SAN FRANCISCO – Tyler Fitzgerald owns the hottest bat in manager Bob Melvin’s lineup and proved that once again, crushing a pair of two-run home runs with a career-high four RBIs to power the Giants past the Colorado Rockies 11-4 on Friday night.
Jorge Soler also went deep, highlighting a three-hit, three RBI game for San Francisco’s leadoff hitter. Heliot Ramos got into the act with his 15th home run of the season, helping the Giants improve to 3-5 since the All-Star break.
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Fitzgerald homered off Rockies starter Kyle Freeland in the fourth inning then slammed a two-run blast off Tyler Kinley in the sixth. Those two bombs extended Fitzgerald’s hitting streak to nine games.
All of that offense came on a night when Kyle Harrison (W, 6 2/3 IP, 1 H, 1 ER, 2 BB, 11 K, 106 pitches) was electric on the mound and continued to stymie the Rockies.
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One week after putting up five scoreless innings at Coors Field, Harrison put together another dominant outing to remain unbeaten in four starts against the Rockies this season.
Harrison (6-4) tied a career-high with 11 strikeouts and allowed one hit and one run over 6 2/3 innings. He allowed only two runners past first base, both coming in the third inning when the Rockies scored their lone run off Harrison on a sacrifice fly.
Luke Jackson retired one batter, Mike Baumann allowed two runs and recorded two outs in his Giants debut, and Ryan Walker also set down one hitter. Even though it wasn’t a save situation, Camilo Doval pitched the ninth because he needed the work, having not pitched since last Sunday.
It was the type of bounce-back victory that the Giants needed after coming home following a 2-5 road trip that dropped them to a season-high six games under .500.
That should make the next few days even more interesting before Wednesday’s trade deadline.
A loss against the team with the third-worst record in baseball might have cemented the Giants as a seller.
Beating the Rockies, however, pulled San Francisco within five games of the Atlanta Braves for the third NL Wild Card spot.
Here are the takeaways from Friday’s game:
Making that Fitz-Magic
The Giants' best hitter on the most recent road trip, Fitzgerald, kept that high-octane bat going with three more hits in San Francisco’s first game back at Oracle Park.
Fitzgerald followed Soler’s RBI single in the fourth with his seventh home run of the 2024 season and sixth in his last eight games. Fitzgerald did the same thing in his next at-bat to give the Giants a comfortable lead.
The 26-year-old infielder has seven home runs in his previous eight games. Fitzgerald also has an extra-base hit in eight consecutive games, the second-longest such streak in franchise history. Hack Wilson had a nine-game stretch in 1924.
Take it from the top
There has been a lot of debate in the media and among fans about Soler’s spot as the Giants’ leadoff hitter. Some of the arguments against it were muted after the slugger’s first at-bat of the night.
Soler gave San Francisco an early lead when he crushed a 2-2 sinker from Freeland into the stands in left field.
It was the fifth career leadoff home run for Soler and his third as the Giants’ leadoff hitter this season. Soler added RBI singles in each of his next two at-bats then drew walks in his final two plate appearances.
Although he was signed to provide power as San Francisco’s cleanup hitter, Soler has looked much more comfortable atop the lineup.
Stranded yet again
The Giants’ difficulties driving in runs with men on base popped up again in the third inning.
After Ramos lined a drive into Triples Alley and made it all the way around to third base, San Francisco’s bats quickly went silent.
Matt Chapman and David Villar struck out swinging before Mike Yastrzemski went down looking for the final out while Ramos remained at third.
That was symbolic of San Francisco’s 2024 season. The Giants entered the day having stranded the eight-most amount of players on base this season with 714.
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