San Francisco Giants come back to take Phillies for two in a row; Duffy comes close to hitting cycle

Jul 11, 2015; San Francisco, CA, USA; San Francisco Giants center fielder Angel Pagan (16) and second baseman Joe Panik (12) celebrate after scoring on a triple by third baseman Matt Duffy (not pictured) in the sixth inning against the Philadelphia Phillies at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Lance Iversen-USA TODAY Sports

For the first few innings of Saturday nights game I wondered: what happened to the team that played here Friday night? You know the one I’m talking about–it was a bunch of multi-hit, multi-run, multi-RBI guys. I looked for them, but I didn’t see them anywhere.

In the first four innings of the game, the Giants left a runner at third–90 feet from the promised land–all four innings. Brandon Belt led off the second inning with a double, Brandon Crawford followed with a smoking hot triple, plating Belt and tying the score. But that’s as far as he got.

The Giants put base runners on every inning: Joe Panik and Matt Duffy had back-to-back base hits in the first. Duffy hit a double in the third. Crawford and Gregor Blanco hit back-to-back singles in the fourth and each moved up a base on Ryan Vogelsong’s sac bunt. Buster Posey got a two out single in the fifth.

With one out, Crawford and Blanco hit back-to-back singles in the sixth inning. You see where this is going, right? Yeah, I thought the same thing–shame on us. Justin Maxwell, pinch-hitting in the pitcher’s spot, struck out, bringing Angel Pagan to the plate.

Although Pagan was hitless for the night, with two outs and two men on, this time he hit a double, scoring Crawford and Blanco. And with that, just like an oldies radio station, the hits just kept on coming.

Panik drew a walk and Duffy hit a triple–the third leg of his cycle–bringing Pagan and Panik home, and it brought Buster up to hit. Which he did…hit, that is. He hit a single, but that was all that he needed to score Duffy.

With Hunter Pence batting, Buster advanced to second base, then third base on back-to-back wild pitches. Wild, right? Hunter lined out to end the inning with five runs scored. The Phillies scored three runs in the top half, giving them a brief glimpse at a three run lead.

The Giants scored two more runs in the seventh: Crawford reached on a fielder’s choice and scored on a Phillies fielding error that also allowed Ehire Adrianza to reach first base. Blanco drew a walk and scored when Adrianza kept the Phillies busy with a prolonged rundown after Pagan hit into a double play.

The Giants hits weren’t the prettiest dates at the dance, but they were, by far, the most fun.

Ryan Vogelsong was on the hill for the Giants, and he struggled through a few tough spots. Through five and two thirds innings, Vogelsog gave up four runs (two were home runs) on five hits and two walks. He struck out five.

The rookie, Josh Osich came into the game in the sixth inning, faced one hitter, got the out and the win, his first as a big leaguer. Hunter Strickland, George Kontos and Javier Lopez held the game.

Sergio Romo gave up a run on two hits and Santiago Casilla faced the last batter to notch the save. The final score was: Giants 8, Philies 5

What a great night for the DuffMan. He hit three legs of the cycle. In the post-game wrap, one of the reporters asked Bruce Bochy if it’s too late to take his third baseman to the All-Star game. Bochy got a little twinkle in his eye, and said with a conspiratorial little smile: “I don’t know, is it?”

You think maybe he’ll get to go? I don’t know, but he’s the DuffMan, and I like his chances.