SF Giants' open homestand with 3-1 win over Phillies before Dodgers' arrival

Cam Inman, The Mercury News on Jul 8, 2025

Published in Baseball

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SAN FRANCISCO – Before the Giants can finally welcome the Dodgers to Oracle Park this season on their way into the All-Star break, the National League East-leading Phillies came first as a three-game undercard.

It’s a high-powered homestand, and it got off to a victorious, tension-filled start Monday night with the Giants prevailing 3-1 before a sellout crowd of 40,043.

Swept by Miami their last time at home, the Giants produced two runs in an eighth-inning rally dependent on ground balls and batters hit by pitches.

The winning rally, step-by-step:

— Willy Adames, having already extended his hitting streak to a season-best eight games, led off by getting hit by a pitch from reliever Orion Kerkering.

— Matt Chapman, in his third game back from a sprained wrist, battled to a full count before grounding a single to right and moving Adames to third. “It’s a big homestand for us, so it’s big to get this first one for us,” Chapman said after getting a celebratory water shower on NBC Sports Bay Area’s postgame show.

— Wilmer Flores, the Giants’ RBI leader, got hit by a 3-1 pitch to load the bases.

— Casey Schmitt, in his first game off the 10-day Injured List, hit a grounder to shortstop to bring home Adames for a 2-1 lead; Schmitt beat the relay throw to first to avoid a double play.

— Jung Ho Lee rattled a grounder to first baseman Bryce Harper, whose wide throw home allowed Chapman to slid in safely head first for an insurance run and 3-1 lead.

Camilo Doval came on for his 14th save in 18 opportunities, and that capped a top-notch night for the Giants’ bullpen in relief of Landen Roupp’s start.

“It hasn’t been his best here recently. But he’s finding a way to get it done,” Giants manager Bob Melvin said.

Doval, like Monday’s pitching predecessors, allowed the leadoff runner to reach (Max Kepler; walk). Schmitt made a leaping snare for the inning’s first out (on Doval’s 13th pitch to J.T. Realmuto). Bryson Stott then grounded to Flores at first for what would be a game-ending double play.

The Giants (50-42) have won three in a row. The Phillies (53-38) had won their previous two.

The Giants parlayed a bases-loaded rally in the second inning into a 1-0 lead, with Chapman scoring that lone run when Luis Matos’ RBI grounder was botched by shortstop Trea Turner, who potentially could have started an inning-ending double play had he cleanly fielded the ball. Chapman had led off with a single, followed by a Flores single and Schmitt walk.

Roupp opened with four scoreless innings, while twice striking out All-Star Kyle Schwarber.

Then the ball literally bounced the Phillies’ way as they pulled even in the fifth inning. Bryson Stott scored on a wild pitch from third, but only after Stott reached base when a bad-hop grounder clanked off first baseman Wilmer Flores’ right foot and between his legs on its way down the right-field line for a leadoff double.

Roupp escaped further damage in the fifth, thanks to Luis Matos making a diving catch on a Schwarber liner before Harper struck out looking on a high, full-count sinker.

“Today he just had great energy out there. It was like early in the season energy, not coming down to the half,” Melvin said. ” … It’s obviously a tough lineup to navigate through. The last three times out, he’s been really good.”

Then it was up to the Giants’ bullpen to tease then shut down the Phillies.

Ryan Walker worked a 1-2-3 sixth, then Joey Lucchesi yielded a leadoff single in the seventh before recording three consecutive outs – on a sacrifice bunt, on a comebacker off his left hip, and on a strikeout of Trea Turner. Reliever Tyler Rogers mimicked that pattern, surrendering a leadoff single (to Schwarber) before inducing three outs and keeping the score tied.

NOTES: Schmitt had returned to the lineup fresh off the 10-day Injured List, presumably to settle in as the second baseman now that Chapman is back at third base and Tyler Fitzgerald got sent back to Triple-A Sacramento. Schmitt’s .276 batting average was the best in the Giants’ lineup entering Monday’s game. … Roupp has allowed four runs combined over his past four starts. … Adames stretched his season-best hitting streak to eight games with a fifth-inning double. … A marriage proposal – congrats to Olivia and Tobias – drew the night’s most emotional standing ovation, including from some Giants in their neighboring dugout during the sixth-inning stretch. … The Giants were poised to take a 2-0 lead in the third, but a ground-rule double by Chapman off the center-field track forced Rafael Devers back to third base. Wilmer Flores struck out to strand both runners in scoring position; Devers reached by skying a ball into the bay breeze before it kindly fell ahead of right fielder Nick Castellanos.

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