2026 season, with a -10 Pitching Run Value. He had given up at least 4 earned runs in all but his first start and was still looking for answers to his 11-hit, 8-run thrashing by the Marlins when he took the mound in Philadelphia. Tipping pitches? Sure, man, maybe\u2026or based on the first pitch solo shot by Trea Turner, it\u2019s less that he\u2019s tipping, and more that he\u2019s just throwing. Throwing the baseball has really just not worked for Houser this past month. It\u2019s time to tear down, to restructure and rebuild \u2014 if that fact wasn\u2019t clear beforehand, it became obvious after Kyle Schwarber chased Turner\u2019s solo shot with an absolute tank to deep right center.<\/p>\n

Two batters into the game, two runs already in. Burn it all down, and Houser did. Right in the middle of the diamond, he burst into flames, becoming engulfed in a cleansing fire, and was reduced to ashes. Like a phoenix, he reformed in front of our eyes. A new man with gritted teeth, and a hardened, Clint Eastwood visage of determination. Or something like that. Houser didn\u2019t become Dirty Harry, but he started getting hitters out. Batters no longer felt lucky to face him. A front door sinker froze Bryce Harper at the top of the zone. Two groundouts stranded Justin Crawford in the 2nd after his one-out triple that missed another solo home run by a couple of feet. The next Phillies hit off Houser wouldn\u2019t come until two outs in the 5th. After walks to Schwarber and Harper in the 3rd, he got Adolis Garcia to ground into an inning-ending double play, then made a nice recovery play after taking a comebacker off his hip as part of an 8-pitch 4th. He dropped a wicked 0-2 curveball on Garrett Stubbs for the second out in the 5th before Turner punched a single up the middle, chasing Houser from the hill, before coming around to score three batters later.<\/p>\n

The 4.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 K, 2 HR isn\u2019t quite a .44 magnum of a pitching line, but considering how poorly Houser has pitched, and how poorly his afternoon started, those particular results are a decent step forward. He held the line long enough for the Giants offense to piece themselves back into the game. The third run earned was hardly his fault considering Turner essentially walked around the bases with Ryan Borucki on the hill.<\/p>\n

At just 68 pitches, and it being Philadelphia\u2019s first hit since the 2nd, it did seem like a quick trigger by Vitello. Then again, take a moment to think about it, and the decision was pretty understandable. Don\u2019t be swayed by recency bias. Houser pitched well for three innings. Did we truly believe he had been rebuilt, or reborn? Did we want to see him face off against Schwarber for a third time if the homer in the first still hadn\u2019t returned to earth? And with lefty specialist Ryan Borucki, why give Houser more rope to potentially trip himself on? The button was there, rosy red and flashing, and Vitello punched it. Many of us would have.<\/p>\n

Having not pitched in six days, Borucki was well-rested and well-rusted. He was holding the baseball but didn\u2019t seem to be in control against Philadelphia\u2019s power lefties. With count leverage, Schwarber flipped a hustle double to left field. Harper then walked on four pitches to bring up the right-hander Adolis Garcia, who sawed a 3-2 slider into left for a 2-run single to regain the lead.<\/p>\n

Soon after a passing spring shower relieved itself over south Philly postponing the game for half-an-hour. Some Giants fans may have preferred it if the grounds crew had just kept the tarp on the field and called the game then.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine straight sinkers to Bryson Stott before his game-tying triple that led to the Phillies 3-2 walk-off win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,81698],"class_list":{"0":"post-687308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-san-francisco-giants-scores-standings"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116497767229691818","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}