Phillies end five-game skid as Ben Lively wins debut

PHILADELPHIA _ He wasn't overpowering, but Ben Lively's major league debut went a lot like so many of his recent minor-league performances.

The 25-year-old right-hander allowed just one run on four hits over seven innings as the Phillies halted a five-game losing streak with a 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants on Saturday at Citizens Bank Park.

Lively was just what was needed for a Phillies team that had lost 26 of its previous 32 games. He also provided some hope for a pitching staff that has simply been battered. The Phillies entered Saturday with a starting-pitching ERA of 5.41, which was 14th out of 15 National League teams.

Never mind that Lively didn't record a single strikeout. The crowd of 32,413 saw him keep the Giants off balance by changing speeds and using a fastball that ranged from 91 to 93 mph.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound Lively threw 98 pitches, 61 for strikes.

Last season with double-A Reading and triple-A Lehigh Valley, he was a combined 18-5 with a 2.69 ERA. This season for Lehigh Valley he was 6-1 with a 2.40 ERA.

After Lively departed, Pat Neshek struck out the side in the eighth.

The ninth inning was much more suspenseful with Hector Neris on the mound. After allowing RBI singles to Brandon Crawford and pinch-hitter Aaron Hill, Neris departed with the Phillies leading, 5-3, runners at the corners, and two outs.

Jeanmar Gomez earned the save by getting pinch- hitter Nick Hundley to ground out.

The Giants opened the scoring in the second inning when Buster Posey singled, moved to second on a balk, advanced to third on a groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly by Orland Calixte.

Odubel Herrera opened the fourth inning with an opposite-field double to left and advanced to third on Howie Kendrick's groundout to first.

Johnny Cueto got out of the inning with consecutive strikeouts of Tommy Joseph and Michael Saunders.

In the fifth, Freddy Galvis got a two-out base hit and Lively got his first big-league hit, a single up the middle, putting runners on first and second with two outs. Cesar Hernandez struck out to end the inning.

The Phillies tied the score with two outs in the sixth when Joseph crushed a 3-2 change-up for his team-leading ninth home run.

Cueto ended the inning by striking out Saunders in a 10-pitch at-bat.

Even though Cueto had thrown 108 pitches, he went out to start the seventh and gave up singles to Maikel Franco and Saunders, putting runners on the corners with nobody out.

That ended his day and he was replaced by Hunter Strickland, known recently for fighting Bryce Harper and getting suspended for six games, which he is appealing. He will have a hearing June 13.

The Phillies aren't too distressed that he is appealing. Galvis greeted Strickland with an opposite-field RBI single to left on the first pitch, a 95-mph fastball. Daniel Nava, pinch-hitting for Lively, flied out to center, but the Phillies loaded the bases on Hernandez's opposite-field single to left.

Herrera blew the game open with a three-run double to center. With two doubles, he had his first game with two extra-base hits this season.