SAN FRANCISCO — This is what a three-game losing streak looks like.
It’s a drawn-in infield with one out and a runner on third base in the 10th inning. It’s a runner sliding across home plate ahead of a throw from left field on a sacrifice fly. It’s a long walk off the field at Oracle Park, a den of Phillies horrors since 2018.
Most of all, though, it’s an offense that has gone cooler than the breeze off San Francisco Bay.
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It has been a while since this has happened to the Phillies. But with a 1-0 loss in 10 innings Tuesday night, they dropped their third game in a row for the first time all season. And after getting off to the best 50-game start in franchise history, they have lost four of five games on a western swing that mercifully wraps up Wednesday.
Never mind that the Phillies sent ace Zack Wheeler to the mound against the Giants, who pieced together the game with a group of relievers that included former Phillies prospects Erik Miller and Spencer Howard (remember him?).
It didn’t stop them from losing a ninth consecutive game in San Francisco when Luis Matos lifted a sacrifice fly to left field against lefty reliever Matt Strahm to score Tyler Fitzgerald from third base ahead of a strong throw from Brandon Marsh.
Facing the Giants for the second time in three weeks, Wheeler attacked them in a similar manner: With fastballs, including some of the hardest he has thrown all season.
Wheeler cranked his four-seamer to 98.1 mph in the first inning and still fired 96 mph sinkers in the sixth. He gave up two hits, back-to-back one-out singles in the fourth inning, and sidestepped them by getting Patrick Bailey to fly out and Jorge Soler to ground to third.
The Giants were often overpowered by Wheeler. He piled up 12 swings and misses, the last coming on a pace-changing splitter to end a 10-pitch duel with Thairo Estrada and close the sixth inning at 101 pitches.
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But the Phillies mustered minimal offense against a brigade of relievers.
Giants manager Bob Melvin chose to lead with his only two lefties out of the bullpen and got nine outs from Miller and Taylor Rogers. Miller, in particular, was impressive. The former Phillies fourth-round pick dialed up 99 mph fastballs and got seven swings and misses on 20 pitches.
In the fourth inning, Rogers passed the baton to Howard, an erstwhile top prospect who looked so promising in 2020 that Bryce Harper argued he had to have a spot in the Phillies’ rotation or else “there’s a problem.” But the Phillies traded Howard to Texas at the deadline for Kyle Gibson in 2021.
Howard has since pinballed from the Rangers to the Yankees to the Giants. The pitching-strapped Giants called him up from triple A with a 5.90 ERA in 10 starts.
And, naturally, Howard tossed four scoreless innings.
When the Phillies did get hits, they ran into outs. Johan Rojas punched a single in the fifth inning, then got caught trying to steal second. In the sixth, J.T. Realmuto lined a leadoff a double to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, the longest ever by a Phillies catcher. But he took off for third on Harper’s grounder to short and got thrown out easily.
