Coming off of a road series loss to the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, the San Francisco Giants continue their East Coast road trip with a lengthy four-game series in the City of Brotherly Love, Philadelphia. The Giants try to finish the east coast portion of their road trip on a positive note as the Phillies are coming off of a road series win in Anaheim against the lowly Angels in which they got some excellent outings from their starting pitchers. With that, let’s check out the upcoming matchups for the weekend at The Bank.
Game 1
On Friday night, we have what I believe will be a pretty good pitcher duel between the Giants’ Jordan Hicks and the Phil’s Aaron Nola. Hicks was removed from his last start after he had been experiencing some side tightness, but you wouldn’t have known based on how he pitched in that game. Hicks went six strong innings allowing five hits and walking none with one earned run while striking out nine Pirates batters. It was a much more Hicks-like outing compared to the outing before, where he went five innings, walking four and striking out none. Hicks doesn’t have much experience against the Phillies lineup, but he does have success against just about every batter. Only Whit Merrifield and Nick Castellanos have a hit off of Hicks, which could be a positive sign for the Giants.
Hicks goes up against the Philly ace, Aaron Nola, who is off to a scorching start on the young season. Nola enters Friday with a 4-1 record with a 3.20 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP with 36 Ks. Nola’s last outing was his best of the year so far, where he went eight strong innings at San Diego, racking up ten Ks while allowing seven hits, walking three, and allowing three earned runs, earning the win, leading his team to a 9-3 victory. In that outing, Nola went up against struggling Padres starter Joe Musgrove, who was wildly inconsistent compared to what we are used to seeing from him. Looking at Nola’s stats against the Giants lineup, I am surprised to see the damage he has allowed. Nola only has a combined .168 BAA against the Giants lineup, but he’s allowed four home runs and seven doubles and has a career 6.81 ERA against the team. This could also be good news for the Giants.
Game 2
We have another excellent pitching matchup to look forward to on Saturday afternoon. The Giants will send young gun Keaton Winn to the mound, who has put together one of the better pitching stretches in baseball. Winn is coming off three consecutive outings in which he went six innings and allowed only one earned run in each performance. Granted, those outings were against some middle-of-the-pack teams in the Pirates, Mets, and Marlins, but hey, they’re still MLB clubs. Winn enters his weekend series outing with a 3-3 record with a respectable 3.18 ERA, a 0.97 WHIP, and 28 Ks. Winn has never faced the Phillies, and he has only faced one Philly batter, Whit Merrifield, who is 0-2 against Winn.
The opposing pitcher is undefeated lefty stud Ranger Suarez. Suarez is the hottest pitcher in the league right now. He carried in a 5-0 record, a 1.32 ERA, and a minuscule 0.63 WHIP with 40 Ks this season. Ranger has thrown at least seven innings in each of his last three outings, including a complete game shutout at home against Colorado. He went eight innings in his most recent outing, allowing only one earned run on just three hits and no walks while recording eight strikeouts. There may be no other pitcher in baseball that the Giants would not want to go up against. Suarez has just been throwing the ball that well this season. Not only has Suarez had success this season, but he has also seen success against Giants batters in his career. Only Thairo Estrada and Wilmer Flores have seen any real success against Suarez in their careers, going 2-4 and 5-10, respectively, against the ace. Jorge Soler, however, is the lone Giants batter to have taken Suarez deep, doing it twice in his career.
Game 3
Based on season numbers, this game should be in the Giants’ favor. The Giants send Logan Webb to the mound against the struggling Taijuan Walker. Webb is coming off a tough outing against the Boston Red Sox, where he lasted only 3.2 innings, allowing four earned runs on nine hits and three walks with four strikeouts. That isn’t the outing you expect from your opening-day starter, but if history has anything to show us, it’s that Logan Webb bounces back after tough outings. Webb had a similar outing to his recent one against Boston when he faced the LA Dodgers back on 4/2, where he also lasted 3.2 innings and allowed five earned runs on seven hits and two walks while striking out five. Still, the following outing, he went seven innings and only two earned runs, but those runs came on ten hits, no walks, and only two strikeouts. Webb has yet to beat the Phillies in his career, throwing 12 innings across two starts, allowing seven earned runs on 11 hits (four home runs), and striking out 14.
Taijuan Walker has struggled to start the 2024 season. Not only did Walker struggle in his lone outing so far this season, but the late start to the season has been caused by injuries. Walker battled knee and shoulder injuries and dealt with personal issues throughout spring training and the early part of the regular season. Despite the injury bug getting to Taijuan early this season, he has shown some great stuff throughout his career. Carrying a 3.99 career ERA into this upcoming outing, Walker is coming off a not-so-great first start for him. Walker tossed 6.1 innings, allowing six earned runs on eight hits and two walks while striking out four. The lone outing gives him a season ERA of 8.53 and a WHIP of 1.58. The Giants look to Take advantage of those early struggles and earn a Sunday W.
Game 4
A rare Monday game four brings us a matchup that only gives us a little to dive into. The Giants have yet to announce a starting pitcher against the Phillies’ Christopher Sanchez. The big game note here is that this series finale is oddly on a Monday evening at 4 PM. Since we don’t yet have a starter named by the Giants for this game, let’s dig into the starter that we know we will see in this outing: the Phillies’ Christopher Sanchez. Sanchez started the season strong, but has struggled of late. Sanchez has thrown five innings or less in each of his last two outings, one of which lasted only three innings. In those outings, the strikeout rate has gone way down, with only one in his previous outing that went five innings where Sanchez allowed four earned runs on seven hits and a couple of walks. With that being said, we have seen Sanchez flash this season as well, but despite that, he still carries a 1-3 record, yet a respectable sub-4.00 ERA to go with it.
