But even he surely didn’t anticipate such a loud awakening.
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Pence hit a grand slam as part of an eight-run fourth inning against ex- All-Star Cole Hamels, and the San Francisco Giants beat the Philadelphia Phillies 15-2 on Friday night.
A Posey single to left loaded the bases for the third time in the inning, and Pence finally cleaned up the mess, smacking a 2-1 pitch down the right field line and over the wall for his third home run of the season.
The Giants are a big favorite but it is warranted as they should blast the Phillies here.
“They broke out tonight…”
Collectively, yes, but also for several individuals over a longer period than just the last week. But perhaps the most encouraging night was delivered by leadoff man Angel Pagan. 189 with one extra-base hit in his past 24 games.
Duffy had the first four-hit night of his career – all singles. 214 in 24 games since June 11, hitless in 19 straight at-bats against left-handers.
Center fielder Ben Revere and right fielder Domonic Brown had two hits apiece in the loss.
Joe Panik, Justin Maxwell and Matt Duffy each recorded four hits, the first time a trio of Giants have accomplished the feat since Tom Haller, Jesus Alou and Hal Lanier did it on May 22, 1965. “We had some guys that had been struggling”, manager Bruce Bochy said. They had some good at-bats and success that was needed for their confidence.
Before the game, Pagan was among several players taking early batting practice under the eye of hitting coach Hensley Meulens.
“This game can be a physical and mental grind”, Hamels said.
“I was just trying to work on some things that I feel like I need to make some adjustments (on)”, Pagan said. “I was hoping he’d miss it or foul it back”. I feel really good at the plate, I’m seeing the ball good. “But today, it was awesome”.
The victory pushes Bumgarner’s record to 9-5 on the year as the 25-year-old heads to Cincinnati for the All-Star Game next week.
He lost his only previous matchup with San Francisco, allowing three runs over 6 2-3 innings in a 5-2 road defeat August 17.
“Once you get sent down, you can’t wait to get back”. When he gets going, he’s the table-setter and guys, we kind of feed off him.
Panik’s two-run homer in the seventh bounced into McCovey’s Cove, followed quickly by a fan, who grabbed it and proudly displayed the ball while trending water.
Bumgarner, who received more run support than his last five starts combined, had a pair of hits and drove in a run.
The bullpen didn’t fare much better once Hamels exited the game. Not to mention Madison Bumgarner was on the hill for the Giants.
“We swung the bat today as good as we can swing it”, Bumgarner said. Hamels is a really good pitcher. And he also collected two of the 22 hits offensively, giving him the National League lead among pitchers with 10.
“If there’s any time I can save some bullets with him, I’m going to do it”, Bochy said. With a big lead the Giants allowed Bumgarner to save his arm a bit after throwing 103 pitches in what turned into a relatively short 5.2 inning start.
“It’s just about winning games”, he said. It put the Giants ahead at that point 9-1 and they never looked back.
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“Quality at-bats, just getting the pitch you really wanted and no chasing anything”, said Pagan when asked about the approach against Hamels. “Sometimes it’s going to be more of a battle than others”. But they did that and added plenty of icing on a wild, wondrous night of hitting Friday night. Starting pitcher Cole Hamels allowed 12 hits and nine runs while striking out four over 3.1 innings to take the loss and fall to 5-7 for the season. It was Pence’s fifth career grand slam and 16th career homer against his ex- club. Who knows, he might pressing knowing that the trading deadline is coming around.
