History nearly repeats itself in loss

Benches cleared, but good sense reigned after Kyle Harrison nearly plunked Bryce Harper on an inauspicious anniversary

For those who celebrate: Happy 7th Anniversary of Bryce Harper’s and Hunter Strickland’s infamous dust-up!

What lit this epic collision of stupidity aflame?

A long-dormant ember that had sat cocooned in cool ash for nearly three years, initially sparked by Bryce Harper lifting a homer off Strickland that the reliever thought he “pimped.”

After giving up two long balls to a kid in the NLDS, I get being bummed, but Harper wasn’t the problem. It was the location of Strickland’s fastball. The first sign of a future reckoning for hard-throwers. A prophecy: 97 MPH isn’t going to cut it for much longer. It’s also important to note that prior to the postseason Strickland had thrown only 7 innings of Major League pitching to his name, while Harper had a Rookie of the Year award and two All-Star nods.

Whatever “old school” baloney that fueled Strickland’s anger/cry-for-help didn’t pay much deference to Harper’s professional seniority.

The belated scrap after Strickland hit Harper in the hip sent vloggers in a tizzy. Commentaries were recorded, articles written about teammates tackled and concussed, about the flailing fists, the handful of punches that kind-of landed. The whole ordeal was every bit as uncoordinated and productive as a bumper car pile-up at Family Fun Center.

Kyle Harrison was a freshman in high school when Hunter Strickland was pulled kicking, scratching, hissing off the field into a 6-game suspension. Though a Giants fan who as a puberty-addled teenager at the time may have been pretty jazzed up by the whole thing, Harrison was in no way paying homage to Strickland or blowing on coals when he threw up-and-in to Harper in the 4th of Wednesday’s loss.

Philadelphia had runners at the corners with two outs, and the young lefty needed to keep the Phillies’ two-run lead manageable. Harper had hit 3-run blasts in back-to-back games against the Giants earlier in the month. Harrison had already K’ed him twice with two fastballs in previous innings.

Situationally, the game appeared primed to be defined. One swing of the bat could do it. You’d forgive Harrison—who is known to be a little wild anyway—for being overzealous with his signature pitch. Jacked up on adrenaline, wanting to get out of the inning, wanting the strike-out hat trick on one of the best sluggers in the game, he goosed one.

The first 1-2 chin-music warranted words from Harper. Not sure exactly what was said, but based off my lip-reading something along the lines of Please, sir, do be careful when you throw that pitch, it is coming in very fast and nearly struck me!

I understand the well mannered and articulated gripe. Raise your hand if you want to get hit in the face with a baseball. Imagine as a left-handed batter having to discern in milliseconds whether you need to cover Harrison’s slurve sliding to the outside of the plate, or if a riding fastball is making a bee-line for your nose.

Pretty impressive Harper got out of the way of the first one. A wonder he dodged the second. Understandably, he felt a bit salty about the next one. Luckily, things didn’t escalate like they did in 2017. Curt Casali and his mustache got between Harper and Harrison immediately. Both benches cleared, the bullpens stormed in from the outfield to mingle like a colony of penguins between the pitcher’s mound and home. No beaks were bonked. The only physical contact was a minor shove suppressed by Matt Williams, arms outstretched like a traffic cop. Emotions cooled as quickly as they ignited. Brawl down-graded to a bureaucratic cocktail hour that took some minutes to clear up.

Dust settled, warnings given, and it was ruled that the at-bat would continue since the fastball missed Harper entirely and caught the handle of his bat instead. With the stakes raised even higher, Harrison got Harper to ground out to short three pitches later.

That was about as heated as Wednesday’s getaway game got.

Kyle Harrison may have put Harper in a bad mood, but the rest of the Phillies had no problem with the lefty.

After being shutout over 10 innings for only the second time all season, the potent offense wasted no time getting on the board when Kyle Schwarber lifted a lead-off homer to left in the 1st. Three singles would add up to another run in the 2nd, and Nick Castellanos’s 2-run homer doubled the Phillies’ lead in the 5th. Harper and Schwarber would add another run each against Randy Rodriguez in the 8th.

Though usual suspects like Schwarber (2 RBI) and Castellanos (3 for 5, 2 RBI) delivered the clout against Harrison and the San Francisco Giants bullpen, it was the arms’ problematic handling of the bottom of the lineup that set the table for Philadelphia’s 6-1 victory.

The 6-9 hitters collected 7 of their 14 hits while also working 2 walks.

Lead-off singles from Castellanos and Stott threw Harrison into the deep-end in the 2nd. The lefty nearly thrashed his way out of it if not for number 9 hitter, Christian Pache, pulling a first-pitch slurve through the 5.5 hole for an RBI single.

Though it didn’t produce much but bluster, lead-off singles in the 4th from back-up catcher Garrett Stubbs and Pache spelled another unpleasant and stressful inning. A double off the bat of the number 7 hitter Whit Merrifield and a single from Stubbs in the 5th, again didn’t directly result in runs, but caused more headaches.

Finally, in the 8th, lead-off walks from Merrifield and Stubbs against Randy Rodriguez came around to score on RBI singles from Schwarber and Harper.

A season-high 101 pitches for Harrison were needed to muscle through 5 innings. He got knocked around for 4 runs on 12 hits while walking 1 and striking out 5. He’s given up 14 runs over his last 20 innings pitched.

On the other side of the ball, the Giants didn’t do much to pester Philly starter Christian Sánchez.

Their best scoring opportunity against the lefty came in the 3rd after singles from Brett Wisely (replacing Marco Luciano after being pulled for hamstring soreness) and Thairo Estrada, and a Matt Chapman walk loaded the bases with two outs. Wilmer Flores, who had singled in his first at-bat and would rip a double to left-center in the 9th, couldn’t put together a swing when it mattered most. Sánchez dispatched him on three pitches: sinker, low and inside, change-up low, change-up in the dirt.

Sánchez, who had allowed 6 runs over his last three starts (18 innings), came in to San Francisco hot and stayed hot, scattering 4 hits over 6 scoreless innings, while allowing just 1 walk and striking out 7.

The Giants earned only 4 at-bats with runners in scoring position, with Heliot Ramos’s two-out single in the 9th being the only hit producing their only run. Over the last 19 innings, San Francisco has scored two runs. Not the most inspiring of offensive displays going into a series against the New York Yankees, but the pros probably outweigh the cons on this one.

A Wednesday loss, can’t take away a series win, their fourth in a row. And, at the end of the day, the Giants took two-of-three from one of the best teams in baseball. No complaints here.