Giants third baseman Matt Chapman hits a two-run triple in the third inning Monday against the Phillies at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
The Giants’ Heliot Ramos celebrates after hitting an RBI single during the third inning Monday against the Phillies at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
Giants third baseman Matt Chapman celebrates with teammate Jerar Encarnacion, right, after scoring on a single by Heliot Ramos during the third inning Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
The Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper slides into second base with a double as Giants second baseman Luis Arraez applies a late tag during the first inning Monday at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
Giants center fielder Harrison Bader dives for a single hit by the Philadelphia Phillies’ Trea Turner during the seventh inning Monday at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
Giants lefty Ryan Borucki, right, gets encouragement from third baseman Matt Chapman, center, and catcher Patrick Bailey during the seventh inning of a game Monday against the Philadelphia Phillies at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
Giants second baseman Luis Arraez tags the Philadelphia Phillies’ Bryce Harper out on a stolen base attempt during the eighth inning Monday at Oracle Park.
Jed Jacobsohn/Associated Press
As the San Francisco Giants find ways to self-destruct to start this so-far stumbly season, Monday’s culprit was the bullpen, or more to the point, reliever Ryan Borucki.
In three of his five appearances, Borucki has met with trouble, giving up homers in two of those and, against the Phillies, he was just not effective at all in handing over the lead in the seventh inning of Philadelphia’s eventual 6-4 victory.
Borucki said starter Adrian Houser “pitched his butt off today, and he didn’t deserve how it finished with me. I just let the team down, that’s really where it stings. We should have won that game, and I just didn’t do my part to get the job done and it equated to a loss.”
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Through Monday, San Francisco has dropped four in a row and at 3-8 is off to the worst start in the National League. In the majors, only the 2-8 Red Sox are worse.
Monday’s outcome was especially painful for a Giants team that has struggled to score but put together a little three-run rally off Philadelphia’s promising young starter Andrew Painter, making his second big-league start. Matt Chapman, something of a lightning rod for criticism after four errors, a slow start at the plate and a horrible baserunning decision Sunday, drilled a two-run triple in the third and Heliot Ramos added an RBI single; Luis Arraez provided a sacrifice fly the next inning.
“The attitude and energy was kind of what you want,” manager Tony Vitello said. “That was a start. And then guys just looked like they were on it more.”
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The Phillies scored twice against Houser in the fifth, but he did a nice job of limiting the damage, and then came the usual harbinger of worse to come: That fatal seventh included a defensive glitch. After Justin Crawford opened the inning with an 0-2 single off Houser, Trea Turner took a huge hack at a sinker and popped it to shallow center. Fooled by the swing, the Giants’ Harrison Bader took a half step back before charging forward and the ball dropped in a few feet in front of him. Vitello said that the coaching staff had looked at the play and determined the ball “wasn’t catchable even though it was in the air for a while.”
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Philadelphia
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
35
6
11
6
6
7
Turner ss
5
1
1
1
0
1
.279
Schwarber dh
3
1
0
0
2
3
.171
Harper 1b
4
1
3
3
1
0
.200
Bohm 3b
5
0
2
1
0
1
.205
Stott 2b
5
0
0
0
0
0
.188
García rf
3
0
0
0
1
0
.270
Marsh lf
4
0
1
1
0
1
.297
Realmuto c
3
1
2
0
1
0
.240
Crawford cf
3
2
2
0
1
1
.355
San Francisco
AB
R
H
BI
BB
SO
Avg.
Totals
36
4
11
4
1
7
Adames ss
4
1
2
0
1
0
.214
Arraez 2b
4
1
2
1
0
0
.295
Chapman 3b
4
1
2
2
0
1
.262
Devers 1b
4
0
0
0
0
1
.190
Ramos lf
4
0
1
1
0
3
.209
Lee rf
4
0
1
0
0
0
.162
Encarnacion dh
4
0
1
0
0
1
.286
Bader cf
4
1
1
0
0
1
.132
Bailey c
4
0
1
0
0
0
.129
Philadelphia
000
020
400_6
11
0
San Francisco
003
100
000_4
11
0
LOB: Philadelphia 10, San Francisco 7. 2B: Harper 2 (3), Crawford (2), Bohm (1), Adames 2 (4). 3B: Chapman (1). RBIs: Turner (3), Harper 3 (7), Bohm (8), Marsh (6), Chapman 2 (6), Ramos (3), Arraez (4). SB: García (1). CS: Harper (1). SF: Marsh, Arraez.
Runners left in scoring position: Philadelphia 8 (Bohm, Stott 2, Crawford 2, Marsh 2, Harper); San Francisco 3 (Chapman, Ramos, Arraez). RISP: Philadelphia 3 for 16; San Francisco 3 for 8.
