Philadelphia scratched scheduled starter Aaron Nola 4 hours before the game and placed him on the 15-day disabled list with a strained elbow. They immediately optioned him to the IronPigs upon claiming him, making Wednesday his Phillies debut. “The only thing I can say is they beat me”. Crawford hit a two-run single and Belt tied the game with a three-run shot. The Phillies battled back to tie it on a single by Franco in the 6th, before a five-run outburst in the eighth lifted the Fightin’s to the eventual victory and final score. Then Hunter Strickland followed with two dominant strikeouts before Franco hit a chopper up the middle that scored Taylor Featherston to make it 8-8.
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After sitting out the first half of the season with a wrist injury, Altherr homered in his first game last Thursday but had been hitless in his last nine at-bats before homering in the first inning Tuesday. While Franco ran to first and touched the bag, Altherr, who said he “kind of got caught up in the moment” never ran to second.
Of Altherr’s 39 career hits, 22 of them have gone for extra bases.
Altherr said he would buy Franco dinner if the mistake cost his teammate a hit, but after a long delay following the game, the official scorer credited Franco with a single.
George Kontos opened his second inning by plunking former Giants prospect Tommy Joseph. I didn’t know why security just doesn’t do that on their own. This time it wasn’t the bullpen’s undoing more than it was starting pitcher Johnny Cueto.
But offense was hard to come by early. Philly logged ten hits and walked four times with Ryan Howard and Cameron Rupp smacking solo bombs while Maikel Franco went 2-6 and knocked in three runs.
Phil Klein recovered from a shaky first inning in an emergency start for the Phillies and lasted five innings, giving up four runs and eight hits. Bochy tabbed Javier Lopez to faced Odubel Herrera and Freddy Galvis, who walked and flew out, respectively.
Cueto gave up a pair of one-out singles but Bruce Bochy stuck with him as the bullpen got going in a hurry.
The Phillies jumped all Giants ace Madison Bumgarner, taking a 6-0 lead through two innings. The Giants went six innings without a baserunner until Hunter Pence singled off Hernandez to start the 11th.
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Klein had more baserunners in the fourth but an inning-ending double play helped. Manager Pete Mackanin said it is possible Nola will miss the rest of the season, but Nola said he would like to return before the end. “He showed some good stuff, a good fastball, some good breaking stuff”. They’ve also won just 7 of 27 games following a win, so don’t be afraid to go back to the well on the Giants tonight. He was optioned to Triple-A shortly after the game was final.
