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Phillies rally around Bryce Harper, rout the Giants to snap a three-game losing streak

Scott Lauber, The Philadelphia Inquirer on

Published in Baseball

SAN FRANCISCO — After the first fastball, high and tight and clocked at 94 mph, Bryce Harper took a step back, glared at the mound, and yelled to San Francisco Giants starter Kyle Harrison.

But that was only the beginning.

The next pitch, higher and tighter at 93 mph, nicked the nob of Harper’s bat, knocked off his helmet, and emptied both benches and bullpens in the fourth inning Wednesday.

Maybe it woke up the Phillies, too.

The umpires warned both benches but didn’t issue ejections. Harper scarcely moved from the batter’s box, as players milled around him. He didn’t move much faster once play resumed and he rolled a ball up the middle that he might have beaten out if he had run hard.

But the Phillies turned a two-run lead into a 6-1 victory that busted a three-game funk — and a nine-game losing skid in San Francisco dating to 2021 — and sent them home from a western swing with a 2-4 record but still in possession of the majors’ best overall mark at 39-18.

 

Kyle Schwarber led off the game with a homer against Harrison, setting a tone for the slumping Phillies and continuing his atypical dominance of lefties. Entering the game, Schwarber was batting .337/.444/.494 against lefties, compared to .175/.311/.350 against righties.

Nick Castellanos, off to a brutal start that left him among the lowest-producing everyday players in the majors, came within a triple of hitting for the cycle, including a two-run homer to left field in the fifth inning.

Oh, and Cristopher Sánchez cranked up his sinker to 97.4 mph, scattered four hits, and struck out seven in six scoreless innings to cap a month in which he posted a 2.03 ERA in 31 innings over five starts.

But it was Harper’s bizarre day that had everyone talking among a feisty crowd at Oracle Park.

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