Back at the Bank: Phillies Return Home for Series Against the Giants
The Phillies will return home to face the San Francisco Giants after a disappointing road trip against the Braves and Cardinals. Coming into the road trip, the Phillies had a 7-2 record. However, the team only won two out of their next six games, resulting in a 9-6 record. The Phillies struggled as an entire team on the road trip, with the offense and pitching each having part in the losses. Normally reliable pitcher Zack Wheeler gave up four or more runs in both of his starts on the trip. On the other hand, the Phillies’ offense went cold at points, especially against the Cardinals. In the series with the Cardinals, the team only put up four runs and was shut out in the other two games. The Phillies will return home to Citizens Bank Park, a place where they have performed well this season with a 5-1 record.
As for the Giants, they come into the matchup in second place in the NL West with an 11-4 record. The record is good for second in the MLB, and to start the year, the Giants have jumped out hot. The team has won every series so far except for one against the Reds, inside of those series, wins included two sweeps as well. Offensively, the Giants are led by Jung Hoo Lee, who is batting .333 this season with seven RBIs this season. While on the mound, it has been a collective effort, but Logan Webb has led the way so far with a 2-0 record. The Phillies will look to bounce back after their road trip with a massive four-game series against the Giants.
4/14 – 6:45 p.m. EDT
In the opening matchup between the two teams, it will be Taijuan Walker against Landen Roupp for the Giants. For Walker, the start of this season has been nothing like much of his time in Philadelphia up to this point. In his past two seasons with the Phillies, Walker struggled with a 4.38 ERA in 2023 and then a 7.10 ERA in 2024. In his two appearances this season, Walker has a 0.00 ERA in 10.2 innings of work to go along with nine strikeouts. As for Roupp, he has appeared in two games and has pitched well in each. His record of 0-1 is deceiving since he went six innings and only gave up one run but could not get run support behind his performance, resulting in a loss. Overall, he has 10 innings of work and has struck out 12 batters in his combined action. The Phillies will have to wait and see what version of Walker they get in the opening matchup of the series.
4/15 – 6:45 p.m. EDT
In the second matchup, the Phillies will send out their unsung hero so far this season, Jesus Luzardo, against the Giants veteran, Justin Verlander. Luzardo arrived in Philadelphia this offseason via a trade from the Marlins and has made a huge impact this season. The talent was there for Luzardo early in his career. However, he had a disappointing season last year, as he only appeared in 12 games and tallied a 5.00 ERA. This season, on the other hand, Luzardo has been dominant in all three of his performances and came out with a 2-0 record. In those performances, he has over six strikeouts in each and gone for a combined 18 innings to record a 1.50 ERA. On the other hand, for Verlander, it is his 20th MLB season, and it has not started well for the veteran. So far, through three appearances, Verlander has a 6.92 ERA in 13 innings of work but has struck out a combined 16 batters. Verlander has struggled in his past two appearances. However, he could look for a bounce-back game against the Phillies’ offense.
4/16 – 6:45 p.m. EDT
For the pivotal third game in the series, it will be Aaron Nola for the Phillies against Robbie Ray for the Giants. The pitching matchup for this game has been two different stories of how each player’s season has gone up to this point. For Ray, he has pitched extremely well in his three appearances this season. The performances have garnered a 3-0 record to go along with a 2.93 ERA en route to a good start to the season. As for Nola, he is on the opposite side of the scale. He has struggled to start this season with a 0-3 record. In his first two performances, Nola got shelled for five runs and three runs in under six innings in both games. In his latest performance, Nola only allowed two runs, but there was no run support behind him, which resulted in a loss. Nola will look for a bounce-back performance at home against one of the best teams in the MLB.
