SAN FRANCISCO — Finding sustained success at Oracle Park continues to be an issue for the Phillies. They won the first game of the series Monday, their first win in a series opener in the Bay Area since 2014. While Cristopher Sánchez taking the ball gave them a good chance to win the series , Philadelphia will now keep waiting for its first series win in San Francisco since May 2013 after dropping Tuesday night’s contest 6-0 to the Giants. And the 11th game of the season certainly did not get off to a strong start. In the bottom of the first, the Phillies got some bad news. Giants first baseman Rafael Devers followed a ball back, and it pierced J.T. Realmuto’s foot beyond the foot pad on his leg guard. It was later announced that the Phillies’ catcher suffered a bruised right foot. The situation felt familiar. During opening week last season, Realmuto left a game with a similar injury after getting hit on March 29. Rob Thomson provided some positive news after the game, but it remains to be seen. “X-rays were negative,” Thomson said. “We’ll reevaluate tomorrow.” He added that Rafael Marchán will likely start behind the plate Wednesday. At 35 and on a multi-year deal, being careful with Realmuto’s body makes sense. ROCKY ACE OUTING While the first inning got off to a rocky start, with Sánchez allowing a run on two hits, the Phillies’ ace continued to work in and out of trouble. The outing was reminiscent of Andrew Painter’s a night ago. He posted a 74 percent strike rate and continued to fill up the zone, but the Giants kept putting the ball in play. San Francisco entered the night with the lowest OPS in baseball at .578, but it is not a club that racks up strikeouts, ranking around the middle of the league in team strikeout rate. The Giants finished with 11 hits against Sánchez, who had allowed double-digit hits just once before in a Phillies uniform. The last time came on Aug. 11, 2024, when Arizona collected 12 against him. When the Giants put the ball in play Tuesday, they did it with authority, posting a 44 percent hard-hit rate. That was a big jump from their league-worst 34.2 percent entering the night. Sánchez’s final line was not one of his best: five and a third innings, two earned runs and six strikeouts. But that still does not tell the full story. Thomson saw a pitcher whose command got away from him in key spots. “He was having trouble getting the ball to his glove side,” Thomson said. “A lot of them were just leaking back to the middle of the plate.” Sánchez mostly brushed it off as one of those nights. “These are just bad days,” he said. “These days happen throughout the course of the season. This is a long season and it’s just starting.” SLOPPY DEFENSE, BOOST IN RIGHT And that has a lot to do with the fact that the Phillies have not gotten off to a great defensive start, something that showed up clearly Tuesday. In the third inning, Willy Adames lined his second double of the night into the left-center gap. Phillies center fielder Justin Crawford did not get a great jump on the ball, one he may have had a chance to catch if he had reached the wall in time. The rookie is still getting a feel for the different outfields across baseball. A batter later, though, Adolis García came up firing on a Matt Chapman single and gunned down Adames at the plate. It was a great throw and tag by Marchán, and it kept the score at 1-0 at the time. The ball left García’s hand at 89.2 mph. It was the first tracked throw for him this season, but he ranked in the 92nd percentile in arm strength last year, averaging 91.9 mph. It is a throw the Phillies are not used to seeing out of right field. Nick Castellanos averaged 81.6 mph on his throws last year. A complete difference. But the defense continued to wobble. Otto Kemp, still not a left fielder by trade, badly misread a ball in the bottom of the fifth with two outs. He broke the wrong way, spun around and could not track it down. It is a ball Brandon Marsh, an outfielder by trade, likely catches. Kemp did not duck it. “In hindsight, I wish I would’ve tried to beat the ball to the spot,” he said. “That’s another play I can learn from.” That miscue came after Trea Turner couldn’t corral a ground ball at short. Those plays forced Sánchez to throw more pitches than he should have and added to both his hit total and the overall feel of the outing. It was a pitching performance that should not be judged solely by the box score. “In the fifth inning, we probably gave him six outs,” Thomson said. “Our defense didn’t help him. That’s for sure.” STRUGGLES VS. LHP It has been an inconsistent start to the season for the Phillies at the plate. There have been bursts of offense, comeback wins and then stretches of total silence, like Tuesday night. The Phillies faced Giants left-hander Robbie Ray, whose final line was as emphatic as his post-pitch grunts: six and two-thirds innings, four hits, seven strikeouts and no runs allowed. He had the Phillies’ bats twisted up all night. They could not get anything going against the former Cy Young winner. And Ray’s outing underscored one of the Phillies’ biggest issues to begin the year: hitting left-handed pitching. The club is slashing .165/.277/.258 against southpaws. That is the worst average in baseball. It should improve with time, but for a team whose two biggest stars hit from the left side, it is worth watching, especially if the right-handed platoon bats are not producing in the matchups they are supposed to help win. Thomson kept the solution simple. “We gotta get better,” he said. The Phillies will get a right-hander from the Giants in the rubber game of the series. They are set to face the soft-throwing Tyler Mahle on Wednesday, who has posted a 7.00 ERA through his first two starts. Aaron Nola will go for Philadelphia. ...read more read less