PHOENIX – Catcher Cameron Rupp smacked a three-run homer and made a nice defensive play at the plate and Ken Giles earned a tough four-out save in the Phillies’ 7-6 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks on Wednesday afternoon.
Trailing by a run entering the sixth inning, the Phillies rallied for four runs. Ryan Howard doubled and Jeff Francoeur singled. Freddy Galvis tied the game with a single and Rupp smacked a three-run homer to right. The Phillies needed all of those runs as Arizona scratched out single runs in the seventh and eighth.
Six games into the nine-game road trip, the Phillies are 4-2.
The Phillies are 17-7 since the All-Star break and 46-69 overall.
Starting pitching report
Phillies starting pitchers were tagged for 21 hits and 19 runs in just seven combined innings in the first two games of the series. Aaron Nola wasn’t his sharpest, but he was an improvement over the previous two games as he went five innings and gave up four runs. Nola allowed five hits, walked one and struck out two. He gave up two runs in the bottom of the fifth as the Diamondbacks took a one-run lead, but his mates rallied for four in the top of the sixth to get him the win.
Arizona right-hander Chase Anderson allowed a double and a single to open the sixth inning. Both hits turned into runs as Anderson and the Arizona bullpen could not protect a one-run lead. Anderson went five-plus innings, allowed nine hits and five runs.
Bullpen report
Phillies closer Giles passed a huge test when he struck out MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt with a full-count slider to end the eighth inning with the tying run at third and the go-ahead run at first base. Goldschmidt leads the majors in batting average at .341 and his 83 RBIs are most in the NL.
Giles is 7 for 7 in save chances since taking over for the dearly departed Jonathan Papelbon.
At the plate
Francoeur had two hits and scored two runs for the Phillies. Cody Asche doubled twice. Rupp’s homer was his fourth.
Goldschmidt singled, doubled and tripled.
In the field
Second baseman Cesar Hernandez cut a potential run at the plate in the bottom of the eighth inning to keep the Phils ahead by a run. Rupp, the catcher, made a nice play on the low throw and applied the tag on Chris Owings, who had tried to score from third on the ground ball.
Transaction
The morning after being lit up for 11 runs in the second inning in a 13-1 loss, right-hander David Buchanan was sent to Triple A. The Phillies brought up reliever Cesar Jimenez.
Buchanan’s turn in the rotation is due to come up Tuesday. It’s unclear what the club will do, but adding a pitcher from Triple A is possible. The Phils recently added a pair of starters — Alec Asher and Jerad Eickhoff — in the Cole Hamels trade. One of those pitchers could come up next week.
Up next
The Phillies are off on Thursday. They open a three-game series against the Brewers in Milwaukee on Friday night. Here are the pitching matchups:
Friday night – LHP Adam Morgan (3-3, 4.06) vs. RHP Wily Peralta (2-7, 4.48)
Saturday night – RHP Jerome Williams (4-8, 5.73) vs. RHP Jimmy Nelson (9-9, 3.65)
Sunday afternoon – RHP Aaron Harang (5-13, 4.52) vs. RHP Taylor Jungmann (6-4, 2.42).