Instant Replay: Giants 3, Phillies 1

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Hunter Pence continued his assault on Phillies pitching Wednesday night.

The former Phillie stroked a three-run double down the right-field line with two outs in the top of the ninth inning to drive in all the runs in the San Francisco Giants’ 3-1 win over the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.

Pence’s hit came against Jonathan Papelbon, who took the loss one night after blowing a save in the top of the ninth in what became a Phillies’ loss.

A.J. Burnett and Madison Bumgarner hooked up in a scoreless pitchers’ duel. All the runs in the game were scored in the ninth, after the starters exited.

The Phils have lost seven of their last eight games to fall to a season-high 15 games under .500.

The Giants have won the first three games of the series and go for a sweep on Thursday.

The game was delayed 59 minutes by rain in the fourth inning.

Starting pitching report
Burnett threw 131 pitches (second-most in his career) over eight shutout innings, which was even more impressive given the rain delay. He gave up four hits, four walks and struck out six.

Bumgarner (12-7) pitched eight scoreless innings, did not walk a batter and struck out six.

Bullpen report
Papelbon hit a batter and walked two (one intentionally) in the top of the ninth inning before Pence flopped a full-count pitch down the right-field line with two outs. It scored three runs.

Papelbon threw Pence a 2-2 breaking ball on the previous pitch. Papelbon looked like he thought he had struck out Pence, but home plate umpire Vic Carapazza called it a ball.

Santiago Casilla had the save for the Giants.

At the plate
The Phillies had just five hits over the first eight innings. Four of them were singles. Jimmy Rollins doubled in the ninth and scored on a single by Marlon Byrd.

The Phillies got the first two men on base in the eighth and had runners at second and third with one out. They got nothing as Bumgarner struck out Andres Blanco and retired punch-hitter Grady Sizemore on a fly ball to left.

Pence is 7 for 17 in the first three games of the series. He has a double, a triple, a homer and six RBIs.

In the field
Rightfielder Byrd continues to play all out. He made a running catch in the gap, between the raindrops, to steal extra bases from Michael Morse and save a run in the sixth inning.

Wet field
The game was played in the rain in the middle innings and that created a wet track. The Giants twice got a leadoff man on base and that man was thrown out both times after oversliding second in the mud on an attempted stolen base. On a dry field, both runners would have been able to stay on the bag.

Lineup stuff
Ryan Howard did not start against the lefty Bumgarner. Darin Ruf got the start at first base. Manager Ryne Sandberg won’t use the word platoon. Either way, Howard’s future with the Phillies is in serious question (see story).

Up next
Good pitching matchup Thursday afternoon with Tim Hudson (8-6, 2.78) taking on Cole Hamels (4-5, 2.83) in the series finale.

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