Vince Velasquez, with his hands on his knees, bent over in despair Thursday afternoon as yet another home run sailed over him. The pitcher allowed two homers before recording the first out of the second inning. A brutal afternoon seemed guaranteed.
But then Velasquez stood. He grabbed the ball from Jorge Alfaro, swiped his cleat through the dirt and reset himself. The right-hander struck out 10 of the next 12 batters he faced as the Phillies completed a four-game sweep with a 6-3 win over the Giants at Citizens Bank Park.
The win gives the Phillies a tie of first place, at least until the Braves and Marlins play Thursday night. They are seven games over .500 and have eight more wins through 37 games than they did last season. The Phils have swept four of their first 12 series, a feat they last achieved in 1993.
Velasquez walked one and allowed just five hits. After that home run that put the Phillies in a three-run hole, he gave up just two more hits and didn't allow another run. Velasquez used his fastball for 58 percent of his 101 pitches, and its velocity increased as the game went on. His curveball, with which he picked up four swinging strikeouts, had a dramatic vertical drop. He mixed in a slider and seemed to have command of all three pitches.
"Look, there's a brilliant pitcher in there," manager Gabe Kapler said. "And every time we look out at him, no matter what the outcome of the game is, we always see that that brilliant pitcher exists. And it wasn't there in every moment today. But it was there in flashes. What I'm speaking to specifically is a calm, relaxed demeanor on the mound that leads to a very fluid and athletic and graceful delivery that leads to good stuff and swings and misses. It really is that simple."
The Phillies recovered from Velasquez's early runs allowed by scoring four in the fourth. Rhys Hoskins singled in a run and Carlos Santana followed with a three-run homer. Santana's slow start seems to be behind him: he finished the four-game series vs. the Giants with 13 RBIs and has a 1.088 OPS in nine games this month.
Odubel Herrera went 3 for 4 with two RBIs. He reached base safely in 39 straight games and is one game shy of tying Willie Montanez for the seventh-longest mark in team history. Cesar Hernandez had two hits, Pedro Florimon stroked a triple and even Velasquez went 2 for 2. The Phillies are averaging 5.55 runs through their first nine games this month as the lineup comes alive.
Kapler followed Velasquez with three relievers _ Seranthony Dominguez, Luis Garcia, and Hector Neris _ each of whom retired every batter they faced. Dominguez and Garcia touched 98 miles per hour. Neris struck out two of the three batters he saw. The Phillies have some weapons in their bullpen.
"It was a real all-around team performance that we can all be proud of," Kapler said. "If we would have come in today and said, 'Hey we took three out of four. We lost today.' That would have been a positive. But our guys got greedy. And we stayed on it. We stayed the on gas. Sweeping that team, that's a huge accomplishment. That's a good group over there. That team is going to win a lot of baseball games. I'm proud of the last four games for us."
The pitching performances were the latest in a week of strong outings for the Phillies. The starting rotation _ beginning with Jake Arrieta's six strong innings on Sunday _ has compiled a 1.47 ERA over the last five games. The Phillies signed Arrieta to be a veteran presence for their young rotation. It seems like his last start may have brought inspiration.
It was hard to imagine Velasquez could manage an inspiring performance when Thursday's game began. The first batter of the game _ Gregor Blanco _ homered on the second pitch. Velasquez then threw four straight balls to Brandon Crawford. Next, he started Evan Longoria's at-bat with a ball. The fans cheered sarcastically when he finally threw a strike.
His response to that first homer was not impressive. But it was the way he responded an inning later to that second homer that saved his afternoon.
"It's just going into my little comfort zone and pretty much putting the foot down," Velasquez said. "It's just a different mentality when you give up three runs, you kind of just say forget it. I mean you're thinking of the other word but you've got to forget it and keep moving on and get a little more aggressive to the point where you could control it and not get wild and out."
