SAN DIEGO — No known cure for a team-wide slump has ever been quite as effective as facing a rookie starting pitcher with a 9.28 ERA for a last-place team.
And Walker Lockett was the perfect flavor of medicine for the Phillies’ ailing bats.
Three batters into the game here Saturday night, the Phillies had already broken a 19-inning scoreless drought. Two batters after that, they seized a two-run lead. By the middle of the fifth inning, they were leading by five runs on their way to an easy-breezy 5-1 victory, a welcome departure from the heaping pile of cuticle-chompers they have played lately.