When the front office of the San Francisco Giants made three big trades this past week, including one who sent away fan favorite Matt Duffy, there was no hiding the fact that the players coming to The City would have the weight of the world on their shoulders.
By the end of San Francisco's first game equipped with new goodies from the likes of the Minnesota Twins, Milwaukee Brewers, and the Tampa Bay Rays, the front office was frantically searching for the receipt of the trades.
Eduardo Nuñez committed a costly throwing error in the bottom of the second inning, opening up the door for four runs for the Philadelphia Phillies and having Giants fans longing for their former cat-loving homegrown third baseman back by Brandon Crawford's side.
Will Smith, making his debut with the orange and black in a relief effort, was only able to register one out, allowing a pair of hits to Odubel Herrera and Cesar Hernandez, which materialized into runs when Sergio Romo couldn't strand them. Smith also picked up the loss.
And as for Matt Moore, he'll debut will have to wait until Thursday when he matches up against Philadelphia in the final game of this three-game series.
Even while the new supporting cast was lackluster, it's going to be hard to win when the star of the show takes the mound and lays an egg.
Madison Bumgarner got rocked in his five innings of work, including one batter he walked in the sixth, in what was undoubtedly one of the worst starts of his career, allowing eight runs, four of which were unearned, along with ten hits.
Bumgarner looked nothing like the dominant ace the Giants have been so accustomed to or even the rookie who pitched two scoreless innings of relief at Citizens Bank Park during the 2010 National League Championship Series against Philadelphia.
The lefty had the Giants trailing in the ballgame after only four pitches, giving up a leadoff single to Hernandez, then surrendered a two-run home run to Aaron Altherr in the following at-bat.
Those two first-inning runs forecasted what was to come for Bumgarner because the runs snowballed from there.
Nuñez wasn't able to help out his struggling starter, allowing the first batter of the inning, Tyler Goeddel to reach first by failing to field his grounder cleanly, then overthrowing Brandon Belt at first.
Bumgarner registered the next two outs but wasn't able to escape the inning with a clean slate when Hernandez and Altherr hit back-to-back singles, followed by Maikel Franco who launched a bomb into the left field bleachers, giving Philadelphia a 6-0 lead after only two innings.
San Francisco wouldn't trail for long as the Brandons helped fuel the six-run comeback in the middle frames.
Brandon Crawford helped get the Giants on the scoreboard in the top of the fourth, leading off the inning with a solo shot, cutting the lead to five.
The solo blast gave the Giants the spark they needed to ignite as, in the following inning, San Francisco put up a five-spot to tie up the ballgame thanks to a Crawford two-run single and a Brandon Belt three-run home run.
Both of the Brandons were struggling coming into the ballgame, with Crawford batting .196 coming since the All-Star Break coming into the game and Belt batting .173. The first baseman had also been moved down in the batting order from third to sixth.
San Francisco's big fifth inning kicked off a see-saw battle on offense, for the two teams exchanged blows in the next three half innings.
Philadelphia responded to San Francisco's crooked number by retaking the lead by way of a Tommy Joseph single to knock in Franco, giving Philadelphia a 7-6 lead.
Pagán answered the call for the Giants by launching a two-run home run to the short porch in right field, putting San Francisco up 8-7.
After Bumgarner had walked Taylor Featherston to kick off the sixth, Bochy yanked his starter for Hunter Strickland.
Strickland had a solid inning of work by striking out the side, but allowed a two-out single to Franco, which plated Featherston and tied the ballgame up at eight apiece.
Philadelphia effectively ended the back-and-forth in the bottom of the eight, putting up a five-spot of their own against the newly acquired Smith and veteran Romo.
Smith retired his first batter with a strikeout, but then surrendered a single and a double to Herrera and Hernandez, respectively, putting runners at second and third with only one out.
Romo took the place of Smith but didn't fare any better in retiring the Phillies, allowing a two-run single to Altherr, walking Franco, and giving up a three-run bomb to Cameron Rupp, giving Philadelphia a 13-8 lead, which would eventually be the final score.
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