Giants hope to feast on Phillies again (Jun 03, 2017)
PHILADELPHIA — A trip to Citizens Bank Park is turning out to be a remedy for any club looking to reverse its hitting woes.
Owners of worst offense in the major leagues entering the weekend (3.31 runs per game), the San Francisco Giants took advantage of a Philadelphia Phillies pitching staff that issued 10 free passes, its most this season, en route to a 10-0 win on Friday night to open the series.
The 10 runs scored were a season high for San Francisco, and came after the club managed just four runs in a three-game sweep at the hands of the Washington Nationals to close out May.
“I can’t tell you when we’ve had a game like this, it’s been a while. … We did benefit from walks, obviously, but we had some good at-bats, too,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said. “It’s a good way to start the road trip and we got shut out twice the last homestand, almost got shut out a third time, so it’s good seeing these bats come to life.”
On Saturday, Phillies will hand the ball to rookie Ben Lively as the 25-year-old makes his major league debut after a stellar year-and-a-half in the club’s minor league system.
In nine starts with Triple-A Lehigh Valley this season, Lively is 6-1 with a 2.40 ERA. Last year, split between Lehigh Valley and Double-A Reading, he went 18-5 with a 2.69 ERA.
“What I hope is that he’ll come up and do exactly what he’s been doing at Triple-A,” Phillies general manager Matt Klentak told CSNPhilly.com on Friday. “He competes his butt off on the mound, he throws a lot of strikes. He’s got a really good feel on the mound. He demonstrated that…