Abreu’s Inside Job Takes Giants Down

Bobby Abreu certainly has added excitement to the leadoff spot.

Abreu homered twice, including a game-winning, inside-the-park homer in the bottom of the 10th inning, to lead the Philadelphia Phillies to a 2-1 victory over the San Francisco Giants on Sunday.

“That was a lot of fun,” said Abreu, who answered a curtain call after the game.

The Phillies won two of three from the Giants and moved into fourth place for the first time since April 17.

Abreu hit the second pitch from Aaron Fultz (3-2) to deep center field. Calvin Murray made a leaping attempt but couldn’t make the catch. The ball caromed away from Murray and Abreu circled the bases.

“I was probably only one of a handful that was thinking ‘No, no, don’t send him home,’ ” Philadelphia Manager Terry Francona said. “I thought it was going to be really close at the plate.

“Bobby scored that run right out of the box. As soon as he hit it, he went full-blast. If you can’t get excited about that game, you’re comatose.”

Murray chased the ball down but Abreu slid in safely ahead of second baseman Jeff Kent’s relay.

“It came off the bat pretty good and I went after it hard like any other time,” Murray said. “It bounced off my glove, hit the wall and got away from me.”

It was the Phillies’ first extra-inning, inside-the-park homer since Bob Dernier did it on May 15, 1989, also against the Giants.

“I’ve only seen it happen twice in my life,” said Giant Manager Dusty Baker, who was a coach on that team. “Maybe it’s a good omen, we went to the World Series the last time I saw it.”

The last game-winning inside-the-park game-winning homer was New York Yankees’ Derek Jeter on Aug. 2, 1996 at Kansas City.

Abreu hit his first homer in the sixth off Mark Gardner to tie the game at 1-1. He has 20 homers on the season.

Ed Vosberg (1-0) worked out of a second-and-third, two-out jam in the 10th to get the victory.

Phillies’ starter Bruce Chen set down the first six batters before he got into trouble in the third. Ramon Martinez doubled to left and scored on Doug Mirabelli’s single to center to give the Giants a 1-0 lead.

From there, Chen was in command. He retired the next 14 batters in order before he walked Russ Davis in the seventh. Davis was quickly erased on a pickoff.

It was a bad day all around for the Giants, who remained 2 1/2 games ahead of Arizona in the West Division standings. The team couldn’t leave Philadelphia immediately because the charter plane was having mechanical problems.

“It’s been a tough day,” Baker said.