By Sam Bush
Aaron Nola struck out a career-high 12 batters in seven innings and red-hot Odubel Herrera had two hits to extend his career-best on-base streak to 37 games as the Phillies beat the San Francisco Giants 4-2 .
The Phils’ Aaron Altherr, Carlos Santana and Jorge Alfaro hit solo home runs .
Nola (5-1) allowed one run and five hits while walking none.
Hector Neris got the last two outs, striking out both batters, for his seventh save in nine chances. Manager Gabe Kapler elected to leave Tommy Hunter in for the first batter in the ninth rather than go to Neris, who blew a save in Sunday’s 5-4 loss at Washington.
Pablo Sandoval homered off reliever Edubray Ramos for the Giants while pinch-hitting in the eighth.
The Giants took a 1-0 lead in the second on Brandon Crawford’s RBI grounder. The run halted Nola’s scoreless streak at 14⅓ innings, but that is all San Francisco got off the Phillies’ ace.
Nola went at least seven innings for the fourth consecutive start, improving to 4-0 with a 1.91 ERA in that stretch. The Giants went down swinging on nine of Nola’s Ks.
The Phillies tied it in the bottom of the second when Altherr hit an 82-mph slider from Derek Holland (1-4) to deep left. And they went ahead an inning later with a pair of runs. Alfaro drove a 79-mph slider from Holland over the fence in left, and Herrera’s single up the middle drove in Cesar Hernandez to make it 3-1.
Herrera’s streak is the Phils’ longest since Jimmy Rollins reached base in 38 consecutive games overlapping the 2005 and 2006 seasons.
Santana, robbed of hits during his first two at-bats, made sure no one could catch the ball in his third trip, leading off the sixth with a homer to right off Cory Gearrin to make it 4-1.
Third baseman Evan Longoria made a diving snare of Santana’s liner in the second and Austin Jackson made a leaping catch in center in the fourth on Santana’s fly ball.
Jackson made an error in the third when he failed to pick up the ball cleanly on the warning track, allowing Hernandez to reach third on a double and giving the center fielder 11 miscues in the last five games for San Francisco. The Giants entered second in the majors behind Texas with 28 errors this season.
Holland gave up three runs and six hits with three strikeouts and two walks in five innings.
