PHILADELPHIA --Vince Velasquez pitched six solid innings, Carlos Santana homered and the Philadelphia Phillies completed a four-game sweep with a 6-3 victory over the visiting San Francisco Giants on Thursday afternoon.
Velasquez (3-4) allowed five hits and three earned runs while striking out a career-high 12 batters. He threw 101 pitches, 69 for strikes, and also was 2-for-2 at the plate, raising his season average to .462.
Hector Neris picked up the save, his eighth, with a scoreless ninth inning.
Odubel Herrera had three hits and Cesar Hernandez added two hits for the Phillies, who swept the Giants in a series for the first time since 1982.
Giants starter Ty Blach (3-4) was shaky, giving up seven hits and five earned runs in 4 1/3 innings.
Gregor Blanco and Alen Hanson each homered for the Giants.
Pablo Sandoval had a pair of hits for San Francisco.
Blanco led off the game with a home run to right-center field for a 1-0 Giants lead.
Hanson then ripped a two-run homer in the second off Velasquez, scoring Sandoval for a 3-0 advantage.
The Phillies managed just two hits through the first three innings on singles by Hernandez and Velasquez.
Herrera doubled in his second at-bat in the fourth to extend his streak of reaching base safely to 39 straight games.
Rhys Hoskins later singled, scoring Aaron Altherr and slicing the Giants' lead to 3-1.
Santana then came up and blasted a three-run home run to left field, scoring Hoskins and Herrera for a 4-3 Phillies advantage.
Herrera struck again for an RBI single in the fifth, scoring Hernandez for a 5-3 lead.
Giants reliever Will Smith wriggled out of further trouble by striking out Hoskins and forcing Santana into a groundout to end the inning.
Herrera came up with another clutch hit with an RBI single to center in the seventh for a 6-3 lead.
In the ninth, Neris struck out Brandon Belt swinging, got Nick Hundley to ground out to second and struck out Sandoval looking to complete the four-game sweep. Neris threw 10 of his 13 pitches for strikes.
