Bryce Harper sparks Phillies’ 6-4 comeback win over the Giants in the series opener
A four-run seventh inning helped the Phillies overcome a rough outing from Andrew Painter. Harper went 3-for-4 with two doubles and drove in three runs.
SAN FRANCISCO — After a four-hit game at Oracle Park last season, Bryce Harper made a declaration.
“I’m really good,” he said on July 9. “Like, I really am. I don’t want to put that out there and everybody go, ‘What’s he talking about?’ But I know when I’m going well, I’m one of the best in baseball.”
With the Phillies back in the Bay Area on Monday, Harper had another standout performance in their 6-4 series-opening win over the Giants. He went 3-for-4 with two doubles — his first three-hit game of the season — and drove in half of the Phillies’ runs in the comeback victory.
Harper was 0-for-8 in the Phillies’ last two games in Colorado before breaking out at Oracle Park.
“I just love coming here and playing in this ballpark,” Harper said. “There’s times where I have good series here, there’s times where I have bad series here. But every time I come in here, I feel very confident in my ability to play well.”
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Even so, the ballpark hasn’t been a pleasant place for the Phillies in recent history. They have not won a road series against San Francisco since 2013.
“We haven’t played well here,” Harper said. “So be able to win that one tonight, come back, fight, [is] really, really good going into tomorrow.”
A four-run seventh inning helped the Phillies overcome a rough second outing for starter Andrew Painter, who struggled to make bats miss and gave up four runs over four innings.
Giants hitters swung at 44 of the 90 pitches Painter threw on Monday, and they only whiffed four times. He struck out only one batter — Heliot Ramos in the first inning — with his four-seam. Painter fell behind in counts often, throwing first-pitch strikes to only 11 of the 21 batters he faced.
“That’s tough to pitch like that. I dug myself in a hole,” Painter said. “There was never really a moment where I was in the driver’s seat.”
Painter gave up nine hits. Two runs scored on a triple from Matt Chapman in the third inning, which Justin Crawford couldn’t catch up to in center field and he had to chase off the wall. Chapman then scored on a single from Ramos.
The Giants loaded the bases against Painter in the fourth on two singles and a walk, but he managed to limit the damage to one run on a sacrifice fly when Chapman grounded out to end the inning.
“The difference between this game and the last game was that once he got behind the count, it didn’t seem like he was landing his secondary pitches as well as he did in the last game,” manager Rob Thomson said. “But he battled, and he got out of a couple of tough situations.”
Painter only issued one walk despite often working from behind in counts, which he took as a positive.
“With how often I was falling behind 2-0, that was a big takeaway,” he said. “But I need to make those pitches earlier.”
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The Phillies put the leadoff man aboard against Giants starter Adrian Houser in the third and fourth innings and failed to capitalize, but they hit pay dirt in the fifth.
J.T. Realmuto started things off with a single, and Crawford doubled to left field to put runners on second and third. An RBI groundout from Trea Turner scored the Phillies’ first run of the day, and Kyle Schwarber kept the line moving with a walk. Harper doubled to drive in another run and cut the Giants’ lead to 4-2.
Once Houser was lifted from the game after allowing consecutive singles in the seventh, the Phillies cashed in against the Giants’ bullpen. San Francisco brought in lefty Ryan Borucki to match up against Schwarber and Harper, but the move backfired. Schwarber walked, Harper singled, and Alec Bohm doubled to score three runs and give the Phillies a 5-4 lead before San Francisco recorded an out.
“Typically, those guys have hit left-handed pitching,” Thomson said. “That’s why we sort of stack those guys together. If they want to take their best shot and do it right there, then that’s OK.”
Brandon Marsh drove in Harper with a sacrifice fly to tack on an insurance run.
Harper said that even if his stat line didn’t show it in the last two games in Colorado, he feels like his swing has been in a good place.
“Obviously the last day in Colorado wasn’t very good, but the day before I hit two that could easily have been two doubles or a homer,” he said. “So I feel good. Just got to keep plugging away and keep having good at-bats.”
The Phillies’ bullpen continued its run of dominance, with Tim Mayza, Jonathan Bowlan, José Alvarado, Brad Keller, and Jhoan Duran each pitching a scoreless inning.
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“They stepped up,” Painter said. “To go out there and just throw up five more zeros after that. The offense stepped up. Super happy that everyone could pick me up.”
Mayza retired the side in order in the fifth to extend his scoreless streak to seven straight innings.
Duran gave up a two-out double to Willy Adames in the ninth to bring the tying run to the plate, but he induced a groundout from Luis Arráez to earn his fourth save of the season.