Instant Replay: Giants 15, Phillies 2

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SAN FRANCISCO -- Phillies southpaw Cole Hamels endured one of the worst starts of his career on Friday night, as the Giants roughed him up for eight runs in the fourth inning en route to a 15-2 victory.

Former Philly fan favorite Hunter Pence delivered the big blow for the Giants, capping off the outburst with a grand slam while knocking Hamels out of the game.

The Phils were able to break out of their scoreless slump after being shut out by Clayton Kershaw, Zack Greinke and the Dodgers the previous two games, but Giants starter Madison Bumgarner had plenty of run support.

With the loss, the Phils (29-60) continued their descent with the worst record in baseball.

Starting pitching report
There were early signs that Friday wasn’t Hamels’ night. He allowed three consecutive singles to lead off the game, but escaped the frame relatively unscathed, the only blemish being a run-scoring double play from Buster Posey.

Hamels trotted out to the mound in the bottom of the fourth in a 1-1 game. By the time he left it was 9-1 Giants.

San Francisco loaded the bases on three different occasions in the inning, with the first two chances each resulting in two-run singles. Then Pence came up with the bases loaded and lofted a grand slam to the seats just inside the right-field foul pole on McCovey Cove.

It marked the first time in 305 career starts that Hamels surrendered at least nine earned runs. He also matched a career-high by giving up 12 hits, including eight in the fourth inning, while walking two and striking out four in 3⅓ frames of work.

Bumgarner fought control issues throughout the night and loaded the bases in the sixth before being pulled by Giants manager Bruce Bochy. He went 5⅔ innings, allowing two earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out seven.

Bullpen report
Jake Diekman was able to put out the flames in the fourth with two quick outs before Justin De Fratus took over mop-up duties for the next two frames. De Fratus eventually gave up an RBI single to Bumgarner in the fifth — one that bounced of the glove of third baseman Maikel Franco — and an RBI triple to Justin Maxwell in the sixth.

Jeanmar Gomez kept the bleeding going in the seventh, surrendering a two-run shot to Joe Panik.

Hector Neris followed suit by allowing two runs of his own in the eighth inning.

At the plate
Who woulda thunk it? Despite coming into the game with just one homer in his previous 232 at-bats (dating back to last year), Carlos Ruiz delivered a solo shot to left field against Bumgarner in the fourth. Ruiz also hit a double in the sixth to record his second multi-hit game in four contests. Domonic Brown subsequently singled home Ruiz in the sixth inning for the Phillies’ second run of the night.

The team’s starting 3-4-5 hitters, Maikel Franco (0 for 4), Jeff Francoeur (0 for 3) and Darin Ruf (1 for 3) combined to go 1 for 10 for the hapless Phils offense.

The Giants finished the night with 22 hits as a team, a franchise best at AT&T Park.

Roster move
Following the loss, the Phillies announced they optioned Severino Gonzalez to Triple A to make room for David Buchanan. Gonzalez gave up four earned runs in 5 2/3 innings of work in Thursday's 6-0 loss to the Dodgers. 

Buchanan will start for the Phillies Saturday night, his first with the big club since being optioned to Lehigh Valley on May 2. He said Friday that he's ready to go and has done "a lot of mental training" to help overcome his early season struggles (see story).

Up next
The Phillies will try to snap their three-game losing streak on Saturday (10:05 p.m. start) in the penultimate game before the All-Star Break. The final two pitching matchups of the series are:

Saturday night -- RHP David Buchanan (0-5, 8.76) vs. RHP Ryan Vogelsong (6-6, 4.10)

Sunday afternoon -- RHP Chad Billingsley (1-2, 6.67) vs. RHP Chris Heston (8-5, 3.51).

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