Runners moved up: García, Turner. GIDP: Realmuto, Lee.
DP: Philadelphia 1 (Stott, Turner, Harper); San Francisco 1 (Chapman, Arraez, Devers).
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
4
9
4
4
1
1
90
4.82
1
0
0
0
0
1
9
0.00
1
0
0
0
0
2
15
6.75
1
0
0
0
0
1
22
9.82
1
1
0
0
0
2
20
5.40
1
1
0
0
0
0
16
1.59
IP
H
R
ER
BB
SO
NP
ERA
6
9
4
4
2
3
89
3.97
2
2
2
1
0
12
9.00
0
0
0
1
1
17
0.00
1
0
0
0
1
1
15
0.00
1
0
0
0
1
2
19
0.00
Inherited runners-scored: Borucki 2-2, Kilian 2-1. HBP_Kilian (García). WP: Houser(2).
Umpires: Home, Adam Hamari; First, Clint Vondrak; Second, Todd Tichenor; Third, Austin Jones.
T: 2:49. A: 32,898 (41,915).
That’s when Borucki got the call, rather than lefty Matt Gage, not used since throwing 37 pitches Friday; Gage was slated to start a later inning given all of the Phillies’ left-handed hitters.
In series against the Yankees and the Mets, Borucki gave up a homer to Aaron Judge and another to pinch-hitter Tyrone Taylor, both right-handed hitters. But Monday, lefties got the better of him, too. He walked Kyle Schwarber (on a successful ABS challenge), then Harper knocked a two-run single to give him three RBIs on the night, and Alex Bohm, a right-handed hitter, slipped an RBI double down the first-base line.
“I prepared for that moment last two days, I knew what the pocket was going to be,” Borucki said of the stretch of hitters he faced. “Obviously you can’t start with walking Schwarber on four pitches, then you’ve got to give them credit, they put together a couple of good at-bats and kind of broke the game open.
“I’m just disappointed. Mentally, I was ready for what I wanted to do. I just didn’t execute.”
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Caleb Kilian replaced Borucki, and he hit Adolis Garcia before giving up a sacrifice fly to Brandon Marsh.
“We’re getting kind of 1,000 cuts right now, everything’s falling in, 0-2 hits that are just looping in,” Houser said. “The game doesn’t like us right now. We have to kind of grind it out and grit it out, maybe win a 3-2, 1-0 game. That’s the way we’re going to turn this around. We’re getting tested right now.
“Obviously, it’s no time to overreact or anything like that. It’s the second week of the season.”
Perhaps the Giants needed someone to bark at them. Before the game, Vitello had revealed that every time one of the Giants players has displayed some extra fire — like Chapman yelling at Casey Schmitt last week to “catch the f—ing ball” — the team has won. Two other times it’s happened, out of view, but the outcome each time was positive. Vitello wouldn’t reveal who did what, but did say the other two snaptastic moments did not involve Chapman.
“We’ve really only had three things that have been, I don’t want to say controversial, because that’s a mislabel, but kind of some intensity back and forth a little bit,” Vitello said. “We’ve played our best three games following. … I think our best games have come when our guys have kind of let loose a little bit, and coaches, too, said what they think right in the moment and (then) go out there and just play, as opposed to being a little too careful.
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“The three times I can remember that that’s occurred, it’s kind of brought our team either closer together or got our team to play more free.”
The many mistakes in the Giants’ eight losses have made things look particularly awful, but Vitello saw one potential positive in a messy start: The problems are readily identifiable and can be addressed.
“If you get the outcome you want, it kind of masks or puts makeup over the mistakes,” Vitello said before the game. “If you don’t get the outcomes you want, which clearly we’re sitting in front of right now, it makes it very evident. When things go wrong, everybody becomes an expert on everything, because you notice every little thing. And you’re looking for ‘what is it if I could just find that one thing, then it’s going good.’
“It’s really a good thing when it’s early in the year, so that in June or July, you’re not saying, ‘Well, this was an underlying problem all along, and it was never addressed.’”
The issues: wonky defense, a few bullpen wobbles and, even with a better offensive effort Monday, not nearly enough runs.
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To date, Vitello has resisted swapping any starters out for a bench player — say, using Jared Oliva in place of Jung Hoo Lee — but that day may soon come, say Tuesday against tough lefty Cristopher Sánchez.
Another strong possibility is calling up a hot bat from Triple-A Sacramento, with outfielder Victor Bericoto making a lot of noise; Bryce Eldridge, too, is a consideration. Should the team want another lefty, Juan Sanchez is pitching well, as is right-hander Gregory Santos.