Phillies’ cold bats shut down by Spencer Howard and Giants’ bullpen

Phillies’ cold bats shut down by Spencer Howard and Giants’ bullpen originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

SAN FRANCISCO — It never seems to matter how well or poorly either team is playing, the Bay Area is rarely kind to the Phillies.

They lost to the Giants, 1-0, on Tuesday night to drop their second straight series after going unbeaten in the prior 15. The Phillies have lost nine consecutive games at Oracle Park, 12 of their last 13 and are 26-53 all-time in the Giants’ scenic home park.

Zack Wheeler (2.32 ERA, 0.95 WHIP) did his thing with six scoreless innings and nine strikeouts but the bats remained quiet. The Phillies have scored 16 runs on their 1-4 road trip and six of those came in their ninth-inning comeback Saturday at Coors Field. They’ve scored just 10 runs in the other 47 innings of the trip.

Orion Kerkering, Jose Alvarado and Jeff Hoffman held the Giants off the board in the seventh, eighth and ninth innings but Matt Strahm gave up the walk-off sacrifice fly to Luis Matos in the bottom of the 10th. Four of the Phillies’ last six losses have come in extra innings.

The Phils had a sizable advantage on paper heading into Tuesday night with their ace on the hill in a bullpen game for the Giants. San Francisco has only two left-handed relievers — Erik Miller and Taylor Rogers — and they were the first two pitchers used to cover three innings.

The opportunity to score was ripe in the middle innings when the Giants brought in Spencer Howard, who like Miller is a former Phillies prospect. The Phils traded Howard to the Rangers at the 2021 deadline for Kyle Gibson and Ian Kennedy and traded Miller to the Giants in January 2023 for Yunior Marte.

Howard has struggled mightily in the majors with an 8.37 ERA and .894 opponents’ OPS since the trade, but the Phillies were unable to take advantage of him Tuesday.

Nick Castellanos and Edmundo Sosa singled in Howard’s first inning (the fourth) but were stranded when Brandon Marsh struck out swinging on a full count.

Johan Rojas singled against Howard in the fifth but was erased on a strike-em-out, throw-em-out double play.

J.T. Realmuto doubled off Howard to start the sixth but was thrown out at third base trying to advance on a groundball to shortstop Brett Wisely‘s left. Realmuto might have thought the ball was going up the middle but Wisely made an impressive play to field it and contort his body for the throw to third.

Sosa singled off Howard to lead off the seventh and didn’t advance.

Howard threw four scoreless innings. The only better night he’s had as a major-leaguer was in July 2022 with the Rangers when he pitched five scoreless against the Angels.

The Giants’ strength is the funkiness and depth of their bullpen. Tyler Rogers and Ryan Walker have unusual, deceptive deliveries, Taylor Rogers is one of the stingiest lefty specialists in the game and Camilo Doval is a top-tier closer. That San Francisco bullpen has racked up 14 scoreless innings in the series.

Third baseman Alec Bohm, who is 3-for-22 with one RBI over his last six games, was out of the starting lineup. It was planned and not a response to his two-error game Monday, manager Rob Thomson said pregame. Bohm will be back in the lineup for the series finale Wednesday afternoon. He pinch-hit with one out and the go-ahead run 90 feet away in the top of the 10th but cued a ball to first base.

It will be a losing trip no matter what for the 38-18 Phillies, who look to salvage their three-game set in San Francisco behind Cristopher Sanchez. They fly home after the game Wednesday and have Thursday off before opening a six-game homestand against the Cardinals and Brewers.