Phillies blanked by five Giants pitchers, including former top prospect Spencer Howard

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 the 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 a ballpark that has been a torture chamber for the Phillies 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 — 240 days, to be precise — since it has happened to the Phillies. But with a 1-0 loss to the Giants in 10 innings Tuesday night, they dropped their third game in a row for the first time since Sept. 30 of last season.

And after surging to the best 50-game start (36-14) in franchise history, they have lost four of five games on a western swing that mercifully wraps up Wednesday.

“It’s hard to maintain what we were doing,” said ace Zack Wheeler, who held the Giants to two hits in six scoreless innings. “It’s baseball at the end of the day. You have your ups and downs. Just take it as it comes. We’ll be all right.”

Surely, Wheeler is right. The Phillies still have the best record in baseball (38-18) and a five-game lead over the Braves in the NL East. Go ahead and panic, if you’re inclined. The Phillies won’t. Not even after they lost their ninth consecutive game at Oracle Park, where they have dropped 12 of 13 since 2019 and 16 of 18 since 2018.

But it was, well, unsettling that they were unable to deliver a hit with a runner in scoring position on a night when the Giants pieced together 30 outs with five relievers that included former Phillies prospects Erik Miller and Spencer Howard (remember him?).

Howard, in particular, flummoxed the Phillies. Never mind that he was called up Tuesday from triple A with a 5.90 ERA, or that he was making his first major-league appearance since July 28 of last season for the Rangers. He tossed four scoreless innings as the bulk reliever in a game started by Miller, a former Phillies fourth-round pick.

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“We haven’t seen Spencer Howard,” said manager Rob Thomson, who might as well have added “since 2021,” when the Phillies traded Howard to Texas at the deadline for Kyle Gibson. “He filled up the strike zone pretty good. He did a good job.”

The Phillies left the automatic runner on third base in the top of the 10th before the Giants snapped the scoreless stalemate against lefty reliever Matt Strahm. Luis Matos lifted a sacrifice fly to score Tyler Fitzgerald from third base despite a strong throw from Brandon Marsh.

After scoring at least four runs in 13 consecutive games from May 10-23, the Phillies have scored a total of 16 runs in five games on the trip to Colorado and San Francisco.

“I just think it’s baseball,” Realmuto said. “We were obviously really hot at home. We haven’t swung the bats as well this road trip. But there’s nothing that I’m seeing out of the guys that points to why it’s happening. I think it’s just part of the ebbs and flows of the season.”

Lacking a traditional starter, Giants manager Bob Melvin led with his only two lefties out of the bullpen and got nine outs from Miller and Taylor Rogers. Miller dialed up 99 mph fastballs and got seven swings and misses on 20 pitches.

In the fourth inning, Rogers passed the baton to Howard, 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.”

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But Howard had difficulty maintaining his velocity through starts with the Phillies. So, when he came out throwing 96 mph, it was fair to assume his fastball would drop off. But he whiffed Marsh on a 94.9 mph heater in the seventh inning.

“I thought his velo held up,” Realmuto said. “He threw the ball well, kept us off balance. He threw his off-speed for strikes when he needed too and threw the ball well.”

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, 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.

“He thought it was going through [for a hit],” Thomson said. “Those things happen. J.T.’s a good baserunner. You don’t see that very often.”

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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“Just pitched to my strengths and their weaknesses,” Wheeler said. “The velocity feels good these days. I’m holding it, for the most part, through the game.”

It was more than enough, if only the Phillies didn’t get shut out for the first time since April 9 in St. Louis.

“This club’s going to hit,” Thomson said. “Just going through a rough patch right now.”

For the first time all season.