SAN FRANCISCO–The dream is officially over.
Though it ended months ago, San Francisco’s dream of winning the National League West went up in flames in the eighth inning on Sunday afternoon, as a three-run frame for the Phillies against reliever Hunter Strickland led to a 5-2 Giants’ loss that mathematically knocked the team out of contention in the National League West.
With the Los Angeles Dodgers in the midst of a historic season, the defeat kept San Francisco 39 games behind their first place rivals and earned them the distinction of becoming the first team in baseball to officially exit a division race.
It was a series loss to the Phillies, the last place team in the National League East, back in early June that marked the unofficial nail in the Giants’ coffin, so perhaps it was fitting that the club with the worst record in the Major Leagues salvaged a series split on Sunday afternoon to remind San Francisco of all of its struggles this season.
Back in June, the Giants dropped the final two games of a three-game set in Philadelphia to fall 12 games under .500 and 12 games back of the Dodgers, a team preparing to take aim at Major League Baseball’s history books. At that point in the year, ace Madison Bumgarner had already suffered a separated shoulder, the Giants’ hopes of finding an everyday left fielder had already fallen apart, and yet still, a season that felt like it couldn’t possibly get worse was in the early stages of weaving far off course.
Even though the Giants had Bumgarner back on the hill on Sunday, and their Opening Day left fielder Jarrett Parker back in the lineup, the club had no answer for a late-inning rally from the Phillies that squashed the good work Bumgarner, Parker and catcher Buster Posey had put forth.
When Bumgarner is on the mound, the Giants’ ace only tops out around 90 miles per hour these days. But when Bumgarner is at the plate, fire up the radar guns, because triple digits are in order. In the bottom half of the fifth inning, Bumgarner broke a 1-1 tie with a laser of a single to left field that exited his bat at 109.7 miles per hour and brought home first baseman Ryder Jones to give San Francisco the go-ahead run in a game that in past years, the Giants would have found a way to win.
Bumgarner’s fifth inning single temporarily erased memories of the early scoring opportunities the Giants squandered, but ultimately, three double plays San Francisco hit into in the early innings of Sunday’s contest came back to haunt an offense that has rarely backed the staff’s ace with enough run support this year.
The 28-year-old left-hander did compliment his RBI single with a six-inning, one-run effort on a day when Bumgarner clearly didn’t have his best “stuff.” Even though he kept the Phillies’ offense off the board for much of the day, Bumgarner needed 111 pitches to navigate through six frames, and needed help from Parker to preserve that 2-1 lead once he left the game.
With Mark Melancon on in the seventh inning, Phillies’ pinch hitter Hyun Soo Kim lined a one-out single to left field that threatened to even the score. As right fielder Cameron Perkins rounded third base, Parker scooped up the ball and threw a two-hopper to catcher Buster Posey who swiped the tag on Perkins just in time to keep the Giants’ lead intact.
Though Sunday’s game marked just the 23rd start for Parker this season, his fourth outfield assist of the year now leads all Giants’ outfielders.
Parker’s throw wasn’t even the most impressive outfield assist of the contest, as Phillies’ left fielder Pedro Florimon gunned down Posey at the plate for the first out of the bottom of the second inning. After a Brandon Crawford single to left gave the Giants their third straight base runner to lead off the frame, third base coach Phil Nevin gave Posey an aggressive send signal as he came chugging around third. Florimon retrieved Crawford’s single and delivered a seed to home plate to keep Philadelphia ahead 1-0, and keep Nevin second-guessing the early send.
Posey was responsible for the Giants’ first RBI of the game, as his fourth inning single plated Kelby Tomlinson to tie the game at 1-1. Tomlinson, who continues to start at second base with both Joe Panik and Miguel Gomez on the disabled list, reached scoring position after drawing a leadoff walk and stealing his ninth base of the season.
The six-inning stint for Bumgarner marked his fifth consecutive outing throwing six innings or more, and the fifth time in six starts he’s surrendered two or fewer runs. After the Giants’ offense found a way to make Bumgarner a winner in Miami earlier this week, San Francisco’s bullpen ended up costing its starting pitcher a shot at a win on Sunday.